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Controllin g Passions- Mixed Results 105

the ordeal began. During this period any contact with her husband or her male friend was prohibited(M. Sotah 5:1). The Talmud in its discussion assumed that preliminary hearings were held before a court of 3, possibly later expanded to 23. The ordeal could be performed only after a hearing before a court of 70. These intervening steps meant that the accusation had to be serious and that every effort had been made to delay the proceedings and permit a reconciliation. They actually meant that the steps to the ritual were so difficult that it could never be carried out.

While all these considerations narrowed the potential range of the ordeal, it was broadened through the statement that the court could undertake the mandated warnings if her husband was imprisoned or mentally ill(M. Sotah 4:5). This seems to have been intended to guard public morality in the case of flagrant provocation as the purpose of the ordeal was a warning to wives.

The discussion in the Mishnah and the Jerushalmi also dealt with mitigating circumstances(J. Sotah 1:3): If she was unclean for her husband— unable to have sexual relations with him because he was a priest and she had been violated; if her husband was impotent, the court would try to appease her; if she removed herself from all Jews or could not stand intercourse, the effort was made to find a way with her husband, but failing that, she could remove herself(M. Ned 11:12),

The authorities of the Mishnah dealt with the effect of the ritual, which, in their eyes, did not need to be immediate. Any illness or other problem faced by the wife later in life could therefore be attributed to the ritual and she would never be seen as cleared. Some scholars, however, limited this period of possible effect of the ritual, to three years. R. Simeon responded that thoughts along these lines made the ordeal ineffective for both parties— for the satisfaction of the husband there was no immediate punishment, and for the wife there Was no ability to clear her name.

Some other discussions also made the ritual more difficult.