No. 100

Concerning Mr. Azriel's wife, about whom Mr. David testified that he saw her [acting] in an ugly way in that Mr. Azriel's employee used to hug and kiss her. Mr. David also testified that a few days after he saw this, he saw that the adulterer and the adulteress were standing in the heated room and that she was holding his genitals in one hand and spoke to him thus... This same David also testified that at a later time, he saw the woman in the heated room lying on her back on the long chest which is there. He saw that her hat had fallen off her head and that the adulterer was standing over her and had picked up her hat; she had pulled down her dress over legs while she was still lying down. And this Mr. David also saw that after the Shabbat meal, the adulteress sat with the adulterer in the heated room and let him [touch her]; she caressed his face, knelt over him, and kissed him, while he put his hand under her dress. Every day he saw them going to the well or into the stall like man and wife. Mr. David also said that a woman who had lived in Mr. Azriels's house spoke to him in this fashion, "What do you want? We have, for our sins, seen more than you that they lived together, for our sins, with each other like man and wife." This is the end of Mr. David's testimony.

A woman called Mrs. Feigel also testified that she used to live in the house of the same Mr. Azriel and that she once went to the heated room and saw four legs lying on the bed, with shoes and socks on. She jumped back into the [next] room and said to another woman who was in there, "See what it is to be man and wife: yesterday they were fighting like wild animals and just now I saw him pleasuring her." The woman said, "It's a lie! Azriel left early this morning". This woman refused to believe her and asked the adulterer's fiancée - the adulteress's sister - whether Azriel was there, and she replied that he had traveled that day. We saw who the adulterer was - the young man, engaged to the adulteress's sister, went out around the back of the heated room...

Mr. Yirmiya Tailor also testified before the court under a most serious oath, that when he first visited the Labishin community he was in Mr. Azriel's house and so saw the young man, [Azriel's] employee, hugging and kissing Azriel's wife, and behaving with her in every way as if they were man and wife, staying with her until midnight, hugging and kissing her. Later, when Mr. Yirmiya Tailor settled there with his wife, he went to live in Mr. Azriel's house. So [once] he was walking past the heated room, whose window was open, and he saw the young adulterer hugging and kissing Mr. Azriel's wife: they were sitting on the ground, and he was holding a piece of pickled herring in one hand and putting [food] in the adulteress's mouth with the other. This is the end of Mr. Yirmiya Tailor's testimony.

Responsum

The ugly matters about which the above witnesses testified [were not all seen at the same time by the same witness] - each one saw something different...

And in addition, one of the witnesses to these ugly acts is Mr. David Lesher. At first he did not say anything - it was only after the fight which he had with Mr. Azriel. During the argument he told him that his wife was unfaithful in order to disgrace him. Later, when he was asked during the deposition he repeated the same [story] about the ugly acts he saw, as is clear in the court records. There is some concern here that he may have spoken out of hatred. It is also questionable in my eyes that he saw these ugly acts but did not say anything about them to the rabbi in order to prevent forbidden deeds from being committed...

And if so, since the witnesses in this case did not specify on which date, at which hour and on which day of the week [these acts were committed], it is taught in the chapter "They Would Check" (B.T. 40r.) that in investigations, when one man says that he doesn't know, the evidence is disqualified...

It is also written in the "Breastplate of Justice" [in the Shulkhan Arukh] that one cannot rule on the basis [of evidence not given before the defendant], so one should go back and repeat the testimony in front of [the defendant], and if they change what they originally said, the evidence given before the defendant should be followed... and everyone admits that in this case` more investigation and inquiries are neccessary.

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