The sotah

I was told to give a short dvar torah last shabbos... and since I noticed other people put up things they thought or wrote I decided to join them. I know it's simple, but they said it had to be fast...

In our parsha, we learn about the Sotah, or a wife suspected of adultery. The torah says,” Any man, if his wife shall go astray and commit a treachery against him etc., The man shall bring his wife to the kohein, etc.”. The Torah is not referring to a case of proven adultery, rather this is a case where a woman has been discovered alone with a man who her husband has previously told her not to be. To quell or confirm the suspicion of adultery they go to the Beis HaMikdash enter a process of investigation. There are many interesting aspects of the sotah process but I’d like to talk about a specific step in the process. The torah commands us:
That man shall bring his wife to the kohen and he shall bring her
offering for her, a tenth of unsifted barley flour; he shall not pour
oil over it and shall not put frankincense upon it, for it is a
meal-offering of “jealousies”, a meal offering of remembrance,
a reminder of iniquity.
I had two questions about the parsha, why is a barley offering brought, all other meal offerings are brought with wheat; and why does the Torah describe the offering as an “offering of jealousies”. The last two of the three descriptions of the meal offering are more easily understood; the meal offering is being made only because of the suspected iniquity… But the first description is more difficult, what jealousy is being described, why is it plural? Is it the husband, the wife, the kohein? So I looked in the commentaries of Rashi, Ramban and I found a lot, but as our Rav. Lerner often says, “I don’t want to upset you guys, but on this subject there’s a Machloches!”
Rashi sees the jealousy as that of the husband because he suspects his wife has committed adultery; and that of Hashem in response to the aveira. He comments, “It arouses against her two jealousies: The jealousy of the omnipresent, and the jealousies of the husband.” This is in much the same vein as the second of the Ten Commandments, “You shall not prostrate yourself to them (other Gds or idols) not worship them, for I am Hashem, your G-d, a jealous G-d.” The Chofetz Chiam also comments that:
“Whoever is driven to forbidden sexual relationships will ultimately destroy his soul and forfeit his Heavenly portion as it says, “He who commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding; he who does that destroys the soul.” (Nidchei Yisrael, ch 20)
In Chassidus we learn that the essence of the “Jewish soul is a portion of Hashem mamish”. By violating her relationship she not only severs the connection of souls that is affected by marriage but also her connection to Hashem. By committing adultery she places personal lust over the commands of the torah and transgresses against Hashem in much the same way as she transgressed against her husband.
Ramban’s take on the pasuk is that it is speaking of the jealousy of the wife. He says, “… in my opinion the expression… refers to the beginning of the verse, stating that the husband shall bring the offering for his wife”; Ramban understands that the Torah is excluding her from the ability to bring the offering. He connects this concept with the last two descriptions of the offering, “(the offering) brings her iniquity to remembrance. Thus it is not fitting that she should bring it of her own property, but it is he who is to bring the meal offering to G-d so that he should take note of his suspicions.”
I think Ramban sees a different purpose in the sotah procedure than Rashi; for Ramban this portion of the sotah procedure is done in order to shame the potential adulterer; whereas Rashi seems to see the bringing of the offering as an expression of anger on the part of the husband. But final result of the offering is essentially the same. Ramban continues saying, “the reason (that the meal offering comes from) barley or se’orim is that, “sa’arath (a storm of) the Eternal is gone forth in fury, a whirling storm that shall whirl upon the head of wickedness.” By bringing barley specifically, the husband arouses Hashem’s anger at injustice, just as the prophet warned it would be aroused in Yermiyahu (23:19) at false prophets. By bringing the connection of similar spellings Ramban is not only answering why barley is brought as an offering, but also describing the depth of the issur of adultery. Blaspheming against Hashem is one of the seven Noachide commandments; it precedes the Torah! That’s the depth of the transgression that one makes when committing adultery.
We have a custom here of offering a blessing at the end of a dvar Torah; the easiest one for me now is to say, “I hope you all never have a significant other that does something so horrible.” But that’s not the best bracha. Rather, in this time after we have stood under a “chuppah” with Hashem and become married to him through our acceptance of the Torah and its mitzvos the story of the sotah helps us to better understand the our obligations to hashem. Our marriage to Hashem with the ketubah of Torah and mitzvos is a conceptual thing that can be hard for us to completely understand but we can more easily conceptualize blemishes on a relationship. So my bracha is that we all can actualize a pure connection with Hashem, free of suspicion supported by righteousness.

while I'm usually a bit of a comment whore, this time... be nice *don't hurt me*

Labels: dvar torah