Ki Tetze | The Slanderer, by Rav Yitzchak Etshalom

What was the "motzi shem ra" attempting to accomplish? A challenging sugya in peshuto shel mikra

Much of the middle of Parashat Ki Tetze is devoted to laws relating to sexual impropriety, expanding (per our approach) on the Dibber - לא תנאף. The most puzzling passage (22:13-21) addresses a case of possible slander on the part of a new husband, besmirching his new wife's reputation and making claims about her lack of virtue in advance of their marriage. What begins as an apparently transparent attempt to get out of a marriage he now regrets leads to one of two far more unpleasant results - either his being punished and publicly shamed or, far worse, her execution. We examine the intersection between text and law, identifying the difficulties and suggesting a solution as to the import of this unusual pair of rulings.

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