Kommentar zu Dewarim 22:15

אבי הנערה ואמה [THEN SHALL] THE FATHER OF THE DAMSEL, AND HER MOTHER [TAKE AND BRING FORTH etc.] — Let those who have reared this depraved child (lit., “evil plant”) be exposed to contempt because of her (Sifrei Devarim 235:9).

את בתולי, according to the plain meaning this refers to the blood lost when the bride’s hymen was broken, a residue of which is on the sheet of the bed.

ולקח אבי הנערה ואמה, “then the father and the mother of the girl will take (proof).” Nachmanides points out that at this stage both her father and her mother are mentioned as standing up publicly in defense of their daughter, although only her father speaks up in her defense. When submitting their evidence to the elders, father and mother are both involved. The reason why only the father voices his opinions in the forum of the elders is that seeing the indemnification for having slandered his daughter is payable to him, it is he who must submit the claim. On the other hand, all matters connected to שמלה, in this instance a simile for bedclothes, are a woman’s business, a mother’s concern. They are the experts capable of judging what colour blood originates in which part of the body. Normally, the sensitivity of the matter would have required that only the mother concern herself with this, but, seeing that the father had stated that he, as a father, had given this daughter to the man who now has slandered her reputation, and by inference the father’s inability to have brought up his daughter properly, he is invited by the Torah to be present throughout the proceedings.