Sotah

MISHNAH. THE FOLLOWING  ARE PROHIBITED TO PARTAKE OF THE HEAVE-OFFERING:  SHE WHO SAYS, 'I AM UNCLEAN TO THEE';  WHEN WITNESSES CAME [AND TESTIFIED] THAT SHE HAD MISCONDUCTED HERSELF;  SHE WHO SAYS, I REFUSE TO DRINK [THE WATER]'; WHEN THE HUSBAND IS UNWILLING TO MAKE HER DRINK [THE WATER]: AND WHEN THE HUSBAND COHABITED WITH HER ON THE JOURNEY. GEMARA. R. Amram said: The following did R. Shesheth tell us and enlighten our eyes from our Mishnah:  In the case of a suspected woman where the witnesses against her are in a far-distant land,  the water does not prove her.  What is the reason? Because Scripture states: And be kept close and she be defiled and there be no witness against her  — this is when there is nobody who knows anything against her, thus excluding the case when there are men who know something against her.  And he enlightened our eyes from our Mishnah where it is taught: WHEN WITNESSES CAME [AND TESTIFIED] THAT SHE HAD MISCONDUCTED HERSELF. When did the witnesses come? If we say that they came before she drank the water, she is an adulteress;  consequently they could only have come after she had drunk the water. This is quite right if you say that the water does not prove her,  then all is clear; but if you say that [in such a circumstance] the water does prove her, the water may demonstrate retrospectively that the witnesses were false!  — R. Joseph said to him, Still I maintain that the water does prove her, and answer that some merit she possesses causes the water to suspend its effect.  In what do [R. Joseph and R. Shesheth] differ? — In the matter of her becoming ill, according to the teaching of Rabbi. For we learn: Rabbi says: Merit [in the woman] causes the water of bitterness to suspend its effect, and she never bears a child or thrives, but she gradually grows ill and finally dies through that death.  R. Shesheth is of the opinion that both in the view of Rabbi and of the Rabbis she grows ill;  and R. Joseph is of the opinion that in the view of Rabbi she grows ill but in the view of the Rabbis she does not. R. Shimi b. Ashi raised an objection: R. Simeon says: Merit does not cause the water of bitterness to suspend its effect; and if you say that merit does cause the water of bitterness to suspend its effect, you discredit the water in the case of all the women who drink it and defame the pure woman who drank it, since people will say: They were unclean, only their merit caused the water to suspend its effect upon them.  But if it is so,  then through [the teaching], 'Where the witnesses against her are in a far-distant land', you likewise defame the pure women who drank and people will say: They were unclean, only the witnesses against them are in a far-distant land! — [The reply to R. Shimi is:] You quote R. Simeon; but as R. Simeon holds that merit does not cause the water to suspend its effect, he similarly holds that the existence of witnesses does not cause it to suspend its effect. Rab raised an objection: The following have their meal-offerings destroyed: