פּירוש אויף במדבר 5:12

איש איש כי תשטה אשתו IF ANY MAN’S WIFE GO ASIDE [AND ACT DECEITFULLY AGAINST HIM] — What is stated above, immediately before this section? ואיש את קדשיו לו יהיו: If you withhold the gifts due to the priest (cf. Rashi on v. 10), by your life, you will have to come to him in order to bring him your faithless wife for the ordeal by the waters (Berakhot 63a). (The translation therefore is: “A man who remains with his holy things, not giving them to the priest, לו יהיו they — the man and his wife — will become subject to him [require his services])”.

“Any man whose wife goes astray, etc.” The connection of this section to the previous verse is explained by Rashi: “If you withhold the gifts of the priest, by your life, you will need to come to him to bring him your wayward wife.” An explanation for his interpretation: Because one who withholds gifts will come to poverty, as Rashi explained above (5:10), and the Sages said (Sotah 4b), “Anyone who has relations with a prostitute will eventually seek a loaf of bread and not find it, as it is said For on account of a harlot, one is brought to a loaf of bread (Proverbs 6:26).” And when the wife sees that her husband has come to poverty, she suspects him of becoming poor because he has been “shepherding prostitutes,” as it is written One who keeps company with harlots will lose wealth (Proverbs 29:3). Seeing that suddenly he loses his wealth in an unusual way, for this reason she too will stray from him, saying, “He [indulges] in immorality, and so will I” (Megillah 12a). Therefore it says, and she commits a trespass against him [bo, literally in him] — if his wife strays and commits a trespass, then in him — this trespass depends on him, because he caused her to want to act like him out of suspicion. And all this was caused by him trespassing regarding the priest’s holy things, by not giving the priest what is sacred, because through this he comes to poverty, and she suspects him of consorting with prostitutes which wastes wealth. And the truth will be clarified through the testing of the waters, for our Sages said (Sotah 28a), And the man shall be clear from iniquity — if he is clear from iniquity, the waters will test her, etc. That is, from an iniquity similar to hers — if he is innocent of what his wife suspected him of, then it is right that the waters should test her; but if he is not clear of this iniquity and her suspicion is true, it is not right that the waters should test her, since he himself was consorting with prostitutes and she has somewhat of an excuse. And regarding what is written, if she goes astray [tisteh] — a language of foolishness [shetut] — even though every sinner is called a fool, nevertheless it specifies to say that she is specifically clamorous and simple, and knows nothing (Proverbs 9:13), and did not know what caused his poverty, for she should have understood that withholding the gifts caused his poverty, as mentioned.

כי תשטה אשתו, she deviates from the path of chastity.

איש איש — The double expression איש איש is employed to teach you that she (the faithless wife) deals treacherously in two respects — against Him above Who bears the appelation of איש, as in the text "[the Lord is] a Man of the war” (Exodus 15:3), and against her husband (אישה) here below (Midrash Tanchuma, Vaetchanan 5).