1,986. Who May Testify About Adultery

Hilchos Sotah 1:14

Let’s say that a woman was warned by her husband against seclusion with a certain man, with whom she was then secluded, thereby obligating her to drink the bitter water. If even one witness testifies that the woman engaged in intimacy with the man about whom she was warned in his presence, she becomes prohibited to her husband forever. She may not drink the bitter water and must be divorced without being paid the value of her kesubah. This is true even if the witness who testifies that the woman committed adultery is also one of the witnesses who testified that she entered into seclusion. This is because Numbers 5:13 states that the bitter water is employed when “there is no witness against her.”

Hilchos Sotah 1:15

Even a woman, a servant, a woman servant, a person disqualified as a witness for violating a rabbinic prohibition and a relative can testify that the suspected woman committed adultery. This prohibits her to her husband forever, prevents her from drinking the bitter water and obligates that she be divorced without receiving the value of her kesubah. Since the Torah accepts the testimony of a lone witness when it comes to adultery, anyone’s testimony is acceptable in this matter. Even the five women who are assumed to hate one another (such as a woman and her mother-in-law) can testify about one another that they committed adultery. Such testimony is only accepted to prohibit the woman to her husband, not to obligate her in drinking the bitter water. Such testimony is insufficient to make her forfeit the value of her kesubah. Rather, she collects the value of her kesubah and departs.