Бамидбар 5:20 Мидраш: Midrash Tanchuma, Bamidbar Rabbah & Sifrei Bamidbar

(Numb. 5:12),¹Neither the Buber nor the traditional Tanhuma have a parashah, the beginning of which coincides with the beginning of Naso (Numb. 4:21-7:89) from the annual cycle. Such a parashah is also missing in other sources for the so-called “triennial cycle.” See B.Z. Wacholder, “prolegomenon,” in The Bible as Read and Preached in the Old Synagogue, by Jacob Mann (“Library of Biblical Studies”; New York: Ktav, 1971), p. LX. “If anyone has his wife go astray.” Let our master instruct us: When someone wanted to accuse his wife (of infidelity), how did he accuse her? Thus have our masters taught (in Sot. 1:4-5; 2:2-3.):²The Mishnah quotation has several variants from the standard text. See also TSot. 1:3-4. One accusing his wife brought her to the great court which was in Jerusalem, and they would alarm her in the way that they would alarm witnesses in capital cases.³See Sanh. 4:5. Then afterwards they would bring her up to the eastern gate, to the Gate of Nicanor, where they would purify birthing mothers and lepers and give drink to suspected adulteresses. A priest would bring an earthenware bowl⁴Gk.: phiale; Lat.: fiala. and put a half log of water into it from the basin. He would enter the Temple and turn to his right. Now a place was there one cubit square with a marble flagstone⁵Gk.: tabla (“tablet”); Lat.: tabula. and a ring fixed in it. He would raise it, take dust from underneath, and put it upon the water, as stated (in Numb. 5:17), “and some of the dust which is in the floor of the Tabernacle, [the priest shall put it into the water].” Then he would write the scroll (in the wording of Numb. 5:19), “If no one has slept with you […].” From here our masters have taught, “When one opens capital cases, one begins with [the case for] acquittal.” Then he writes further (in vs. 20), “And if you have gone astray […].” What is written after it (in vs. 21)? “May the Lord make you a curse […].” And so Solomon has said (in I Kings 8:31–32 // II Chron. 6:22–23), “Whenever one sins against his neighbor, and he gives him an oath for him to swear, then when he comes for the oath before Your altar in this house; You will hearken in heaven, take action, and judge Your servant, in order to condemn the wicked so as to set his conduct upon his own head and justify the righteous so as to render to him according to his righteousness.” (Numb. 5:28:) “But if the woman has not defiled herself [and is pure, she shall be guiltless and shall conceive seed].” If she was defiled, (according to Sot. 3:4; 5:1) she would not have finished drinking before her face turns green, her eyes protrude, and she is full of [swollen] veins. Then the priest says, “Take her out, take her out,” so that she does not defile the Temple court. Just as the water tests the woman, so does the water test the man, since it is stated [twice] (in Numb. 5:22 & 24), “And it (i.e., the water that causes the curse] shall go.” Just as she is forbidden to her husband, so is she forbidden to the lover, since it is stated [twice] (in Numb. 5:13 & 14), “she has defiled herself.”⁶The Gemara (Sot. 28a) explains these double usages more fully. Cf. also ibid., 26b. If, however, she drinks [the potion] and is found pure; then if she was barren, she is [now] visited (i.e., given conception).⁷Sot. 26a. If she used [to] give birth in pain, she [now] gives birth with tranquility; if she used [to] bear ugly [children], she [now] bears beautiful ones; [instead of] dark [children], she bears fair ones; [instead of] short [children], she bears tall ones; [instead of] females, she bears males. Thus it is stated (in Numb. 5:28), “But if the woman has not defiled herself [and is pure, she shall be guiltless and shall conceive seed].” The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses, “Write a section on the adulteress so that she may know which name the priest blots out for her⁸On the scroll of Numb. 5:23, where the priest put down the curses in writing and then rubbed them off into the bitter water. See also Sot. 2:4. and how it will be made public.”⁹Gk.: parresiazesthai. How is this shown? From what they have read on the matter (in Numb. 5:12), “If anyone has his wife go astray.” If she has merit, it suspends [the effect of the bitter water] a year or two or three.¹⁰The whole section comes from the Mishnah, but again there are several variants from the standard text. R. Simeon says, “Merit does not [suspend the effect of] the [bitter] water; for if you say so, you will be found postponing [the effect] for all women who drink it and spreading slander about undefiled women who have drunk it. [This slander] says, ‘They were [really] defiled, but the merit has suspended [the effect of the water] for them.’” R. Meir says,¹¹The traditional Mishnah text reads “Rabbi says.” “Really, the merit suspends the [effect of] the bitter water. If she was defiled, however, she will never again bear [children] and prosper but degenerate more and more, and in the end she will die of the same death, as stated (in Prov. 6:16), ‘Six things the Lord hates, and seven are an abomination for His soul.’” R. Jose the Galilean says,¹²Numb. R. 9:11. “[These] seven things were said about the adulteress. (Prov. 6:17:) ‘Haughty eyes,’ in that the adulterous woman raises her eyes to another man; and so it says (in Is. 3:16), ‘Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with extended neck and roving (mesakarot) eyes.’ That is an expression of untruth (sheker), in that she commits adultery with another man and becomes pregnant from him, and then lies and says to her husband, ‘I am pregnant from you.’ (Prov. 6:17, cont.:) ‘Hands that shed innocent blood,’ in that the adulterer goes in on condition that, if he is caught, he will kill or be killed. (Prov. 6:18:) ‘A heart devising wicked thoughts,’ in that the adulterer and the adulteress have thoroughly wicked thoughts all the time, when they sin in telling each other in which place and at what time. (Prov. 6:18, cont.:) ‘Feet quick (memaharot) to run to evil,’ in that they certainly are hastening (memaharim) to commit the sin. (Prov. 6:19:) ‘A false witness that spreads a lie,’ in that, if they are caught, they speak falsely and lie, when they swear and say, ‘We were talking about other things.’ (Prov. 6:19, cont.:) ‘And one that instigates a quarrel among brothers,’ in that all Israel are brothers, as it stated (in Ps. 122:8), ‘For the sake of my brothers and friends’; and in the case of one who commits adultery with his friend's wife, when her husband hears of it, he hates him. Moreover, this adulterer cannot look at [the husband]. Ergo, ‘and one that instigates a quarrel among brothers.’” Ergo, [there are] seven injurious things which the adulteress does.

“The priest shall administer an oath to her, and he shall say to the woman: If a man has not lain with you, and if you did not stray in defilement while married to your husband, be absolved of this water of bitterness that causes curse” (Numbers 5:19).
“The priest shall administer an oath to her” – one does not administer an oath to two sotot simultaneously. One does not burn two heifers together. One does not behead two calves together. One does not execute two people together. One does not quarantine two⁶⁸Lepers together. One does not confirm two⁶⁹Lepers together.
“And he shall say to the woman” – in her language, and to a thief and a robber in their language.⁷⁰When administering an oath to them.
“If a man has not lain with you” – it teaches that he begins in her favor. He says to her: Wine causes a great deal, levity causes a great deal, immaturity causes a great deal; many have preceded you and were swept away. Do not cause the great Name that was written in sanctity to be erased in the water. He says before her matters of aggada and incidents that took place in the ancient Writings, like: “What the wise tell” (Job 15:18). He says before her matters that neither she nor her entire patrilineal family deserves to hear, for example, the incident of Reuben and Bilha, and the incident of Judah and Tamar, who confessed their actions and were not ashamed. What was their end? They inherited the World to Come.
“And if you did not stray in defilement while married to your husband” – why is it stated? It is because we found that the verse included a betrothed woman and a woman with a levirate bond, regarding warning. Do they, perhaps, drink? The verse states: “While married to your husband.” One who is married to her husband drinks, but these do not drink. “Defilement,” it is to the exclusion of via the limbs.⁷¹This excludes intimacy without intercourse.
“Be absolved of this water of bitterness that causes curse” – Rabbi Yishmael said: Initially he informs her of the power of the bitter water. He says to her: ‘My daughter, I will say to you: This bitter water, to what is it similar? To a dry poison that is placed on healthy skin and does not cause harm. When it encounters a wound, it begins to permeate. You, too, if you are pure, drink and you will not be harmed, as you will be absolved. That is what is written: “Be absolved of the water…”
“But you, if you strayed while married to your husband, and if you were defiled, and a man has lain carnally with you, other than your husband” (Numbers 5:20).
“But you, if you strayed” – I have derived only natural relations; unnatural relations, from where is it derived? The verse states: “And if you were defiled.” “And a man has lain carnally with you” – to include the eunuch. “Other than your husband” – this is to include the wife of a eunuch. The priest would stipulate regarding all of them.

“The priest shall administer an oath to her, and he shall say to the woman: If a man has not lain with you, and if you did not stray in defilement while married to your husband, be absolved of this water of bitterness that causes curse” (Numbers 5:19).
“The priest shall administer an oath to her” – the priest administers the oath to her, and she does not take the oath on her own. “And he shall say to the woman” – the priest shall teach her the content of the oath; this is the statement of Rabbi Yishmael. Rabbi Yonatan says: If she does not understand his language, he shall say it to her by means of an interpreter.
“If a man has not lain with you” – to include one who performed the initial stage of intercourse from either side.¹⁵¹Front or back. “And if you did not stray in defilement while married to your husband” – to the exclusion of coercion. Just as “while married to your husband” is willingly, here too it is willingly.
“Be absolved of this water of bitterness that causes curse” – he would say to her: If you are pure, drink the water and do not refrain, so that you will become pure to your husband by means of this water. He would administer the oath so that she would drink.
“But you, if you strayed while married to your husband, and if you were defiled, and a man has lain carnally with you, other than your husband” (Numbers 5:20).
“But you” – you did so intentionally. “If you strayed while married to your husband, and if you were defiled” – to include if she was warned regarding one who is nine years and one day old.¹⁵²This is the age at which the Sages determined that a boy is physically capable of engaging in intercourse.
Our Rabbis said: When a woman is in seclusion with her husband and engages in intercourse with him but her heart is devoted to another man whom she saw along the way, you have no greater adultery than that, as it is stated: “Adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead [taḥat] of her husband” (Ezekiel 16:32). Is there a woman who engages in adultery while being with [taḥat] her husband?¹⁵³The word taḥat literally means "under." Rather, this is one who encountered another man and coveted him, and she engages in intercourse with her husband but her heart is devoted to him.
The Arabian king asked Rabbi Akiva: ‘I am a Cushite, and my wife is a Cushite, and she gave birth to a white child; I will kill her because she committed an act of harlotry while married to me.’ He [Rabbi Akiva] said to him: ‘Are the statues and portraits in your house black or white?’ He said to him [Rabbi Akiva]: ‘White.’ He [Rabbi Akiva] said to him: ‘While you were busy with her, she fixed her glance at the white art forms, and she gave birth in their image. If you wonder regarding this matter, derive it from the flock of Jacob our patriarch, as they would conceive in the presence of the rods. As it is stated: “The flocks conceived in the presence of the rods”’ (Genesis 30:39); and the Arabian king conceded to Rabbi Akiva.
Here too, Moses alluded in the Torah: “[If you strayed] while married to your husband, and if you were defiled, and a man has lain carnally with you, other than your husband.”¹⁵⁴Although thinking of another man while being with her husband is called "adultery," the woman is not liable for it and it is not included in the oath. It is not only in this regard¹⁵⁵The man with regard to whom she was warned. that we are administering the oath to you, but regarding what you strayed with anybody other than your husband.
It is taught: “Other than your husband” – to the exclusion of if the other act of intercourse preceded your husband, as if her husband had lain with her afterward, the water does not examine her. But did we not learn: Just as the water examines her, the water examines him. Just as she is forbidden to her husband so she is forbidden to the paramour. Just as she is forbidden to the husband’s brother, so she is forbidden to the paramour’s brother. Just as the water examines her for each and every act of intercourse that she receives from her husband after the paramour, so they examine him. Rabbi Avin said in the name of Rabbi Eila: Here it is where it is known;¹⁵⁶When the husband knew that she had consorted with the paramour. here it is where it is unknown.