R. Chiyah bar Yosef sent [to bring his wife, who had been captured]. He said, three Talmidim should accompany her, so if one distances for his needs (to excrete), she will be alone with two.

Question (Mishnah): We give to him two Chachamim, lest he have Bi'ah with her on the way.

Answer (R. Avin): [There are two Chachamim] and her husband - there are three in all.

Even [though Chachamim forbade R. Zecharyah ben ha'Katzav's wife to him,] he rented a house for her and fed her and was not secluded with her, only in front of her children, and applied to himself "Yagati b'Anchasi u'Menuchah Lo Matzasi" (he toiled to guard his wife so he could testify about her, but it did not help).

(Beraisa - R. Yehudah): Her husband is trusted about [not having Bi'ah with] her, from a Kal v'Chomer. A Nidah, for which there is Kares (for Bi'ah with her), he is believed about her (one may be secluded with Ishto Nidah), this (a wife who was secluded after Kinuy), for which there is no Kares, all the more so he should be believed about her!

Chachamim: If you say about Nidah, that he is trusted about her, for she is permitted after her Isur - will you say [so] about [a wife secluded after Kinuy], that [if she truly transgress] there is no Heter after her Isur?

Also, it says "Mayim Genuvim Yimtaku" (there is a big Yetzer ha'Ra for Isur)!

R. Yehudah: The Torah decreed [that he is believed] - "v'Hevi ha'Ish Es Ishto"! (If we were concerned that he had Bi'ah with her after seclusion, we would not erase Shem Hash-m and offer her Korban, for perhaps the Parshah does not apply!)

Chachamim: This is only when there are witnesses [that he did not have Bi'ah with her after seclusion].

(Mishnah): They take her to the great Beis Din in Yerushalayim and intimidate her, like we threaten witnesses in capital cases.

He says to her 'wine, frivolity, youth and bad neighbors can cause many things. Do not [persist to claim innocence, and thereby cause] Hash-m's great name written in Kedushah to be erased into the water.'

He says to her things not fit for her (an immodest woman who transgressed seclusion) and her entire father's family (presumably, also they are not so righteous) to hear.

(Gemara): Just like we intimidate her so she will retract (confess), so we intimidate her [after erasing the Megilah] so she will not retract.

He says to her 'my daughter, if you are Tehorah, that it is clear to you that you are Tehorah, stand on your innocence! This water is merely like a dry salve on healthy flesh - it does not harm it. If it finds a wound, it begins to penetrate and descend [into the body].

R. Zavdei, the father-in-law of R. Levi, used to tell the following episode. R. Meir used to expound in the Beis ha'Keneses of Chamsa every Shabbos night. There was a woman who used to hear his voice. Once, he expounded a long time. She went and wanted to enter her house, and found that the lamp extinguished;

Her husband asked her where she had been. She said, I heard a Drashah.

He told her, so and so [should befall me] if that woman enters here to her house before she goes and spits in the face of the one who expounded.

R. Meir saw [the episode] through Ru'ach ha'Kodesh, and pretended to have an eye ache. He said 'any woman who knows how to whisper on the eye, come and whisper!'

Her neighbors told her 'now is the time when you will enter your house! Pretend to whisper, and you will spit in his eye!'

She went to him. He said to her, do you know how to whisper on the eye? Due to the awe that she had for him, she told him 'no'.

He told her, we spit in it seven times, and it is good for it. After she spat, he told her 'go tell your husband, you told her (i.e. me, to spit) once, and she spat seven times!'

R. Meir's Talmidim: Rebbi, do we disgrace Torah like this (that she spit on a Chacham)?! Had you told us, would we not have brought him and lashed him on the bench until he consents to his wife (to enter his house)!

R. Meir: Meir's honor should not be [greater than] his Maker's honor! The Kodesh name written in Kedushah - the verse says that it is erased into the water, to make Shalom between a man and his wife. Meir's honor, all the more so [it is overridden to make Shalom between a man and his wife]!

(Mishnah): He says to her things not fit for her and her entire father's family to hear.

E.g. the episode of Reuven and Bilhah, and Yehudah and Tamar (they confessed) - "Asher Chachamim Yagidu" refers to Reuven and Yehudah - "v'Lo Chichadu me'Avosam."

Question: What reward did they receive for this?

Answer: "To them alone was given Eretz Yisrael; a stranger did not come between them." (Yehudah received kingship, and Reuven was the first Shevet to get a share in the land);

When Moshe came to bless them, he said "Yechi Reuven v'Al Yamus v'Zos li'Yehudah." (No other Shevet interrupted between their Brachos - PNEI MOSHE.)

(R. Chizkiyah citing R. Acha): R. Chiya expounded three verses favorably. (The first is about Tamar);

Question: "Va'Teshev b'Fesach Einayim." Is it possible to say so? Even the ultimate harlot does not do so!

Answer #1: Rather, she put her eyes (hope) on the opening (Hash-m) that all eyes hope for it.

She said 'Master of all the worlds! May I not leave empty (without children) from this house!'

Answer #2: She opened the eyes for him (explained why he need not refrain). She said, I am single, I am Tehorah.

[The second verse is] "v'Eli Zaken Me'od... [v'Es Asher Yishkevun" - it is written Yashkivun (his sons did not lie with the women, rather, they caused them to lie down, i.e. stay overnight);

Women used to bring their Kinim (bird offerings) to become Tahor to their husbands, and [Eli's sons did not offer them the same day, and] delayed them. Ha'Kadosh Baruch Hu attributes to them as of they lied with them. (ALEI TAMAR - really, birds are needed only to permit them to enter the Mikdash and eat Kodshim, but there was a Midas Chasidus to consider intimacy like Kodesh, and refrain until bringing their birds.)

Support (R. Tanchuma): Hash-m rebuked them "Lamah Siv'atu b'Zivchi uv'Minchasi" - if you will say that there was a severe Aveirah (of adultery), does one evade the stringent and rebuke for the lenient?!

[The third verse is] "v'Lo Halchu Vanav bi'Drachav va'Yitu Acharei ha'Batza" - [Shmuel's sons] took Ma'aser and judged (this resembles a bribe).

(R. Berachiyah): A caravan would pass, and they would abandon the needs of Yisrael and engage in business.