Gittin 89A

הרי זו מגורשת. מאי טעמא? קול ושוברו עמו.

she is considered to be divorced and may remarry. What is the reason for this? The rumor came with its receipt. The rumor that she is betrothed is canceled by the rumor that she is divorced.

אמר רבא: יצא לה שם מזנה בעיר ⁠– אין חוששין לה. מאי טעמא? פריצותא בעלמא הוא דחזו לה.

§ Rava said: If a rumor circulated in the city that a woman engaged in licentious sex, we are not concerned that the rumor is true with regard to her eligibility to marry a priest. What is the reason for this? It is assumed that people saw her engage in merely licentious behavior, in a manner that does not disqualify her from marrying a priest.

כתנאי: אכלה בשוק, גירגרה בשוק, הניקה בשוק ⁠– בכולן רבי מאיר אומר: תצא. רבי עקיבא אומר: משישאו ויתנו בה מוזרות בלבנה.

This statement is parallel to one side of a dispute among the tanna’im: If a woman ate in the marketplace, walked with her neck stretched forward in an arrogant manner in the marketplace, or nursed in the marketplace, with regard to all of these cases R' Meir says that she must leave her husband, since all of these behaviors are considered licentious behavior. R' Akiva says that she must leave him only once the women who spin [mozerot] by the moonlight converse about her having engaged in promiscuous sex, as this indicates that the matter is well known and accepted as fact.

אמר לו רבי יוחנן בן נורי: אם כן, לא הנחת בת לאברהם אבינו שיושבת תחת בעלה, והתורה אמרה: ״כי מצא בה ערות דבר״, ולהלן הוא אומר: ״על פי שנים עדים או על פי שלשה עדים יקום דבר״; מה להלן דבר ברור, אף כאן דבר ברור.

R' Yoḥanan ben Nuri said to him: If so, you have not allowed any daughter of Abraham our forefather to remain with her husband, i.e., all wives will be forced to leave their husbands, as it is common for women to slander their peers. And the Torah said: “Because he has found some unseemly matter in her, and he writes her a scroll of severance” (Deuteronomy 24:1), and it says over there: “At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of 3 witnesses, a matter should be established” (Deuteronomy 19:15). Just as there, the word “matter” is referring to a clear matter, as it is established through witnesses, so too here, the unseemly matter that is considered a cause for divorce is also referring to a clear matter that was not established merely through a rumor. Rava’s statement is in accordance with this opinion.