Study Sotah folio 2B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
The baraita infers a general principle from this verse by asking: By inference from that which is stated in the verse, even with the omission of the word “one”: “A witness shall not rise up against a man” (Deuteronomy 19:15), do I not know that it is referring to one witness, as the term “rise up [y
The baraita returns to discuss the verse concerning a sota. And God states: “There is no witness [ed] against her” (Numbers 5:13), which therefore means that there are not two witnesses to the sex that could testify with regard to her; rather, there is only one witness. The baraita completes its i
The Talmud questions this reasoning: But this would seem to indicate that the only reason to interpret the verse concerning a sota as referring to a case where there is only one witness is that it is written in the other verse: “One witness shall not rise up against a man” (Deuteronomy 19:15), indic
The Talmud answers: It was necessary to infer the interpretation of the verse concerning the sota from the other verse mentioning one witness. Otherwise it might enter your mind to say that the verse here that states: “There is no witness against her,” means that a single witness testifying about t
The Talmud questions this analysis: What would be the logic in interpreting the verse as indicating that a single witness is not deemed credible with regard to her? But if that is the interpretation, what does the verse require in order for a sota to be rendered forbidden?