Shulchan Arukh Even HaEzer · Siman 11

Shulchan Arukh Even HaEzer 11 — English translation

Translation: Sefaria Community Translation. Section numbers match the Hebrew text above.

1. 1A woman suspected of adultery, if there was jealousy [= her husband's suspicion of her having intercourse with a specific man] and seclusion [with that man] but she did not drink the bitter waters [= undergo the Sotah ritual], since she is forbidden to her husband on his [= the suspected adulterer's] account, she is [also] forbidden forever to the one with whom she was secluded, just as she is forbidden to her husband. And if he transgressed and married her, [the court] removes her from him with a divorce document, even if she had many children with him. Based on oral tradition they learned: just as she is forbidden to her husband, so too is she forbidden to the one who had intercourse with her [i.e., the man with whom she committed adultery]. Rem"a: And this is the law as well if she becomes forbidden to her husband on his account [even without having actual intercourse], she is forbidden to him. (Rem"a's own reasoning.) But if jealousy did not precede [= the husband did not yet suspect his wife of having sex with this specific man], and witnesses came [to testify] about her that she was secluded with this man, and they came and found an ugly matter, e.g., they entered after her and found her getting up off the bed and wearing [only] undergarments or fastening her belt, or they found spit on the canopy [overhanging the bed], Rem"a: or they saw the place of the shoes inverted (Tur), or they [the woman and the man with whom she is suspected of committing adultery] were leaving a dark place, or helping each other out of a pit, etc., or they [the witnesses] saw him kissing her on the neck of her garment, or they saw them kissing each other [on the lips], or that they entered one after the other and barred the door (Rem"a: with a lock) (Beit Yosef in the name of a responsum of the Rashb"a 1251), and similar things (Rem"a: according to the seeing of the eyes of the judges), if he husband divorces her for an ugly matter like this, she may not get married to the defendant [= the man with whom she is suspected of having committed adultery]; but if he transgressed and married her, and he has children with her, she need not divorce him. When does this apply? When the city is gossiping about her and the defendant for a day and a half or more, saying: 'So-and-so committed adultery with so-and-so" and the rumor didn't stop, and when neither she nor he (Rem"a: nor the husband) (Ra"n to Yevamot ch. 2) have enemies who are spreading the rumor. But if there is no rumor to this effect in the city, or the rumor stopped not because of fear, if she is married to the defendant she needn't divorce even if she has no children [with him]. Even if one witness came that she committed adultery with him, she needn't divorce him. Rem"a: And there are those who say that if there was here an actual rumor in the manner explained, in addition to witnesses to the ugly matter, the court removes her even from her husband (Rash"i and She'iltot and Mordekhai in the name of the Ra"m ch. 2 of Yevamot) if he has no children with her. But in the presence of only one of them [rumor OR witnesses] the court does not remove [her] from the husband, unless her husband divorces her and the suspect marries her -- [in that case] the court removes [her] from the suspect in the presence of only one of them, if she has no children from him. (Thus is the implication from the Ri"f and the Ramba"m.) Two witnesses to ugliness join together, even though they saw it sequentially, and the ugliness that one saw the other did not see (Mordekhai ch. 2 of Yevamot in the name of a responsum of the Mahara"m). One witness to a matter of ugliness is legally meaningless. (Responsum of Mahara"m, end of Nashim.)
2. 2A woman whose husband divorced her due to witnesses to an ugly matter, and gets married to someone else and he divorces her, she is forbidden to marry the suspect [= the man with whom she was seen engaging in sexual behaviors while married to her first husband] because she left her [first] husband due to him, but if she gets married [to the suspect] she need not divorce, even though they have no children. Any woman [about] whom witnesses came and testified that she committed adultery with this [man] when she was with her first husband, she must divorce him [= the man with whom she committed adultery as confirmed by witnesses, even when she is married to and divorced from another man after her first husband], even though she has many children with him.
3. 3In every instance where they said that the woman must be divorced, she is divorced without [payment of] her ketubah.
4. 4There are those who say that if witnesses testify that the woman committed adultery, they need to be investigated carefully. And they [beis din] cannot accept testimony that is not in front of her or her husband (Teshuvas Harosh Klal 46).
5. 5[If] one is accused [of sleeping with] a maidservant or a non-Jew, and [then] she converts or is freed, he still cannot enter [marry her], but if he has already married her, he does not need to exit [divorce]. If they divorced, she cannot return to him, unless he had sons with her (Bais Yoseif in the name of the Rashba).
6. 6A Cuthite or a slave who has relations with a daughter of Israel, even if the Cuthite returns and converts or if the slave is freed, he may not marry her, but if he does, he need not divorce her.
7. 7Those whom the Sages said "he may not marry," she may not live even in the same mavoi [with him], and all the more so may not serve him.
8. 8Any case in which [the court] warned him [not to marry a particular woman] and he transgressed and married [her], this is not considered "after-the-fact" [when we would ordinarily be lenient] and we remove her from him. Rem"a: Someone who divorces his wife in order that his friend may marry her, [the friend] is forbidden from marrying her, as will be explained below in 143:15.

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