Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Naso נשא– The Force of Retribution

In parshas Naso Moshe Rabenu gives the Law on how to deal with a woman who has committed adultery but was not caught. The Chumash has a hedge that perhaps she absolutely did nothing wrong or maybe her behavior was very suspicious and improper but never the less she did not go so far as to have relations. The essence of the text, though, is about a woman who has committed adultery in secret, hid it from her husband, and was not actually caught. Her husband, however, picks up on something and becomes very jealous. When she denies any impropriety, her husband compels her to go to the Temple and undergo a trial by ordeal.

A distasteful ceremony ensues which opens with a sacrifice of barley specifically without oil or incense (לבונה). Water is placed in a crude clay cup with dirt in it. The priest then removes her kerchief, the garb of modesty, from her head, then declares that if she is in fact impure her thighs should fall, her stomach swell, and she should generally be cursed among her people. The woman than must say “amen, amen”. The words of the curse are than dissolved in the water and the woman is forced to drink it. The Mishnah records the annulment of this practice among other ones like it, explaining that when adultery is common that the technique does not work (Sotah 9:9).

Rashi comment that the barley is offered because it is animal food and she behaved like an animal. The sota is forced to drink from a clay vessel because it it’s the way of adultery to drink from ornate vessels. The idea is that the ritual is meant to mock her.

This mitzvah comes to teach us that there is an inherent force of retribution in the world. The first Rashi on this topic points out that the topic immediately preceding the suspicious woman (סותה) deals with gifts the Israelites must give the cohanim. He explains that if a man fails to go to the priest to give him his gifts than he will be compelled to go to him because his wife has been disloyal. He continues that the adulteress has betrayed two, the Man of War above and her husband below. She is called a sota because she has wandered away (תשטה) from the ways of modesty. The word sota is similar to the word folly שטות meaning that a spirit of folly has entered into her.

The Sforno is more direct. He explains that the reason the man is jealous is because the spirit of purity warns him about her because it knows what happened even though the matter was entirely hidden. He observes that woman first behaves immodestly then lies with another man, and comments that it is the way of the evil inclination to go from bad to worse. The idea is that the immodesty and frivolity reveal the adultery.

The Gemara (Brachos 28b) brings a story the last blessing that Rabbi Yochanan gave to his students was that the fear of heaven should be on them like the fear of flesh and blood. When the students expressed surprise he replied that when a man commits a sin that he says I hope no man will see me. The error is that a sin often changes a person and others will pick up on it. It can be their choice of words, their choice of clothes, a change in attitude, the way they laugh. In addition the force of retribution that is in the world will act to humiliate a transgressor.


The proper response to the evil inclination is to fight it. That is the story of the nazir. His response to the desire for adultery is to let his hair become unruly and unattractive and to swear off wine so he will not become intoxicated and loose. In a hint at his imperfections and impure thoughts he brings a sin offering. For this course of action he is rewarded by being reckoned as a righteous individual and sacred to Hashem.




לע"נ, הדוד ,לייב הערש בן אהרון ז"ל נלב"ע י"ז תמוז תשל"ב

Acknowledgements to websites: תורת אמת, וויקיטקסט, http://dictionary.reference.com/, http://hebrewbooks.org/,

וגם בדואר אלקטרוני  ניתן באתר http://dyschreiber.blogspot.co.il





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