A husband who jealously warns his wife not to seclude herself with a particular man is putting himself into several complications. If he hears that she did seclude herself with the man, even as told to him by a parrot, he then needs to divorce her. This is the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer, who says that we would even believe the husband himself, so once the husband is sure about the seclusion, his warning is triggered. However, he has to pay her the money of the Ketubah since he does not have any proof, and it was his fault that he got into this situation.
Rabbi Yehoshua says that the evidence of seclusion must be more substantial: if the affair is the talk of the town, so that women who get together to weave and chat at night discuss this, then the situation is certain to the point that the water drinking test will not work anyway. It is not, however, certain to the point of her losing the Ketubah, so in that situation, the husband still pays.
If seclusion is established, she gets exonerated by drinking bitter water in the Temple. However, there are also witnesses that cohabitation has taken place during seclusion. In that case, again, the water test is unnecessary; this time, she gets divorced and loses the Ketubah. This witness can be anyone who usually needs to be a better witness. Even those five close female relatives, like her mother-in-law, who would not be believed to testify about the death of her husband (because of their vested interest in her downfall) are believed here. Except if these five women testify to cohabitation, she still retains the Ketubah payment right.
Art: Woman With Parrot by Paul Cezanne
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