Soncino Babylonian Talmud Sotah

The name of the Tractate, Sotah, is derived from the verb Satah in Numbers V, 12, If any man's wife go aside (Sisteh). The Sotah is a woman who, suspected by her husband of infidelity, has to submit to the ordeal of drinking the bitter water to establish her innocence. The main subject treated in the Tractate is accordingly the Scriptural section Numbers V, 12-31, which is examined in the closest detail.

The principal points of law in connection with a Sotah which are treated in the Tractate are as follows: The husband is obliged to give his wife due warning that she must not associate with the man who has aroused his jealousy (2a). One witness is accepted that she had disregarded the warning, provided he does not testify that she committed adultery in which case the ordeal would not be applied (3b). There is a difference of opinion whether it is obligatory on the husband to make his wife undergo the test if she has excited his jealousy (3a).

The next questions considered are the minimum length of time in which she secludes herself with the man to justify the suspicion that intimacy may have occurred (4a); what form the husband's warning must take (5b); and her position with regard to Halizah and the levirate-marriage if the husband died before the ordeal took place (5b-6a).

There follows a detailed account of the procedure adopted for the carrying out of the text.

Circumstances are enumerated in which the ordeal is not administered but the woman is to be divorced forthwith (23b, 24a, 25a), and also circumstances in which a Court of Law can give her the necessary warning in place of the husband (24a, b, 27a).

The question is raised whether a husband can retract his warning (25a), and it is maintained that the warning against seclusion holds good even when the man is organically defective or a gentile (26b). The ordeal is not applied if the husband or wife is blind, lame, armless or dumb (27a, b). The paramour is affected by the water as well as the woman (28a). Finally there is a section dealing with the evidence of misconduct which bars the application of the ordeal (31a-32a).

The foregoing is a summary of the points of law on the Sotah as they are treated in the first six chapters of the Tractate. In this portion other Halachic matters of an extraneous character are dealt with, chief among them being some legal differences between a man and woman (23a, b) and the various degrees of defilement with holy and non-holy foods (29a-30b).

With Chapter VII the Tractate enters upon a fresh field of discussion. Beginning with the statement that the Scriptural passages which form part of the ceremony of the ordeal may be recited in any language (32b), the Mishnah enumerates other rites and prayers which may be similarly rendered in any language as well as those which can only be spoken in Hebrew. The Gemara thereupon deals at length with the manner in which the priestly benediction was to be pronounced in the Temple and the Synagogue (38a-40b), how the High Priest rendered his Scriptural recital and benediction on the Day of Atonement (40b-41a), how the king read his portion on the Feast of Tabernacles (41a, b), and how the priest designated to accompany the army made his declaration on the field of battle (42a). The last mentioned point inaugurates a discussion on the right of exemption from military service (43a-44b). Lastly there is a full treatment of the law of the heifer whose neck was to be broken when a dead body was found (44b-47b).

It will thus be seen that the Tractate is rich in Halachic material; but it also abounds in valuable Aggadic references. (Adapted from the Introduction.)