Admonishing the Sotah

4. They bring her up to the great court which is in Jerusalem, and [the judges] solemnly admonish her in the same way that they admonish witnesses in capital cases. And they say to her, “My daughter, much is done by wine, much is done by frivolity, much is done by youth, much is done by bad neighbors. For the sake of His great name which is written in holiness, do it so that it may not be rubbed out on the water.” And they say to her things that neither she nor all the family of her father’s house is worthy to hear.

5. If she said, “I am defiled to you,” she gives him a receipt for her ketubah and goes out [with a get]. But if she says, “I am pure,” they bring her up to the east gate, Nicanor’s Gate,¹ where they give women suspected of adultery the water to drink, purify women after childbirth, and purify lepers. A priest seizes her clothing: if they are torn, then they are torn, and if they become unstitched, then they are unstitched, until he uncovers her bosom, and he undoes [the braids of] her hair. R. Judah says: If her bosom was beautiful, he does not uncover it, and if her hair was beautiful, he does not undo it.

6. If she was clothed in white, he clothes her in black. If she wore gold jewelry or necklaces, earrings and finger rings, they remove them from her in order to make her repulsive. After that, [the priest] takes a rope made of twigs and binds it over her breasts. Whoever wishes to look upon her comes to look, with the exception of her male and female slaves, since she has no shame in front of them. All of the women are permitted to look upon her, as it is said, That all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness (Ezekiel 23:48).

7. In the measure with which a person metes out to others, they mete out to him. She adorned herself for a sin; the Omnipresent made her repulsive. She exposed herself for a sin; the Omnipresent exposed her. She began the transgression with the “thigh” [a euphemism for genitals] and afterward with the womb; therefore she is punished first in the “thigh” and afterward in the womb, nor does all the body escape.