David and Batsheva

(2) Late one afternoon, David rose from his couch and strolled on the roof of the royal palace; and from the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, (3) and the king sent someone to make inquiries about the woman. He reported, “She is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam [and] wife of Uriah the Hittite.” (4) David sent messengers to fetch her; she came to him and he lay with her—she had just purified herself after her period—and she went back home. (5) The woman conceived, and she sent word to David, “I am pregnant.” (6) Thereupon David sent a message to Joab, “Send Uriah the Hittite to me”; and Joab sent Uriah to David. (7) When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab and the troops were faring and how the war was going. (8) Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and bathe your feet.” When Uriah left the royal palace, a present from the king followed him. (9) But Uriah slept at the entrance of the royal palace, along with the other officers of his lord, and did not go down to his house.

(14) In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab, which he sent with Uriah. (15) He wrote in the letter as follows: “Place Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest; then fall back so that he may be killed.” (16) So when Joab was besieging the city, he stationed Uriah at the point where he knew that there were able warriors. (17) The men of the city sallied out and attacked Joab, and some of David’s officers among the troops fell; Uriah the Hittite was among those who died.

(27) After the period of mourning was over, David sent and had her brought into his palace; she became his wife and she bore him a son.
But the LORD was displeased with what David had done,

(13) David said to Nathan, “I stand guilty before the LORD!” And Nathan replied to David, “The LORD has remitted your sin; you shall not die. (14) However, since you have spurned the enemies of the LORD by this deed, even the child about to be born to you shall die.”

(24) David consoled his wife Bathsheba; he went to her and lay with her. She bore a son and she named him Solomon. The LORD favored him, (25) and He sent a message through the prophet Nathan; and he was named JedidiahcI.e., “Beloved of the Lord.” at the instance of the LORD.

Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani said that Rabbi Yonatan said: Anyone who says that David sinned is nothing other than mistaken, as it is stated: “And David succeeded in all his ways; and the Lord was with him” (I Samuel 18:14).

"[anyone who says] David Sinned [is nothing but mistaken]" - With Batsheva before she received a Get (divorce document)

David sought to do evil and have relations with Bathsheba while she was still married to Uriah but did not do so.

Regarding an adulterous woman:

Just as she is forbidden to her husband, so too is she forbidden to her lover

Why wasn't she forbidden? - To David as there were many witnesses

And witnesses render a lover and a husband forbidden to the woman

As Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani said that Rabbi Yonatan said: Anyone who goes to a war waged by the royal house of David writes a conditional bill of divorce to his wife. That was done to prevent a situation in which the soldier’s wife would be unable to remarry because the soldier did not return from battle and there were no witnesses to his fate. The conditional bill of divorce accorded her the status of a divorcee and freed her to remarry.

As, apparently, it was customary for men at war to send their wives a conditional divorce, since Uriah later died, Bathsheba retroactively assumed divorced status from the time that he set out to war. She was not forbidden to David.

He would write a bill of divorce for his wife- For if he died in war the bill would take effect retroactively from the day it was written-And it happened that Uriah [the Hittite] died in war.

כל היוצא למלחמת בית דוד גט כריתות כותב לאשתו — All who go out to the wars of בית דוד would write a writ of divorce to his wife
OVERVIEW
The גמרא explained that דוד did not transgress the איסור of אשת איש with בת שבע, since all who went to wage the battles of דוד would write a גט כריתות to his wife (and that included אוריה, the [former] husband of בת שבע). There is a disagreement between רש״י and תוספות how this divorce was effective.
רש״י explained that they would give the גט with a stipulation, that if he will die in the war, the גט should be effective retroactively from the time it was written and delivered to the wife.
Tosfot has a different understanding of the process:
‘what status is she in the days between receiving the get with a stipulation and her husband dying?'
ר״י says she is like a married woman regarding everything. (therefore, it would come out that within Rashi's side, David slept with Batsheva while she was still a married woman but then retroactively was exonerated due to the stipulated get)

Tosfot has a problem with Rashi because of this and the Rabbeinu Tam explains that he would write a complete Get without any stipulations and the soldiers would divorce their wives, before going to war, then remarry them when they got back.
And the Rabbeinu Tam answered that the Gemara (Bava Metzia) refers to Batsheva as a ספק married woman since they would divorce their wives privately (without any publicity) so that it should not be known that these women are divorced, in order to prevent people from jumping at the opportunity to marry these ‘divorcees’.

For Rashi, this isn't an issue as she is considered ספק married woman because it is unclear if the stipulation in the get has retroactively taken affect yet.
Tosfot finishes with one final question on Rashi:
How was David intimate with Batsheva? Why was he not concerned that perhaps Uriah would return, the Get would then be invalid and Batsheva would be a married woman and David would have sinned?

Nevertheless, according to both Rashi and Tosfot, when David slept with Batsheva she was not a married woman, therefore we can conclude that David was not guilty of having an affair.

For if she had been a married woman, how could David have taken her as a wife afterward, since she would have been forbidden to her lover? How could he fast and pray for the child born to live, since it would have been a mamzer (illegitimate)? How could his repentance have been accepted if the forbidden woman remained in his house, and he would have been like one who immerses in a mikvah while holding a sheretz (impure creature)? How could God have chosen from the offspring born to this woman a ruling dynasty (of which Moshiach will come) and called his name Jedidiah (beloved of the Lord) and God loved him? From all this, it is clearly evident that Bathsheba was not forbidden to David.

As we will explain in the commentary on each specific verse, if the first sin was that he sinned with a married woman, the scripture recounts that David sent and inquired about the woman to know if she was single or married. And he was told, 'Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?' From this, he knew that she was single, either because she was the wife of Uriah who had gone to war and he knew that he had left her a get as was customary at that time, or because she was the daughter of Eliam, who was the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, and certainly, he was the one who advised instituting this decree that everyone going to war would leave a bill of divorce for their wife. Therefore, there is no doubt that he was strict about this with his granddaughter so that she would not be left as an agunah.

"And David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him." The messengers investigated this matter, and when they knew that she was divorced, he took her. The scripture tells us that not only did David avoid the sin of being with a married woman, but he also avoided the prohibition of being with a menstruating woman, as she was purifying herself from her impurity and had immersed (in a mikvah) from her menstruation.

Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: A person should never bring himself to undergo an ordeal, as David, king of Israel, brought himself to undergo an ordeal and failed. David said before God: Master of the Universe, for what reason does one say in prayer: God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, and one does not say: God of David? God said to David: They have undergone ordeals before Me, and you have not undergone an ordeal before Me. David said before Him: Examine me and subject me to an ordeal, as it is stated: “Examine me, Lord, and subject me to an ordeal; try my kidneys and my heart” (Psalms 26:2). God said to him: I will subject you to an ordeal, and I will perform a matter for you that I did not perform for the Patriarchs, as for them, I did not inform them of the nature of the ordeal, while I am informing you that I will subject you to an ordeal involving a matter of a married woman, with whom relations are forbidden. Immediately, it is written: “And it came to pass one evening that David rose from his bed” (II Samuel 11:2).

The verse states: “And he walked upon the roof of the king’s house; from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very fair to look upon” (II Samuel 11:2). Bathsheba was shampooing her head behind a beehive, which concealed her from sight. Satan came and appeared to David as a bird. David shot an arrow at the bird, the arrow severed the beehive, Bathsheba was exposed, and David saw her.

Freddie: In other words, the Satan made sure that Dovid would sin by employing various tactics to achieve this ends. And Hashem consented in order to teach the power of Teshuva to the people. This is also why Hashem gets so angry at him. His request for a test triggered the entire Batsheva episode, which is why he was shouted at by Hashem.

Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam, was destined for David since the six days of creation, but he partook of her, before the appointed time. David would have ultimately married her in a permitted manner after the death of Uriah.

This is proved by the fact they were destined to have Solomon, the future King and who's lineage Moshiach will come from

And he searched for a woman - [David] went inquiring to the people of her house in favour of the woman. Who is she? Is she Batsheva.

David knew who Batsheva was and that they were soulmates, hence why he so eagerly goes looking for her.

(5) For David had done what was pleasing to GOD and never turned throughout his life from all that had been commanded him, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

That which is written: “Uriah the Hittite you have smitten with the sword,” means that you could have judged him before the Sanhedrin as one guilty of treason against the throne, and you did not judge him in that manner. Instead, you had him executed in a manner that deviated from the generally accepted principles of judgment.

What is the reason that David was not liable for the death of Uriah? Because Uriah was a traitor against the throne. As he said to David: “And my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields” (II Samuel 11:11). In the presence of the king, one may not refer to another as his lord. Doing so is treason.

(8) Anyone who rebels against a king of Israel may be executed by the king.
Even if the king orders one of the people to go to a particular place and the latter refuses, or he orders him not to leave his house and he goes out, the offender is liable to be put to death. The king may execute him if he desires, as Joshua 1:18 states: 'Whoever rebels against your command ... shall be put to death."

Furthermore, we know that the personality of the individual is taken into account when his sins are considered, be they major or minor transgressions. Therefore, a minor sin committed by a great personality is considered a major transgression.

(28) For we see our righteous anointed one [David] to have said (Psalms 51:5): "For I know my offenses and my sin is constantly before me" — in spite of our sages' having said (Shabbath 55b): "All who say that David sinned are mistaken." Notwithstanding this, because there was some inadvertent element of sin, he placed it constantly before his eyes and was worried and afflicted by it, as it is written (Psalms 38:19): "For I will declare my transgression; I will worry over my sin" — though he did not commit the ostensible sin and though "all who say that David sinned are mistaken."

(29) However, it should be explained why the sin with Batsheva is written down plainly, as if David actually sinned, why does Scripture describe the episode of Batsheva and Uriah in such a way as to make it appear that David was guilty of a blatant sin?

(30) It is for this reason that Scripture portrays David as having committed an awesome sin - For the minor transgressions our sages acknowledge in David are, in his case, equivalent to the major sins of an ordinary person as suggested by the plain meaning of the verses. Scripture thereby teaches us that even grievous sins can be atoned for upon genuine repentance, just as David was granted atonement despite the severe nature of his sin according to the plain interpretation of the text. His greater liability to punishment stems from his exceptional righteousness and the Holy One's meticulous scrutiny of those closest to Him. And our sages came and enlightened us according to their true tradition that David did not commit the sin indicated by the plain meaning of the verses. And we likewise learn from this other things of great benefit, one of which is that the penitent must place his sins constantly before his eyes. For we see that David, though he did not actually sin, still said "…constantly before me." Therefore, all men should reflect upon their acts at set times and examine the details of all of their deeds in order to return to the L-rd with complete repentance.