2,009. 15 Adar

Hilchos Sotah 3:24

If a woman was coerced to engage in adulterous relations, or if she did so unwittingly, or if she lay undressed in the arms of the one about who she had been warned but they didn’t have intercourse, she won’t be tested by the bitter water. This is derived as follows: Numbers 5:13 says, “She was not taken against her will” – this excludes a woman who was coerced; verse 5:27 says, “She was unfaithful to her husband” – this excludes a woman who was intimate with another man unwittingly; verse 5:13 says, “A man had sexual relations with her” – this excludes embracing without engaging in intercourse.

Hilchos Sotah 4:1

On 15 Adar, the court takes care of general community needs, including seeing which women might need to be made to drink the bitter water – so that they can have them do so – and which should be given a warning in order that they might be divorced without paying them the value of their kesubahs. A suspected woman, however, can be made to drink the bitter water at any point in the year.