Study Sotah folio 29A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
שהרי עשה בה ספק זונה כזונה. תרומה נמי לא תיבעי קרא, שהרי עשה בה ספק זונה כזונה!
as the Torah has already rendered an uncertain case of a woman who has had sex with a man forbidden to her by the Torah [zona] as though she is certainly a zona, since a sota is forbidden to her husband after seclusion even though there are no witnesses that she committed adultery, and therefore it should be prohibited for her to marry a priest just like any zona, then with regard to her prohibition against partaking of teruma a verse should also not be necessary, as it is prohibited for a zona to partake of teruma. Therefore, the Torah renders an uncertain zona like a certain zona.
אלא לרבי עקיבא ארבעה קראי כתיבי: חד לבעל, וחד לבועל, וחד לכהונה, וחד לתרומה.
Rather, it must be explained that according to R' Akiva, the equivalent of 4 verses worthy of exposition are written with regard to the defilement of a sota, as he maintains that an additional halakha should be derived from the superfluous prefix vav in the verse: “And is defiled [venitma’a]” (Numbers 5:29). Therefore, one verse is written to forbid her to her husband, and one is to forbid her to her paramour, and one is to forbid her to marry into the priesthood, and one is to forbid her to partake of teruma.
And R' Yishmael disagrees with R' Akiva, as he does not expound on the superfluous vav, and therefore maintains that only 3 verses are written: One is to forbid her to her husband, and one is to forbid her to her paramour, and one is to forbid her to partake of teruma. And her being prohibited to marry into the priesthood is derived through an a fortiori inference, as described in the baraita.