Sotah 019
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BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI
of the Rabbinical Assembly in Israel
RABIN MISHNAH STUDY GROUP
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He would bring a new earthenware dish and fill it with half a 'log' of water from the Laver. (Rabbi Yehudah says that it was a quarter [of a 'log' only]: just as he reduces the amount of writing so he reduces the amount of water.) He would go into the sanctuary and turn to the right. There was there a place, one cubit square, where there was a marble tile which had a ring fixed into it. Upon raising it he would take dirt from underneath it and put into the water enough of it to be recognizable, for it says, 'And from the dirt on the floor of the sanctuary shall the priest take and put it into the water'.
EXPLANATIONS:
1:
The Torah [Numbers 5:17] requires the officiating priest to use 'holy water' in the ceremony of the Sotah. This requirement is understood as using water drawn from the special Laver that there was in the Priestly Courtyard. (When we studied tractate Tamid we learned that this laver, from which the priests on duty each day would draw water to wash themselves before commencing their duties, was situated in the angle between the main body of the altar and the ramp on the side nearest the steps leading up to the sanctuary entrance.) For the purpose of this ceremony a new earthenware basin was produced. 2:
The basic unit of cubic measurement was an egg's bulk [Betzah]. It is customary to compute this as the equivalent of about 80 cubic centimetres. Six eggs' bulk made up one 'log', which was therefore about 480 cc. It follows that 'one quarter' of a log would yield about 120 cc. (I must add here that there are today two main views concerning these equivalents. For various reasons, that should not detain us here, Rabbi Avraham Yeshayah Karelitz (1875-1953), the 'Chazon Ish', was of the opinion that 'their eggs were then bigger than ours today' and computed a maximalist table of amounts. Another view, of Rabbi Chayyim Na'eh, for equally cogent reasons, was minimalist. According to the maximalist view 'one quarter' [revi'it] contains about 140 cc's, whereas according to the minimalist view it contains only about 90 cc's. I mention these details because of their implications regarding other minimal amounts, such as wine for Kiddush.)
It follows, therefore, that about one quarter of a litre of water was poured into the basin.
To be continued. DISCUSSION:
There is still some residue from the discussion we had concerning the virtue of King David as seen by the sages.
Jerry Langer writes: I have sometimes wondered whether some of our the tradition's deference to David comes, as you say, in spite of the stories in Kings and Samuel. Factors that the rabbis might dwell on could include: (1) the tradition of his authorship of Tehillim (Psalms); and (2) his place as the unifier of Israel, which perhaps serves as a flawed prototype for the ultimate unification (Messiah, etc.) of Israel and a reign of harmony (in contrast to the events of David's career). These thoughts are obviously speculative, and but I'd be curious whether there are textual sources that explain his eminence. I respond: I suspect that the ultimate historical source of David's greatness was political. The kings of Judah used the Davidic dynasty as their 'divine right of kingship'. This claim was bolstered by prophetic support [2 Chronicles 7:17-18]:
As for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep my statutes and my ordinances; then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, according as I covenanted with David your father, saying, There shall not fail you a man to be ruler in Israel.
Bayla Singer restores our discussion back to tractate Sotah. She writes:
You write: >>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.<< But isn't the penalty for adultery, death by stoning? If she confesses, what is her alternative to the continued marriage? I respond: This is not the first time that this question has been asked. On previous occasions I had looked for some deeper meaning to the question and responded to the best of my ability on that assumption. However, it now occurs to me that Bayla's question (and the same question asked previously) may have been a very simple one without the depth which I had assumed. It occurred to me that maybe the question is simply: if the Torah demands the death penalty for both parties in an adulterous act how is it possible that this woman may confess her adultery with comparative impunity? If this is the question the answer is very simple indeed. The Torah [Numbers 5:11-13] begins its ruling very carefully:
God spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the Israelites, and tell them: If any man's wife goes astray, and is unfaithful to him, and a man lies with her carnally, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and is kept close, and she is defiled, and there is no witness against her, and she isn’t taken in the act…'
In other words, the Sotah is a woman whom the husband suspects may be having an affair with a third party but there is no acceptable testimony to this. We recall that when we studied tractate Sanhedrin we learned a basic premise concerning capital punishment according to Torah law: the criminal act must not only be witnessed, but the witnesses must warn the culprit that he or she is about to commit a capital crime. In the case of the Sotah there is no such testimony available. The only way in which the husband's suspicions may be laid at rest is through his wife successfully navigating the Sotah ceremony. If the wife admits her adultery all the husband can do is divorce her, since, in the absence of witnesses, she cannot be condemned to death. (It is another premise of halakhic jurisprudence that a person cannot be condemned to death on the sole basis of their own admission.)
I hope that I have now understood these questions and answered them appropriately. |
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