Sotah 024
|
BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI
of the Rabbinical Assembly in Israel
RABIN MISHNAH STUDY GROUP
|
|
|
To what is she responding 'Amen, Amen'? – Amen to the adjuration, Amen to the oath. Amen for this man, Amen for any other. Amen that I was not unfaithful when I was betrothed, married, waiting or affianced. Amen that I have not been defiled, and if I have been defiled may it enter me. Rabbi Me'ir says, Amen that I have not been defiled, Amen that I shall not be defiled.
EXPLANATIONS (continued):
4:
The woman is also understood as responding Amen to an implied assertion that she has not been unfaithful to her present husband nor to any previous husband she may have had. 5:
In times gone by the marriage process among Jews was not quite the same as it is today. The main difference was that the process took much longer! There were, in fact, two discrete stages in the marriage process. The first stage was when a couple decided that they would marry. This stage was called kiddushin… After 'kiddushin' the couple were considered affianced, with all the legal, moral and social implications: they were to all intents and purposes man and wife. However, they did not live together: the woman continued to reside with her father (assuming that this was her first marriage). Only one whole year after the 'kiddushin' came the second stage, nissu'in, in which the affianced wife moved in to live with her new husband, in their joint home [kinnus].
Thus the woman is deemed to affirm that she was unfaithful to her husband neither during the year when they were not yet living together nor after their 'nissu'in': 'Amen that I was not unfaithful when I was betrothed nor when I was married.'
6:
The Torah [Deuteronomy 25:5-10] places a duty on a surviving brother to marry his deceased brother's childless widow. Such a union is termed levirate marriage [Yibbum]. (Levir is the Latin word for a brother-in-law.) Just as the ceremony of divorce terminates an ordinary marriage, so the ceremony of Ĥalitzah terminates a levirate marriage. An ordinary marriage is created by the mutual consent of the two contracting parties; a levirate union automatically exists between the childless widow and her brother-in-law from the moment her husband dies [omedet uzekukah lo], and this automatic connection can only be terminated by ĥalitzah. Thus we have an anomalous situation: the union of this woman and this man was absolutely forbidden during the lifetime of the woman's husband; it would still be forbidden if she had a child by her late husband; and unlike any other marital connection, this one is not created by mutual consent.
From the moment of her husband's death the childless widow is considered to be automatically 'linked' to her brother-in-law. Until he formalizes their required union by Yibbum (or until the link is formally terminated by ĥalitzah) the childless widow is considered to be in a situation parallel to that of the ordinary woman who has accepted Kiddushin but has not yet reached the stage of Nissu'in. Thus the accused Sotah is deemed to be responding Amen, Amen to both situations: 'Amen when I was waiting for Yibbum after my husband's death, and Amen when I was already affianced by Yibbum to this man, my late husband's brother.'
DISCUSSION:
Juan-Carlos Kiel has sent me the following message:
You suggested many times that the whole ordeal the woman must pass is in order to convince the husband and bring her back to him. I think that this is not the reason. If he would trust her and/or love her, he would not put her to this ordeal. You said he might not have any other way out, as 'good intentioned' neighbors might care to let him know what the neighborhood was thinking and suspecting, so the ordeal was the way to clean his wife name. [It was not I who suggested this but another participant – SR] I think the opposite is the case. The husband could always divorce his wife, with not too many explanations, and be free from 'the adulteress'. If he brought her to this ordeal, and she decided not to submit to it – he could divorce her with no pecuniary obligations. A clear advantage for him. If she would accept the 'bitter waters', then he would have humiliated her publicly, had her disrobed in front of God and men, and, even if she passed the test, he could still repudiate her, making his vengeance public. [This is not the case, as we shall see – SR] This would be the same economically as the silent divorce, but with the aggravation of the public humiliation. The ultimate show of male power over women. |
Click here to access the BMV Home Page, which includes the RMSG archive.
To subscribe to the Rabin Mishnah Study Group email service
click here.
To unsubscribe send an email to nhis address
To dedicate a shiur (lesson) send an amount of your choice, clearly marked
'For BMV', to:
The Masorti Foundation for Conservative Judaism in Israel,
475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10115-0122
Contributions are tax-deductible in the US.
You must also send a private e-mail, stating the requested date and the occasion for the
dedication, to Rabbi Simchah Roth nhis address
Please use nhis address for discussion, queries, comments and requests.