Reference for Gittin 37:3

The textual locus of the primary objection—and ostensibly of the proposal itself—is the statement of the Gemara, Gittin 19a, presented in the context of procedures to be employed in drafting of a bill of divorce: "Witnesses who do not know how to sign, we tear a blank paper on their behalf and they fill the torn spaces with ink." Deuteronomy 24:1 provides that a husband desirous of divorcing his wife must "write her a bill of divorcement." The Gemara, Gittin 19a, cites a beraita containing two opinions with regard to the procedure to be followed in situations in which the witnesses do not know how to affix their signatures. One opinion rules that a non-durable substance should be employed to outline the letters of their signatures. The witnesses, using those letters as guidelines, should write their names over that substance with ink. The second opinion maintains that "we tear a blank piece of paper on their behalf and they fill in the torn spaces with ink."