Sotah 104

7:
It comes almost as a relief to learn that at a certain stage in Israel's spiritual development a religious leader had the sensitivity and the courage to put an end to this Torah-mandated ceremony. That person – also an innovator in other aspects of our ritual life – was Rabban Yoĥanan ben-Zakkai. Rabban Yoĥanan ben-Zakkai, reputedly one of the last surviving students of the great Hillel himself, was President of the Sanhedrin in the difficult decade after the collapse of Jerusalem and the ignominious defeat of the Jewish resistance by the Roman military machine. During that decade, approximately 70-80 CE, Rabban Yoĥanan ben-Zakkai made many momentous changes in halakhic procedure, but perhaps none was so welcome to our modern susceptibilities as the abolition of the ceremony of the Sotah.

8:
His action is justified by a quotation from the words of a prophet, but we may be reasonably certain that these words were nothing more than a later peg upon which to hang his religiously courageous deed. What, perhaps, is most pleasing to the cultural mind of the 21st century is that in the 1st century there was a religious sage who recognized the inherent inequality of the sexes that the Sotah ceremony entailed. This inequality is emphasized by the prophetic quotation, but, as is often the case, our mishnah has inadvertently blunted the appositeness of the quotation by curtailing it (assuming that everyone would immediately recall the rest of the quotation!) Here is the completion of the relevant part of the quotation [Hosea 4:14]:

9:
The effort to combat the cultural ravages of the meeting in Eretz-Israel of European Hellenism with Asian Judaism during the 3rd century BCE brought about a closing of ranks among the sages, and two differing schools united in one Pharisaic party. This prompted a dual leadership and the period is referred to as the age of the "Couples". According to tractate Avot, from the Maccabean uprising until the death of Hillel, for about 150 years, the Pharisaic faction was headed by two leaders acting in tandem. According to Avot 1:4 Yosé ben-Yo'ezer of Tzeredah and Yosé ben-Yoĥanan of Jerusalem, the first "couple" were also the end of a golden age. They were the successors of Antigonos of Sokho. It was in his time that, according to rabbinic understanding, the Jewish people split into various sects and pristine religious unity was lost. The term 'perfect scholarship' used in our mishnah is an attempt to render into English the Hebrew 'Eshkolot' ['clusters of fruit']. It is understood as indicating the unity of various scholastic disciplines in one person – general brilliance as opposed to 'specialization'. The verse [Micah 7:1] with which our mishnah ends is superfluous to our understanding of the text.

I hadn't heard of these restrictions before, and they bothered me a bit. I suspect I'm in one of those "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" situations, i.e., that this is not operative halachah today, or that there have been counter-rulings that are more pro-social. Can you comment on that a bit?

I respond:

These measures were passed when an unexpected "window of opportunity" presented itself to the minority faction in the pharisaic camp. From the discussion on one of these measures in the Gemara [Avodah Zarah 36a] we learn that these measures were ultimately ineffective because "the majority of the people did not adopt them" and "we do not impose on the people rabbinic decrees unless the majority of the people can support them". (Were the sages Conservative Jews!?) David may rest assured that the people long ago abrogated these social restrictions.