Commentary for Sotah 61:20

קל וחומר לעדות הראשונה מעתה ומה אם

IF ONE WITNESS SAID, I SAW THAT SHE COMMITTED MISCONDUCT, SHE DOES NOT DRINK THE WATER.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' One witness is accepted and she is divorced besides losing the marriage-settlement. V. supra 2a. ');">¹⁷</span> NOT ONLY THAT, BUT EVEN A SLAVE, MALE OR FEMALE,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Whose evidence is not accepted in an ordinary case. ');">¹⁸</span> IS BELIEVED ALSO TO DISQUALIFY HER FOR THE MARRIAGE-SETTLEMENT. HER MOTHER-IN-LAW, HER MOTHER-IN-LAW'S DAUGHTER, HER ASSOCIATE-WIFE,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' The husband had more than one wife. ');">¹⁹</span> HER SISTER-IN-LAW<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Viz., the wife of her husband's brother whom she was due to marry if she was left a childless widow. ');">²⁰</span> AND HER STEPDAUGHTER<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' All these are presumably ill-disposed towards her, and their evidence would not have been accepted in any other kind of charge. ');">²¹</span> ARE BELIEVED, NOT TO DISQUALIFY HER FOR THE MARRIAGE-SETTLEMENT BUT THAT SHE SHOULD NOT DRINK. IT<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' V. supra 3b. ');">²²</span> IS A PROPER CONCLUSION THAT IF THE FIRST EVIDENCE [THAT THE WOMAN HAD SECLUDED HERSELF WITH THE MAN], WHICH DOES NOT PROHIBIT HER [TO HER HUSBAND] FOR ALL TIME,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Because the water may prove her innocent. ');">²³</span> IS NOT ESTABLISHED BY FEWER THAN TWO WITNESSES, IS IT NOT RIGHT THAT THE FINAL EVIDENCE [THAT SHE HAD MISCONDUCTED HERSELF] WHICH PROHIBITS HER TO HIM FOR ALL TIME, SHOULD NOT BE ESTABLISHED BY FEWER THAN TWO WITNESSES! THEREFORE THERE IS A TEXT TO STATE, AND THERE BE NO WITNESS AGAINST HER,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Num. V, 13. ');">²⁴</span> I.E., WHATEVER [EVIDENCE] THERE MAY BE AGAINST HER [IS BELIEVED, EVEN IF IT BE ONLY ONE WITNESS]. AND WITH RESPECT TO THE FIRST EVIDENCE [ABOUT HER SECLUSION WITH THE MAN, THAT ONE WITNESS SUFFICES MAY BE ARGUED BY] <i>A FORTIORI</i> REASONING AS FOLLOWS IF

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