Berakhot 31B

דבר שאינו הגון, צריך להוכיחו. ״ותען חנה ותאמר לא אדוני״. אמר עולא ואיתימא רבי יוסי ברבי חנינא: אמרה ליה: לא אדון אתה בדבר זה, ולא רוח הקודש שורה עליך, שאתה חושדני בדבר זה.

an unseemly matter, he must reprimand him, is derived. “And Hannah answered and she said no, my master, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit, and I have drunk neither wine nor liquor, but I pour out my soul before YHWH” (I Samuel 1:15). Regarding the words: “No, my master,” Ulla, and some say R' Yosei, son of R' Ḥanina, said that she said to him, in an allusion: With regard to this matter, you are not a master, and the Holy Spirit does not rest upon you, as you falsely suspect me of this.

איכא דאמרי, הכי אמרה ליה: לא אדון אתה? לאו איכא שכינה ורוח הקודש גבך, שדנתני לכף חובה ולא דנתני לכף זכות? מי לא ידעת דאשה קשת רוח אנוכי?!

Some say another version of her response. She said to him, questioning: Aren’t you a master? Aren’t the Shekhina and Holy Spirit with you that you judged me to be guilty, and you did not judge me to be innocent? Didn’t you know that I am a woman of distressed spirit?

״ויין ושכר לא שתיתי״. אמר רבי אלעזר: מכאן לנחשד בדבר שאין בו, שצריך להודיעו.

With regard to Hannah’s explanation that “I have drunk neither wine nor liquor,” R' Elazar said: From here the halakha is derived that one who is suspected of something of which he is not guilty cannot suffice merely with the personal knowledge of his innocence, but must inform the one who suspects him that he is innocent and clear himself of suspicion.

״אל תתן את אמתך לפני בת בליעל״. אמר רבי אלעזר: מכאן לשכור שמתפלל, כאילו עובד עבודה זרה. כתיב הכא: ״לפני בת בליעל״, וכתיב התם: ״יצאו אנשים בני בליעל מקרבך״. מה להלן עבודה זרה, אף כאן עבודה זרה.

“Do not take your female slave as a wicked woman [bat beliya’al] for out of the abundance of my complaint and anger have I spoken until now” (I Samuel 1:16). R' Elazar said: From here the halakha that when a drunk person prays it is as if he engaged in idol worship is derived as it is written here that Hannah, suspected of praying while drunk, defends herself and says: “Do not take your female slave as a bat beliya’al”; and it is written there, with regard to a city that has been instigated to engage in idol worship: “Benei beliya’al have gone out from your midst and have lured the inhabitants of their city, saying let us go and serve other gods which we have not known” (Deuteronomy 13:14). By means of this verbal analogy it is derived: Just as there, in the case of the idolatrous city, the term beliya’al indicates idol worship, so too here, in the case of one who prays drunk, beliya’al indicates idol worship.