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Week 81 - Monday - 11 June 2001

SOTAH: CHAPTER 7: MISHNAH 3

Why so with the recitation concerning the First Fruits? "And you shall speak up and say before the Lord your God" (Deut. 26:5), and later it says (ibid. 27:14): "And the Levites shall speak up and say" - just as speaking up there must be in the Holy Tongue, so here, too, it must be in the Holy Tongue.

Kehati

As from this mishnah to the end of this Tractate, the mishnayot elaborate the cases enumerated in the previous mishnah, which must be recited in Hebrew. Beginning with mishnah 5, we are presented with the specific aspects of these cases.

The mishnah discusses the passage of the First Fruits as written in the Torah (Deut. 26:1-10): "when you come to the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, and occupy it, and settle it; you shall take the first of every fruit of the ground...and you shall come to the priest that shall be in those days, and say to him: 'Today I affirm to the Lord your God, that I have come to the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.' And the priest shall then take the basket from your hand, and place it before the altar of the Lord your God. And you shall speak up and say before the Lord your God: 'My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt, and lived there, few in number; and he became there a great, powerful and populous nation. And the Egyptians dealt cruelly with us, and afflicted us, and imposed upon us hard bondage. And we cried unto the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice, and saw our affliction, and our toil, and our distress. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with awesome power, and with signs and miracles. And he has brought us to this place, and given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And now, behold, I have brought the first fruits of the land, which You, O Lord, have given me."'

Why so with the recitation concerning the First Fruits? - How do we know that this must be recited in Hebrew? Regarding the First Fruits, Scripture states: "And you shall speak up and say before the Lord your God," and later - in the Blessings and Curses which the Levites recited on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, it says - Scripture states: "And the Levites shall speak up and say" - we infer from the identical terminology "You shall speak up" and "(they) shall speak up" that just as speaking up there - "and the Levites shall speak up," must be in the Holy Tongue - the Gemara derives this from the parallel use of "voice" typified in the case of Moses. Thus it states regarding the Blessings and the Curses, "and say unto all the men of Israel with a loud voice," and at the giving of the Torah it is written (Ex. 19:19): "Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice, just as there it implied Hebrew, since the Torah was given in Hebrew (Rashi), so here, the Levites recited the Blessings and the Curses in Hebrew. Hence, just as the speaking up of the Levites was Hebrew, so here, too, it must be in the Holy Tongue - the speaking up referred to in the passage of the First Fruits ("and you shall speak up and say") must be in Hebrew.

SOTAH: CHAPTER 7: MISHNAH 4

Why is that so for halitzah? "And she shall speak up and say" (Deut. 25:9), and later it says (ibid., 27:14): "And the Levites shall speak up and say" - just as there the speaking up must in the Holy Tongue, so here, too, it must be in the Holy Tongue. R. Yehudah says, "and she shall speak up and say thus" - she must utter it in this language.

Kehati

Why is that so for halitzah? - i.e., how do we know that the declaration accompanying the halitzah must be in Hebrew? Scripture states regarding halitzah "and she shall speak up and say," and later - in the Blessings and Curses pronounced by the Levites, it says - Scripture states: "And the Levites shall speak up and say" - we learn from the identical terminology "speaking up," in both verses that just as there the speaking up "and the Levites shall speak up," must be in the Holy Tongue - as explained in the previous mishnah, this is derived from the identical terminology of voice as implied in the case of Moses, so here, too, it must be in the Holy Tongue - the speaking up referred to in the case of halitzah ("and she shall speak up and say") must be in Hebrew.

R. Yehudah says - there is no need to learn regarding halitzah from the identical terminology of speaking up in the Levitical Blessings and Curses, since in the halitzah passage itself it states: "and she shall speak up and say thus" - the word "thus" implies that she must utter it in this language i.e., Hebrew, as written in the Torah. However, the Sages associate the word thus with shall it be done; accordingly, thus does not refer to the recital of the passage but to the performance of the ritual whose observance is imperative (Gemara). Hence, the Sages derive the requirement of reciting this text in Hebrew from the repetition of "speak up."

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