{"id":46572,"date":"2018-12-29T12:06:36","date_gmt":"2018-12-29T10:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=46572"},"modified":"2022-07-24T08:17:16","modified_gmt":"2022-07-24T05:17:16","slug":"the-ordeal-of-the-sotah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-ordeal-of-the-sotah\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ordeal Of The Sotah"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":50634,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[565,797,600],"acf":{"old_id":"46572","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"122","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"If you think only the adulterous women is tried, think again","content":"

A reading of verses 11-28 of our chapter yields a most astonishing and perplexing account: A man can accuse his wife of infidelity seemingly without any evidence and a woman so accused can clear her name only by undergoing an ordeal in which she drinks a potion of \u201cliving\u201d water mixed with earth from the floor of the Tabernacle and the ashes of a priestly scroll.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Oral Law, in the form of Tractate Sotah, fills in the gaps in the Torah text. The use of the verb k-n-aleph\u00a0<\/em>(literally, to be jealous or vengeful) implies that the husband has previously cautioned his wife\u2014in the presence of two witnesses\u2014not to seclude herself with a particular man. When this warning was ignored and the two were caught in a compromising situation, the woman was first brought to court where she was offered the option to confess, forfeit her <\/span>ketubah<\/span><\/em> (dowry), and accept a divorce.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, if she persisted in her claim of innocence, the ordeal commenced. While there is much speculation on just how it worked, Nahmanides probably put it best when he observed that Sotah was the only one of the 613 Torah-based mitzvot that required an act of God to operate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two additional comments are particularly worthy of note in this context. First is the observation of the tanna<\/em> Rabbi Yishmael that the overriding value of marital tranquility is highlighted by the fact that God, as it were, allows His divine Name to be desecrated by having it mixed into the potion for the sake of preserving even an obviously troubled marriage (Talmud Shabbat 116a).<\/span><\/p>\n

The second is a wry observation by Maimonides that places the ordeal of the Sotah on a more level gender playing field:<\/span><\/p>\n

When she dies, the adulterer on whose account she was compelled to drink will also die, wherever he may be. The same symptoms: the swelling of the belly and the rupture of the thigh, will also occur to him. All the above will occur provided her husband never engaged in forbidden sexual relations in his life. If, however, her husband ever engaged in forbidden relations, the [bitter] waters do not determine [the fidelity of] his wife. (Laws of Sotah 3:17)<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":106659,"id":106659,"title":"-62dcd5c77e6bf--62dcd5c77e6c0num5-man woman argument.png","filename":"62dcd5c77e6bf-62dcd5c77e6c0num5-man-woman-argument.png.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/12\/62dcd5c77e6bf-62dcd5c77e6c0num5-man-woman-argument.png.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-ordeal-of-the-sotah\/62dcd5c77e6bf-62dcd5c77e6c0num5-man-woman-argument-png\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"62dcd5c77e6bf-62dcd5c77e6c0num5-man-woman-argument-png","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":46572,"date":"2022-07-24 05:16:55","modified":"2022-07-24 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