“Or a man who will be overcome with the spirit of jealousy, and warn his wife and stand the woman before the Lord. The priest shall perform for her this entire ritual” (Numbers 5:30). “Or a man who will be overcome…” – why is it stated? It is because it says: “A spirit of jealousy overcame him, [and he warned his wife]” (Numbers 5:14); it is optional.
Is it, perhaps, that just as until he warned her it is optional, so too here, after he warned her it is optional? The verse states: “Or a man who will be overcome [with the spirit of jealousy, and warn his wife]; it is obligatory. “The priest shall perform for her this entire ritual” – from here they said that the scroll of a sota that was written at night is not valid. Here it is stated: “This entire ritual [tora]” and elsewhere it is stated: “On the basis of the law [tora] that they will instruct you” (Deuteronomy 17:11).
Just as judgment is during the day, so the scroll of the sota is during the day. From where is it derived that if he wrote one letter, erased one letter, wrote one letter, and erased one letter, that it is not valid? It is as it is written: “The priest shall perform for her this entire ritual.”