“And a spirit of jealousy overcame him, and he warned his wife, and she was defiled, or a spirit of jealousy overcame him, and he warned his wife, and she was not defiled” (Numbers 5:14). “And a spirit of jealousy overcame him and he warned his wife” – he should warn her not with levity, nor in conversation, nor with frivolity, but with an attitude of gravity. It is taught: One who warns his wife, Rabbi Eliezer says: He warns her in the presence of two, and causes her to drink on the basis of one witness or on the basis of his own statement.
Rabbi Yehoshua says: He warns in front of two and causes to drink on the basis of two.125Sota 2a. What is the source for Rabbi Yehoshua? “Because he found in her a licentious [ervat] matter [davar]” (Deuteronomy 24:1); “erva” – this is the seclusion; “davar” – this is the warning; “because he found” – finding everywhere is only with witnesses. Rabbi Eliezer says: Erva that comes on the basis of his word [devaro].126This is Rabbi Eliezer’s explanation of the phrase “ervat davar.”
How does he warn her? He says to her before two: Do not speak with such and such man, and she spoke to him, she is still permitted to her house127Her husband. and permitted to partake of teruma.128If her husband is a priest. If she entered with him into a secluded structure and remained there for enough time to be defiled, she is forbidden to her house and prohibited to partake of teruma. If he129Her husband dies before the sota protocol is completed. dies, she performs ḥalitza and is not taken in a levirate marriage. [The phrase:] Do not speak, is a euphemism used by the baraita, as he speaks only regarding defilement.
“And he warned his wife” – Rabbi Eliezer says: It is obligatory, Rabbi Yehoshua says: It is optional. Rabbi Elazar ben Rabbi Yosei said before Rabbi Yosei: The statement of Rabbi Eliezer is according to Beit Shammai and Rabbi Yehoshua is according to Beit Hillel. The statement of Rabbi Eliezer is according to Beit Shammai, as Beit Shammai say: A man may divorce his wife only if he found in her a licentious matter.
If he found in her unseemly matters, he is unable to divorce her, because he did not find licentiousness in her; he is unable to sustain her because he found unseemly matters in her. According to this, he says it is an obligation.130Only by warning her does he determine how to proceed; if she enters into seclusion, he will cause her to drink. If not, he will sustain her as his wife. Rabbi Yehoshua is according to Beit Hillel, as Beit Hillel say: Even if she burned his cooked dish.
According to this, he says it is optional. If he wishes to warn, let him warn; to divorce, let him divorce. “And she was defiled, or [a spirit of jealousy] overcame him” – Rabbi Yishmael would say: Why does the verse state: “And she was defiled…and she was not defiled”? If she was defiled, why is she drinking?
If she is pure, why is he causing her to drink? It is, rather, to teach you that one causes her to drink only due to uncertainty. From here, you make an inference to the creeping animal; if in the case of sota, where the verse did not, in her regard, equate circumstances beyond her control to an act of will, and unwitting to intentional, but the law is that uncertain is equated to certain,131Even though the defilement is uncertain, if she enters into seclusion she is definitively forbidden to her husband. the same is true regarding the creeping animal.132Even in a case of uncertainty we rule that the person is considered impure.
And just as sota is in the private domain, so too the creeping animal is in the private domain. Just as the sota has the intelligence to be consulted, so too the creeping animal is in a case where there is intelligence to be consulted.133Namely, the question is whether a person who can be consulted touched the creeping animal and became impure. From here they said: An item where there is intelligence to be consulted,134If the question arises regarding a human being, who can be consulted, he is considered impure, but if the question arises regarding an object, which cannot be consulted, it is considered pure. if there is uncertainty in the private domain, it is impure.
If there is uncertainty in the public domain, it is pure. In a case where there is no intelligence to be consulted, in both the private domain and in the public domain, in a case of uncertainty it is pure.