Torah Community Connections

Week 80 - Tuesday - 5 June 2001

SOTAH: CHAPTER 4: MISHNAH 5

And these are the ones warned by the court: one whose husband has become deaf or an imbecile or is imprisoned. They did not state this to make her drink, but to disqualify her from her ketubah. R. Yose says, Also to make her drink: when her husband leaves the prison, he makes her drink.

Kehati

This mishnah teaches us that if there are unfavorable reports concerning a woman's behavior, but her husband cannot warn her, e.g., when he is deaf or held in prison, then the court summons her and orders her not to seclude herself with the person in question. If she ignored the warning and remained with him long enough to commit adultery, the court renders her forbidden to her husband, and she forfeits her ketubah. The Tannaim in this mishnah disagree as to whether the husband can make her drink by virtue of the court's warning, e.g., where they warned her when he was in prison, and he eventually emerged.

And these - women - are the ones - the women - warned by the court - if they give rise to unfavorable reports as explained above. One whose husband has become deaf or an imbecile or is imprisoned - since in such cases the husband cannot warn her, the Sages obligated the court to do so in his stead; but they did not state this to make her drink - i.e., the court's warning does not carry the authority to make her drink in accordance with the sotah law, since it is stated (Num. 5:15): "then shall the man bring his wife," and in this case the man is absent.

Moreover, her husband, if he recovered or was released from prison, cannot make her drink on the basis of the court's warning, as it is stated (ibid. 5:14-15): "and he warned his wife...then shall the man bring his wife" - he who warns is the one who must bring her (Sot. 17a), i.e., the husband who cautioned her must accompany her to the priest who makes her drink; but if the court had warned her in his stead, the husband cannot bring her to the priest for the drink; but the court's warning only suffices to disqualify her from her ketubah - i.e., to forbid her to her husband and cancel her ketubah.

R. Yose says, Also to make her drink - the Sages invested the warning of the court with sufficient power so that when her husband leaves the prison, he makes her drink - on the basis of the court's warning; R. Yose does not interpret the statement concerning the sotah "and he warn…and he shall bring," as necessarily interdependent. Others refer R. Yose's ruling: "even to make her drink" to the court which is authorized to do so, as well as "when her husband leaves the prison, he may make her drink" on the basis of the court's warning. Thus, according to R. Yose, either the court or her husband may make her drink (Hameiri). The halakhah does not follow R. Yose.

SOTAH: CHAPTER 5: MISHNAH 1

Just as the water tests her, so does the water test him, as it is said (Num. 5:22, 27): "And they shall enter," "And they shall enter." Just as she is forbidden to the husband, so is she forbidden to the adulterer, as it is said (ibid., 5:27, 29): "defiled," "And be defiled," so R. Akiva. R. Yehoshua said, Thus did Zekhariah ben haKatzav expound. Rabbi says, of the two statements in the passage: "If she had become defiled," "be defiled" - one refers to the husband and one to the adulterer.

Kehati

This mishnah teaches that the sinner with whom the sotah committed adultery is likewise punished by the water, i.e., he, too, dies with his belly swelling and his thigh falling away. We further learn that if she does not drink the water, she is forbidden to the adulterer as well as to her husband.

Just as the water tests her - the sotah, whose belly swells if guilty, her thigh falls away and she dies, so does the water test him - the adulterer, wherever he may be, shares the punishment of the swelling belly and falling thigh, as it is said: "And they shall enter," "And they shall enter." - the Gemara explains: "And the water shall enter" appears three times in the sotah passage: 1. "And the curse-causing waters shall enter your innards" (Num. 5:22); 2. "The curse-causing waters shall enter her to cause bitterness (ibid. 5:24); 3. "The curse-causing water shall enter her to cause bitterness, and her belly will bloat, and her thigh will fall away" (ibid, 5:27) - one verse (v.24) denotes a command whereby the Almighty orders the curse-causing waters that enters her to turn bitter; one verse (27) refers to action, whereby the Almighty assures Israel that the water will test her; and the third verse (v.22) conveys the message that the water will enter her "to make the belly swell and the thigh fall away." Since in the curse, the priest mentions the thigh before the belly, thus (ibid. 5:21): "when the Lord does make your thigh to fall away, and your belly to swell," he now declares that her punishment follows the sequence of the water's entry into the body, first "to make the belly swell" and then "to make the thigh fall away" (see above, Mishnah 1:7), in order not to discredit the water (people might say: since the water failed to act according to the sequence of the curse, it is not the cause of this punishment - Rashi).

R. Akiva interprets the repeated additional vav (and) in uva'u (and they shall enter) as implying that the account of the water's effect upon the sotah applies equally to the adulterer, who is punished like her. Just as she is forbidden to the husband - if she did not drink the water, e.g., if she confessed her guilt, or if she declined to drink, or if her husband refused to make her drink, etc., so is she forbidden to the adulterer - if her husband died, or after divorce, she may not marry the adulterer, as it is said "defiled," "And be defiled" - one verse states: "then it shall come to pass, if she had become defiled, and committed a betrayal against her husband," and the other verse states: "This is the law of jealousy, when a wife go astray under her husband, and be defiled" ; the added vav in venit'meah (and she be defiled) implies that just as she is forbidden to her husband, so, too, is she forbidden to the adulterer; so R. Akiva - whose interpretation rests on the added vav.

R. Yehoshua said, Thus did Zekhariah ben haKatzav expound - the added vav, even as R. Akiva. Rabbi says, of the two statements in the passage: If she had become defiled," "be defiled" - one refers to the husband and one to the adulterer - Rabbi, who does not interpret the added vav, derives from the repetition of nit'meah (she is defiled) in the sotah chapter, that this defilement renders her forbidden to both her husband and the adulterer.

Return to Mishna Yomit Index

Visit the Mishna Yomit Archives