“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: If the wife of any man will stray and commit a trespass against him” (Numbers 5:12). “Any man…” – only his married wife is indicated for warning. From where is it derived that you include his betrothed and one with a levirate bond, that he warns them in order to cause them to drink after they are married, and to warn all the women with whom there is betrothal,110This refers to a marriage which the Torah forbids but which is nevertheless valid and a divorce is required before the woman can marry somebody else. e.g., a widow to a High Priest, a divorcée or a ḥalutza to a common priest, a mamzeret or a Givonite to an Israelite, an Israelite woman to a mamzer and a Givonite, in order to prohibit them to the paramour111If the husband warns his wife not to seclude herself with a certain man and she nevertheless secludes herself with him, she is forbidden to that man even if her husband dies or divorces her. like they are to the husband?
“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them.” Because it is stated: “The man shall bring his wife to the priest” (Numbers 5:15), the man causes to drink, but the court does not cause to drink, or perhaps, the man warns, but the court does not warn? “Speak to the children of Israel…and he warned” (Numbers 5:12, 14) – this includes the court, that it warns. “Speak to the children of Israel” – one warns by means of an Israelite,112Only a warning given by an Israelite to his wife has halakhic significance. but not by means of an idolater, and not by means of a ger toshav;113This is a gentile who resides in the Land of Israel and who renounced idol worship and committed himself to fulfill the seven Noahide laws. or perhaps, the children of Israel to the exclusion of proselytes?
Rav said: “Any man [ish ish]” – to include the proselytes. Another matter: “Ish ish” – this is to render a woman like a man;114Just as a blind man does not cause his wife to drink, as it is stated: “It was hidden from the eyes of her husband” (Numbers 5:13), so, if his wife is blind, he does not cause her to drink. this is the statement of Rabbi Akiva. Another matter: “Ish ish” – this is to include a deaf and mute man, an insane man, the wife of an idiot, one whose husband traveled overseas, or was incarcerated in prison, that the court warns on their behalf to disqualify them [their wives] from their marriage contract.
Is it perhaps to cause them even to drink? The verse states: “The man shall bring his wife…” (Numbers 5:15). “If the wife [of any man] will stray” – the verse is speaking regarding one who is fit for her husband, to the exclusion of a widow [married] to a High Priest, or a divorcée or ḥalutza to a common priest, and, in accordance with the statement of Akavya ben Mahalalel, even a liberated maidservant and a convert.115The husband may warn these wives, but cannot cause her to drink.
The Rabbis say: They cause them to drink. They said to him: ‘But Karkemit, a liberated maidservant, was in Jerusalem, and Shemaya and Avtalyon caused her to drink.’ In this language he said to them: ‘They gave her to drink because she was like them.’116They were proselytes. They ostracized him, he died in his ostracism, and the court stoned his coffin.
What are we discussing? If it is an Israelite who married a proselyte woman, it is already written: “The children of Israel” – but not proselytes. If it is a proselyte who married an Israelite woman, it is already written: “The man shall bring his wife” (Numbers 5:15).117The man shall be like his wife, and if one is an Israelite and the other is a proselyte, she does not drink. Rather, we are discussing a proselyte who married a proselyte.
What is the reason of Akavya? “The children of Israel” – but not proselytes. What is the reason of the Rabbis? “And say to them” – to include everyone who is stated in the portion.
What is stated in the portion? “And a man had lain with her” (Numbers 5:13) – one whose lying with another man renders her forbidden to her husband, [the husband] warns and causes to drink. “And commit a trespass against him” – a trespass regarding a matter of licentiousness or a trespass regarding money? When it states: “And a man had lain with her carnally” (Numbers 5:13) – it is trespass regarding a matter of licentiousness and not regarding money.
“And commit a trespass against him” – trespass [maal], everywhere, is nothing other than treachery. Likewise it says: “They trespassed [vayimalu] against the God of their fathers [and strayed after the gods of the peoples of the land]” (I Chronicles 5:25); “the children of Israel committed a trespass [vayimalu] concerning the proscribed spoils…” (Joshua 7:1).