Study Sotah folio 19A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
דכתיב: ״זאת״. בשני אנשים ושני בועלין — דכולי עלמא לא פליגי דהאשה שותה ושונה, דכתיב: ״תורת״.
as it is written: “This is the law of jealousy.” The word “this” is a restricting term and excludes that possibility. With regard to two different husbands and two different paramours, where her first husband suspected her with regard to one paramour during her first marriage and the second husband suspected her with regard to a different man during the second marriage, everyone agrees that the woman drinks and repeats, as it is written: “This is the law of jealousy,” in all cases of jealousy.
כי פליגי באיש אחד ושני בועלין, בשני אנשים ובועל אחד.
They disagree when there is one husband and two paramours, i.e., where one husband warned her with regard to a second paramour after she survived her first ordeal. They also disagree in a case of two husbands and one paramour, i.e., if her second husband accused her with regard to the same paramour on account of whom she was compelled to drink by her first husband.
תנא קמא סבר: ״תורת״ — לרבויי כולהי, ״זאת״ — למעוטי איש אחד ובועל אחד.
The opinions are justified as follows: The first tanna holds that the phrase “the law of jealousy” serves to include all of these cases. In almost all cases the woman drinks and repeats. The word “this” serves to exclude only the case of one husband and one paramour, in which she does not drink and repeat.
ורבנן בתראי סברי: ״זאת״ — למעוטי כולהי, ״תורת״ — לרבויי שני אנשים ושני בועלין.
And the Rabbis mentioned later in the baraita hold that the word “this” serves to exclude all of these cases. The woman almost never drinks and repeats. The phrase “the law of jealousy” serves to include only the case of two husbands and two paramours, in which she does drink and repeat.