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Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database



8041
Mishnah, Sotah, 6


nanIf a man warned his wife and she secluded herself [with another man], even if he heard [that she had done so] from a flying bird, he must divorce her and give her the ketubah, the words of Rabbi Eliezer. Rabbi Joshua says: until women who spin by moonlight discuss her.,If one witness says that she was defiled and another witness says that she was not defiled; Or if a woman says [of her] that she was defiled and another woman says that she was not defiled, she drinks. If one witness says that she was defiled and two say that she was not defiled, she drinks. If two say that she was defiled and one says that she did not, she does not drink.,If one witness said, “I saw that she was defiled”, she does not drink the water. Not only that, but even a slave, male or female, is believed even to disqualify her from receiving her ketubah. Her mother-in-law, her mother-in-law’s daughter, her rival wife, her sister-in-law, and the daughter of her husband are believed, not to disqualify her from receiving her ketubah, but that she should not drink.,For it would have been logical: Now if the first evidence [that the woman had secluded herself with the man], which does not prohibit her [to her husband] for all time, is not established by fewer than two witnesses, is it not logical that the final evidence [that she had been defiled] which does prohibit her to him for all time, should not be established by fewer than two witnesses! Scripture states, “And there is no witness against her” (Numbers 5:13) whatever testimony there may be against her [is believed]. And now with respect to the first evidence [about her seclusion with the man] there is an a fortiori (kal vehomer) argument: Now if the final evidence [regarding her being defiled], which prohibits her to her husband for all time, is established by one witness, is it not logical that the first evidence, which does not prohibit her to him for all time, should be established by one witness! Scripture states, “Because he has found some unseemly matter in her” (Deuteronomy 24:1), and elsewhere [Scripture] states, “By the mouth of two witnesses ... shall the matter be established” (Deuteronomy 19:15); just as the “matter” mentioned in this latter case must be based on the testimony of two witnesses, so also here [in the case of the suspected woman] the “matter” must be based on the testimony of two witnesses.


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evidence, rules of Rosen-Zvi, The Mishnaic Sotah Ritual: Temple, Gender and Midrash (2012) 166
humiliation Rosen-Zvi, The Mishnaic Sotah Ritual: Temple, Gender and Midrash (2012) 166
kinnuy' Rosen-Zvi, The Mishnaic Sotah Ritual: Temple, Gender and Midrash (2012) 166
sotah, guilt and innocence of Rosen-Zvi, The Mishnaic Sotah Ritual: Temple, Gender and Midrash (2012) 166
testimony Rosen-Zvi, The Mishnaic Sotah Ritual: Temple, Gender and Midrash (2012) 166