Emes LYakov (Bamidbar 5:15):The reason for this whole procedure is that when a man suspects his wife of adultery only G- directly assures him that she is innocent, even though this isn't so for any other sin but rather 2 witnesses alone establish the facts, because the husband will not believe them. Because the husband would not believe even a prophet
therefore for the sake of shalom bayis G-d allows His name to be erased and it is as if G-d is directly stating she is innocent
therefore the foundation of the law of sotah is not to punish the wife but to ensure the husband believes she is innocent which is the basis of Chullin141a
Great is the peace between man and wife, for the Torah has permitted the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, which is to be written in all sanctity, to be washed away in the waters of bitterness,
Do we have cases cited by Chazal where the sotah died from drinking the waters?
ReplyDeleteYes. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a92432fa7029e0816c8be53902a674650efcc22194d69dd820f54b6c92beb179.png
ReplyDeleteI've always found this mitzvah so difficult.
ReplyDelete1) The sotah waters didn't take effect immediately. Depending on the women's merits, it could be that she'd walk out the gate of the Temple just fine and three years later, bang! She explodes. But how is this possible? If she really did sin and is guilty, then for three years her husband is illegally living with her
2) The Torah promises fertility and easy childbirth if she's innocent but did no one think that she'd want a divorce, given the humiliation she'd just been put through for nothing?
“humiliation she'd just been put through for nothing”
ReplyDeleteNO. This wasn’t “for nothing”.
The Sotah crossed a very big red line, when she, a married woman, went into seclusion with a male who was not her husband, especially after having been duly warned by her husband, not to seclude with this particular guy. The optics here is horrible, and leaves the man with no Halachic choice, other than following through with the Sotah procedure.
Even if nothing sexual happened between the woman and the other man, even if they were merely studying Mesilas Yesharim together; she is still deserving of the humiliation that she is put through. She has only herself to blame for her indiscretion, and subsequent humiliation.
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