You may have a friend named Shabsai. Or Shabbetai. Or some variation thereof, like the Yiddish name Shabsi.
There have been many great Jews named Shabbetai. The great Shach – Rabbi Shabsai Hakohen. The Gemara in Kesubos (96a) references a Rebbe Shabsai – with the term “Rebbe” connoting someone who obtained semicha. One of the Leviim mentioned by Nechemiah (Nechemiah 11:16) is Shabsai.
Tosfos (Gittin 11a) notes that while Shabsai is a Jewish name (spelled שבתי), Shibsai (spelled שבתאי) is not.
This discussion stems from the following Gemara.
The Gemara discusses the opinion of R’ Eliezer who holds eidei mesira karsi – that a bill of divorce (get) is effectuated by witnesses seeing a husband give a get to his wife. Not by the witnesses signed in the actual get document. Therefore, a get that does not have witnesses signed in it is technically still valid – as long as witnesses see the husband handing the get to his wife.
However, if witnesses did sign on the get but they were invalid witnesses, R’ Eliezer agrees that the get is invalid on a Rabbinic level. The reason for this is that while witnesses are not required to sign in a get, people who see the get may deem these witnesses as valid and come to rely on them in other scenarios. This is called mezuyaf mitocho – a document that is “forged (invalidated) from within”.
Examples of mezuyaf mitocho include a relative, any other invalid witnesses (eg. a gambler) or a gentile. However, the Gemara notes that for a gentile witness, the witness may sign if he has a shem muvhak – a name used exclusively by gentiles.
An gentile witness with a shem muvhak may sign on a get, as it would be obvious that we’re not relying on the signed witnesses and are instead allowing the get because of the principle of eidei mesirah karsi – which lessens the significance of the witnesses signed on the get and focuses on the witnesses who see the transmission of the get. Therefore, nobody would use the get to allow the signed witnesses to testify in other scenarios.
One of the examples of a shem muvhak is the name Shibsai. Tosfos notes that only Shibsai qualifies as a shem muvhak but not Shabsai – as Shabsai is a Jewish name.
The Maharam Shif notes that the Gemara specifically listed names that are similar to existing Jewish names to highlight the minute differences between them.
What to Write in a Get?
Based on this Tosfos, the Shulchan Aruch (Even Haezer 129:29) rules that if a man named Shabsai is giving a get, the scribe should make sure to spell שבתי – without the letter “aleph.” As opposed to שבתאי – with an “aleph”.
The Beis Shmuel notes that the Maharit disagrees and holds that שבתאי is also a Jewish name, as there’s a Gemara in Bava Kamma who quotes an Amora named שבתאי. According to this opinion, Tosfos was only excluding the name שיבתאי as a shem muvhak. Not שבתאי. Accordingly, both שבתי and שבתאי would be acceptable to be written on a get. The Rashash (Gittin 11a) agrees with this approach.
Nonetheless, the Beis Shmuel rules that one should be stringent, as the text of Tosfos that we have invalidates the name of שבתאי.
The Produce Hoarder – Shabsai or Shibsai?
This discussion affects the text of a Gemara in Bava Basra (90b).
The Gemara discusses the terrible practice of hoarding food for market manipulation. There was a practice to gather produce in bulk and thereby suppress the availability for that product. Once the product was in short supply, the hoarder would then sell the product at a higher price. The prototype of such a price hoarder was “Shabsai the produce hoarder.”
The text as we have it has the name Shabsai– the price hoarder’s Jewish name. Other texts (and a related Gemara in Yoma) has the name Shibsai – which may or may not be a Jewish name, depending on whether we follow the opinion of the Shulchan Aruch or the Maharit.