Ramban (Bamidbar 5:20) Now there is nothing amongst all the ordinances of the Torah which depends upon a miracle, except for this matter, which is a permanent wonder and miracle that will happen in Israel, when the majority of the people live in accordance with the Will of G-d;
Rambam(Moreh Nevuchim (3:49) Since accusations of adultery and suspicions of it are very numerous concerning a woman, we have been commanded in the laws of Sotah. For this matter causes every married woman to guard herself very carefully and to make as many precautions as possible for herself, lest her husband's heart be offended by her, for fear of the ceremony of Sotah. For even if she were pure and confident in herself, most people would redeem themselves with all their wealth to avoid the ceremony of Sotah, and would even prefer death to that great disgrace, which involves the uncovering of her head and the loosening of her hair as well as the ripping of her clothes and walking around the Temple while being watched by the public audience of men and women as well as the judges of the Sanhedrin. This concern prevents serious problems that upset the order of many homes
There was a Jewish Observer piece attacking Modern O, and R' Rackman in particular, for espousing the "heretical" view of the Rambam
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Deletehttps://agudah.org/the-jewish-observer-vol-21-no-5-summer-1988tammuz-av-5748
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There's some merit to the argument but I consider the sotah ceremony was real if carried out in a beit hamikdash with fully pure kohanim
Here's my question: the gemara says that if the woman has some zchus, the water doesn't work on her right away. She goes home and then a couple of yeaers later, boom! She suddenly blows up.
ReplyDeleteBut there's a problem with that - if she's actually guilty, she can no longer be with her husband. The waters should work right away so he doesn't go home with a woman forbidden to him. Now it's two years later, she blows up and it turns out he was living with a woman forbidden to him all that time. What's the explanation?
Mishnah Eduyot 5, 6
Delete"Akavia ben Mahalalel testified concerning four things. They said to him: Akavia, retract these four things which you say, and we will make you the head of the court in Israel. He said to them: it is better for me to be called a fool all my days than that I should become [even] for one hour a wicked man before God; So they shouldn’t say: “he withdrew his opinions for the sake of power.” He used to pronounce impure the hair which has been left over [in leprosy], And green (yellow) blood (of vaginal discharge); But the Sages declared them clean. He used to permit the wool of a first-born animal which was blemished and which had fallen out and had been put in a niche, the first-born being slaughtered afterwards; But the sages forbid it. He used to say: a woman proselyte and a freed slave-woman are not made to drink of the bitter waters. But the Sages say: they are made to drink. They said to him: it happened in the case of Karkemith, a freed slave-woman who was in Jerusalem, that Shemaiah and Avtalion made her drink. He said to them: they made her drink an example (and not the real water). Whereupon they excommunicated him; and he died while he was under excommunication, and the court stoned his coffin. Rabbi Judah said: God forbid [that one should say] that Akavia was excommunicated; for the courtyard is never locked for any man in Israel who was equal to Akavia ben Mahalalel in wisdom and the fear of sin."
He said they used placebo instead of the real bitter waters...