Sotah 017

1:
The first chapter of our tractate ended with an excursus in the concept of just retribution of the character of 'measure for measure'. Chapter 2 now returns us to the ceremony of the Sotah.

2:
Let us summarize what we have established so far. When a husband suspects that his wife has been unfaithful to him but there is not available evidence of her infidelity that would be judicially acceptable, he charges her in a local Bet Din. If that court sees fit to do so the couple is sent to the Supreme Sanhedrin in Jerusalem with an escort of two scholars. The Supreme Sanhedrin tries to persuade the woman to confess her infidelity and the ceremony continues only if she is steadfast in maintaining her innocence.

3:
In describing the Sotah ceremony the Torah [Numbers 5:15] states:

Our mishnah teaches that even though the offering of barley meal was brought (i.e. paid for) by the husband he would make his wife hold it throughout the ceremony. Our mishnah says that this was 'in order to tire her'. This was yet another of the attempts to get the woman to confess her adultery in order to obviate the necessity of the Sotah ceremony. To 'tire' her denotes not only physical weariness but also lack of will brought about by the psychological and emotional stress from which the woman is suffering. If the woman passes the Sotah ordeal successfully the only result will be that she remains married to her husband, so it would seem that her steadfast denial of her infidelity is also a clear indication that she wants her marriage to continue.

To be continued.

Mishnah 6 of chapter 1 stated that 'anyone who wishes to spectate may do so'. What men might want to see is the degradation of the woman by loosening her hair and exposing her breasts. (In earlier times, it seems, the sight of a woman's hair was erotic.) Art Kamlet sends us this insight:

I was looking at references for 'Nazir' when I saw a note that a man who witnessed a woman during the Sotah ceremony, as has just been described, should take the oath of a Nazirite [Berakhot 63a]. The connection made here is smichut, adjoining verses of the Torah. Even though that was the reason stated, it seems perhaps while it was OK for a man to observe, if he did, he then should feel obligated to take a Nazirite oath, which in turn might discourage too many spectators or gawkers.

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David Russin returns us to our discussion on the nature of King David. He asks: Why was David not able to make teshuva and thereby offset God's decree?

I respond:

David did repent. Natan the prophet obviously knew that David was very short tempered. Had he confronted David with a blatant accusation David would probably have lost his temper and had the man thrown out. (Joab, David's cousin, also seems to foresee that David would be angry when he learns of how many men were killed in the foray against the Ammonites and therefore he instructs the messenger to add the fact that 'Uriah was also among the dead' to bring the king to his senses.) Natan also knows that David is crassly sentimental and spins him a yarn about a rich man who robs a poor man of his one little baby lamb. David, acting as judge, reacts just as Natan wanted him to: 'As God lives the man that did this must be put to death, and he shall make fourfold restitution for the lamb – because he did this deed and showed no pity.' (Note that David is prepared to sentence a man to death for stealing a lamb even though he knows that the correct punishment is financial restitution.)

Now Natan has David just where he wants him and only has to say: 'You are that man'. David, immediately recognising the implication accepts the judgement: 'I have sinned before God'. Natan accepts this sign of repentance and halves the sentence that David had pronounced upon himself: because he repented and admitted his guilt he is not to die. But the other part of the punishment that David himself pronounced is to remitted: he must make fourfold restitution. Is it too fanciful to see here a premonition of his loss of four sons? – the child born of his adulterous union with Batsheva, Amnon, Absalom and – at the very end of his reign – Adonijah.