“This is the law of jealousy when a woman will stray while married to her husband, and become defiled” (Numbers 5:29). “This is [zot] the law [torat] of jealousy [hakenaot]”: “Hakenaot” – that he warns her in the eternal Temple, and in Shilo, in Nov, and in Givon. “Torat” – it teaches that a woman drinks and repeats, whether in the case of one husband and two paramours, in the case of two husbands and one paramour, or in the case of two husbands and two paramours.
Is it so, perhaps, even in the case of one husband and one paramour? The verse states: “Zot.”165If the husband again warns her with regard to the same person, she does not again drink the water. “When a woman will stray while married to her husband” – this is to draw a parallel from a man to a woman and a woman to a man, to say: Just as, if he was blind he does not cause her to drink, as it is written: "And it was hidden from the eyes of her husband” (Numbers 5:13), so too, if she was blind, she would not drink.
And just as, if she was missing a leg, or a missing a hand, or mute she would not drink, as it is written: “The priest shall have the woman stand…and he shall place on her palms” (Numbers 5:18), “and the woman shall say” (Numbers 5:22), so, if he was missing a hand or a leg, or mute he would not cause her to drink. “And become defiled” – Rabbi Akiva would say: The four times that it is stated in the portion: “If she was defiled” (Numbers 5:27), “and if [the woman] was not defiled” (Numbers 5:28), “defiled” (Numbers 5:14), “and become defiled” – one for the husband, one for the paramour, one for teruma, one for the priesthood.166If she becomes widowed from her husband, e.g., before he divorces her, she cannot marry a priest.