משנה: אִם אָֽמְרָה טְמֵיאָה אֲנִי שׁוֹבֶרֶת כְּתוּבָּתָהּ וְיוֹצְאָה. אִם אָֽמְרָה טְהוֹרָה אֲנִי מַעֲלִין אוֹתָהּ לְשַׁעֲרֵי הַמִּזְרַח לְשַׁעֲרֵי נִיקָנוֹר שֶׁשָּׁם מַשְׁקִין אֶת הַסּוֹטוֹת וּמְטַהֲרִין אֶת הַיּוֹלְדוֹת וּמְטַהֲרִין אֶת הַמְצוֹרָעִין. וְכֹהֵן אוֹחֵז בִּבְגָדֶיהָ אִם נִקְְרְעוּ נִקְרְעוּ וְאִם נִפְרְמוּ נִפְרְמוּ עַד שֶׁהוּא מְגַלֶּה אֶת לִבָּהּ וְסוֹתֵר אֶת שְׂעָרָהּ. רִבִּי יְהוּדָה אוֹמֵר. אִם הָיָה לִבָּהּ נָאֶה לֹא הָיָה מְגַלֵּהוּ. וְאִם הָיָה שְׂעָרָהּ נָאֶה לֹא הָיָה סוֹתְרוֹ. MISHNAH: If she said, I am impure, she breaks her ketubah and leaves209The court immediately has a bill of divorce executed for the husband and annuls her husband’s obligations towards her as specified in the ketubah.. If she said, I am pure, one brings her to the Eastern gate, the Nikanor gate, for there one lets the suspected wives drink210It is mentioned repeatedly that the woman has to stand “before the Eternal”, i. e., at a place at which the entrance to the Temple can be seen. It follows from Sotah 3:4:1-13" href="/Jerusalem_Talmud_Sotah.3.4.1-13">Mishnah 3:4 that the procedure is not executed within the gate but in the women’s courtyard close to the gate or at least in the sanctified inner part of the gate., and one purifies the woman after childbirth, and the persons healed from skin disease211Both the woman after childbirth and the person healed from skin disease are forbidden to “enter the Sanctuary” before their sacrifices have ben offered. Therefore, all their transactions have to be executed in the profane part of the gate, in view of the Temple entrance.. A Cohen seizes her garment212According to Rashi and Maimonides, he seizes her neckline., if it tears it tears, if it frays it frays, until he uncovers her breast213The next Mishnah shows that this means “until the top of her breasts starts to be uncovered.”, and he destroys her hairdo. Rebbi Jehudah says, if her breast was beautiful, he did not uncover it, if her hair was beautiful, he did not undo it214According to him, only those women can be uncovered who are too ugly to inspire any sexual ideas in men who are watching. In the Sotah.8a">Babli, 8a, Rava quotes a legal principle that a man aroused by one woman will not attack another woman even though he himself knew that this is untrue in reality (Ketubot.65a">Ketubot 65a)..
הלכה: אִם אָֽמְרָה. טְמֵיאָה אֲנִי. שׁוֹבֶרֶת כְּתוּבָּתָהּ וְיוֹצְאָה כול׳. כְּתִיב וְהֶעֱמִיד הַכֹּהֵן אֶת הָאִשָּׁה לִפְנֵי יי֨. זֶה שַׁעַר נִיקָנוֹר. כָּל־מָקוֹם שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר לִפְנֵי יי֨ זֶה שַׁעַר נִיקָנוֹר. כְּתִיב אִם יֶחֱטָא אִישׁ לְאִישׁ וגו׳. רִבִּי חִייָה בַּר בָּא וְרִבִּי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בֶּן לֵוִי. רִבִּי חִייָה בַּר בָּא פָּתַר קִרְייָה בַּבּוֹעֵל. וְרִבִּי יְהוּשֻׁעַ בֶּן לֵוִי פָּתַר קִרְייָה בָּאִשָּׁה. רִבִּי חִייָה בַּר בָּא פָּתַר קִרְייָה בַּבּוֹעֵל. הָהֵין זָן וּמְפַרְנֵס וְאַתְּ אָתִי עַל דַּעְתָּךְ. וְרִבִּי יְהוּשֻׁעַ בֶּן לֵוִי פָּתַר קִרְייָה בָּאִשָּׁה. הָהֵין זָן וּמְפַרְנֵס וְאַתְּ תָּלִית עֵינַיִם עַל חוֹרָן. HALAKHAH: “If she said, I am impure, she breaks her ketubah and leaves,” etc. It is written: “The Cohen shall put the woman before the Eternal215Numbers.5.18">Num. 5:18.”, that is the Nikanor gate216In ritual matters, the Nikanor gate is the entrance to the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting. In Sifry Num. 17, the statement is “before the Eternal”, which means in the East.. Everywhere it is said “before the Eternal”, that means the Nikanor gate. 217An explanation why an ordeal must be performed in the Temple, based on Tosephta 1:4 (S. Lieberman in Tosefta kiFshutah Soṭa 1, line 19.) It is written: “If a man sin against a man.2181S. 2:25. As R. David Fraenckel has noted, it seems that this verse is out of place and should be replaced by 1K. 8:31–32 which is quoted in Tosephta 1:4, combined with Numbers.5.27">Num. 5:27,Numbers.5.28">28 as support that the ordeal of the suspected wife is to be held in the Temple: “If a man sin against his neighbor and causes a curse to be put on him … and You will hear in Heaven and will judge Your servants to declare the criminal guilty to turn his way on him [her belly will extend and her genitals shrink] and to clear the just to reward him for his just behavior [if the woman was not impure but pure, she will be declared innocent and be blessed with seed.]”” Rebbi Ḥiyya bar Abba and Rebbi Joshua ben Levi. Rebbi Ḥiyya bar Abba explains the verse about the paramour, Rebbi Joshua ben Levi explains the verse about the woman. Rebbi Ḥiyya bar Abba explains the verse about the paramour: That one feeds and sustains and you come to enjoy yourself. Rebbi Joshua ben Levi explains the verse about the woman: That one feeds and sustains and you turn your eyes to another.
וּמְבַזִּין עַל הַסָּפֵק. אָמַר רִבִּי שִׂמְלַאי. בְּכָל־מָקוֹם שֶׁאַתְּ מוֹצֵא זְנוּת אַתְּ מוֹצֵא אַנְדְּרוֹלְמוֹסִיָּה בָּאָה בָעוֹלָם. Does one shame out of a doubt219If the woman was innocent, she would have been debased without cause.? Rebbi Simlai said220In Midrashic sources, the text reads: “anywhere one finds whoring, mass destruction comes to the world and kills good and bad.” Gen. rabba27:10, Lev. rabba 23:9, Num. rabba9(41)., anywhere one finds whoring, mass destruction221The etymology of אנדרולמוסיה is not known. In Gen. rabba, Arukh reads אנדרומוסיא. While here the meaning could be “human plague”, which could be *ἀνδρολοιμός (Levy), there is another series of sayings mentioning a king who makes war on a rebellious province and causes there אנדרולמוסיה; Jastrow proposes *ἀνδρολημψία “robbery of men”. {Cf. ἀνδροληψία “seizure of foreigners in reprisal for the murder of a citizen abroad” (Lex ap. D 23.82) (E. G.)}. In Gen. rabba32(14): “A parable of a king who ordered his דורלומוסיא in a province and saved his friend by jailing him.” (Following Fürst in Tanḥuma Buber, vol. 2, p. כא, Note 24, the word דורמוסיות, דורמוסיאות, found in other Midrashim, is not a shortened form of אנדרולומסיה.) comes to the world.
קִרְייָא אָמַר. מַקְרִין וְאַחַר כָּךְ מְבַזִּין. וּמַתְנִיתָא אָֽמְרָה. מְבַזִּין וְאַחַר כָּךְ מַקְרִין. אָמַר רִבִּי אִילַי. מִכֵּיוָן דִּכְתִיב וְהֶעֱמִיד וְהֶעֱמִידָהּ וְכִי יוֹשֶׁבֶת הָייְתָ. אֶלָּא מַחְמָת עֶמְדָּה הָרִאשׁוֹנָה הָיָה פוֹרֵעַ אֶת רֹאשָׁהּ. The verse said, one recites and after that one shames222V. 17 indicates that as a first step, the Cohen prepares the curse-draught. After that (v. 18) he uncovers the woman’s hair. But in the Mishnah, the preparation of the draught is late (2:2). The recitation of the curses can start only after the draught is prepared.. But the Mishnah says, one shames and then one recites? Rebbi Hila said, because the verse says, “he makes stand, he makes her stand223Numbers.5.18">Num. 5:18,Numbers.5.16">16.”; did she ever sit224It is forbidden to sit down in the Temple precinct (for everybody except kings of the Davidic line).? But because of the first stand he uncovers her hair225The text Numbers.5.17-20">vv. 17–20 is explanatory, not prescriptive. The uncovering of the hair is a consequence of her coming to the Temple. For a coherent parallel (non-rabbinic) reading of the text, cf. the paper by H. C. Brichto, mentioned in the Introduction..
מִחְלְפָה שִׁיטָּתֵיהּ דְּרִבִּי יוּדָן. תַּמָּן הוּא אָמַר. הָאִישׁ מְכַסִּין אוֹתוֹ מִלְּפָנָיו. וְהָאִשָּׁה מִלְּפָנֶיהָ וּמִלְּאַחֲרֶיהָ. וְהָכָא הוּא אָמַר הָכֵין. תַּמָּן מִכָּל־מָקוֹם לְמִיתָה הִיא מְתוּקֶּנֶת. בְּרַם הָכָא שֶׁמָּא תִימָּצֵא טְהוֹרָה וְיִתְגָּרוּ בָהּ פִּירְחֵי כְהוּנָּה. מִחְלְפָה שִׁיטַּתְהוֹן דְּרַבָּנִן. תַּמָּן אִינּוּן אָֽמְרִין. הָאִישׁ נִסְקַל עָרוּם וְאֵין הָאִשָּׁה נִסְקֶלֶת עֲרוּמָה. וְהָכָא אִינּוּן אָֽמְרִין הָכֵין. תַּמָּן וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֶעֲךְ כָמוֹךָ. יָבוֹר לוֹ מִיתָה קַלָה שֶׁבְּקַלּוֹת. בְּרַם הָכָא וְנִיוַּסְּרוּ כָּל־הַנָּשִׁים וְלֹא תַעֲשֶׂינָה כְּזִימַּתְכֶינָה. 226A parallel in Sanhedrin 6:4:2" href="/Jerusalem_Talmud_Sanhedrin.6.4.2">Sanhedrin 6:8 (fol. 23c, line 17). Similar arguments in the Sotah.8a">Babli, 8a, Sanhedrin.45a">Sanhedrin 45a. The argument of Rebbi Jehudah seems inverted. There227Sanhedrin 6:4:1" href="/Jerusalem_Talmud_Sanhedrin.6.4.1">Mishnah Sanhedrin 6:5, speaking about people executed by stoning. According to R. Jehudah, they are clothed in rectangular sheets of cloth., he says: “One covers a man in front and a woman front and back.228But the majority holds that a woman is stoned only fully clothed. Therefore, R. Jehudah seems unconcerned that men should get bad ideas in seeing her.” And here, he says so? There, she goes to her death anyhow, but here, maybe she will be found to be pure and the young priests would attack her229This is an explicit statement of R. Jehudah 1:7.. The argument of the rabbis seems inverted. There230Sanhedrin 6:4:1" href="/Jerusalem_Talmud_Sanhedrin.6.4.1">Mishnah Sanhedrin 6:5, Sotah 3:8:2-7" href="/Jerusalem_Talmud_Sotah.3.8.2-7">Soṭa 3:9., they say: “A man is stoned naked but no woman is stoned naked.” And here, they say so? There, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself,” choose for him the easiest death231Since in rabbinic tradition a person is “stoned” by being pushed down from a high cliff (Sanhedrin 6:5:1" href="/Jerusalem_Talmud_Sanhedrin.6.5.1">Mishnah Sanhedrin 6:6), his chances of being killed instantly are greater if his fall is not cushioned by clothing. In the Babli, this is not considered a complete answer; the question is whether shame or suffering is worse.. But here, 232Ezekiel.23.48">Ez. 23:48.“all women should be taught and not do as your whoring.”