Weekly Reading Insights: Naso 5779

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This week's portion, Naso, describes the mitzvah of Sotah. A sotah is a woman who is suspected of having intimate relations with someone other than her husband. The Torah portion describes a situation where a husband senses that something is wrong, has a strong feeling of jealousy that could have come from ruach hakodesh (divine inspiration) and warns his wife not to meet privately with a certain individual, as the Talmud (Sotah 5b) says, "Do not conceal yourself with so and so." If she does not listen and is found alone with this person she is called a sotah. She can admit her wrong doing at any time and be divorced. If she does not admit, and the suspicion persists, there are a number of steps that the Torah requires be taken at this point that are described in detail (Bamidbar 5:15-31). In a very short summary, these are the steps. The woman is brought by her husband to the priest. A simple barley offering is brought for her, the priest then brings her closer to G-d (closer to the Holy of Holies). He then puts water in a clay vessel and puts in dust from the floor of the Tabernacle (called the "bitter waters"). He then moves her to a different place, and her hair, that was tied up, is loosened and revealed. The priest holds the bitter waters of the curse and puts the barley offering into her hand. The woman is then told that she is going to drink the bitter waters. If she has not committed adultery, then the bitter waters will not affect her. But if she did commit adultery, the bitter waters will affect her fatally. The priest then describes what will happen if she is affected by the curse from drinking the bitter waters, and the woman answers amen. The priest then writes the curses on a piece of parchment and erases them with the bitter waters. The woman then has to drink the bitter waters. The priest then brings the barley offering on the altar. If she is guilty, the curse will take effect and not only will she suffer and die, her paramour will also suffer and die. If she is innocent, not only will nothing happen when she drinks the water, she and her husband will be blessed in various ways. One blessing will be that they will have children.

The Talmud (Sotah 28a) says that in some cases the husband can forgive his jealousy and stop the process as though nothing had happened. But the Talmud Yerushalmi (Sanhedrin 8:6) teaches that the process can only be stopped until the letters of the curse written on the parchment have been erased. Once they are erased the process must continue.

Today we have no Tabernacle or Temple and cannot fulfill the Torah's requirements concerning a sotah. When the third Temple will be rebuilt, may it be speedily in our days, we will all be on a higher spiritual level and there will no longer be a need for the trial of the bitter waters for the sotah.

What can we learn from this now to help us and understand how to grow closer to G-d?

Husbands and wives here below are compared to G-d and Knesset Yisroel, the collective soul of the Jewish people, and are also called, Man (G-d) and Wife (the Jews). Just as it is a commandment for a man to be jealous of his wife, so also G-d is jealous of His people. "Do not have any other gods before Me" (Shemot 20:3) is a parallel prohibition to what we quoted above - "Do not conceal yourself with so and so." Believing that we can hide ourselves from G-d, who is everywhere, is the human characteristic of arrogance, about which the Talmud (Sotah 5a) teaches, "I (G-d) and he (the arrogant person) cannot dwell together." The trait of arrogance is similar to a wife hiding herself with another man. Arrogance brings a person to a spiritual state of sotah.

Just as the law below in this world is that a husband can "forgive'" his jealousy as long as the words on the parchment were not erased, G-d also, so to speak, has a window of opportunity to forgive an arrogant person before he becomes a spiritual sotah.

Erasing the scroll is a process of removing the letters from the parchment writing surface. This shows that the letters and the parchment were never one unit. If they were one entity, like letters engraved in stone, it would impossible to separate them.

As long as the "scroll was not erased", which on a spiritual level means that the Jew is learning Torah and doing the commandments in a way of "engraved" - in such a powerful way that he and G-d's wisdom are united - then it is inconceivable that the letters can be erased from him because he and the Torah are one. Even if he had a 'fall' - a little bit of arrogance did enter him - it will be ok, because divine forgiveness will come from on high and nullify everything bad, because G-d is, at His core, The Forgiver.

However, if the "scroll was erased" - the Jew and the Torah had become two separate entities because his arrogance and ego had permeated him so deeply - then he cannot escape the judgement of being a sotah. He then has to "follow the process". He brings a tenth portion of a barley offering. Barley is animal fodder and a tenth portion symbolizes a very lowly level. An arrogant person has to become conscious that he is the lowest of the low - poor in perception and understanding. This poverty of consciousness is called ani b'daat - like an animal that lacks consciousness. It is a spiritual death. Only when he has eradicated the arrogance and feels himself as totally naught can he begin his rebirth. How does he become reborn spiritually? By seeing Hashem in everything that happens to him and in the world and by training himself to say baruch Hashem - awareness of Hashem and gratitude to Hashem in everything.
(Adapted from the Lubavitcher Rebbe's talks - vol.14)

A woman once came to the Lubavitcher Rebbe seeking parenting advice. "Rebbe", she said sadly, "I don't know how to handle my children. They don't listen to me and say that they know better. I am so torn about disciplining them. I feel so terrible when I punish them!"

The Rebbe responded kindly. "Think of it this way. As difficult as it is, the act of disciplining your child now prevents them from twice as much pain later on."
(Mendel Kalmenson. Seeds of Wisdom 2)

Shabbat Shalom, Shaul

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Contemporary Kabbalists
The Reward of Innocence

From the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe; adapted by Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky

When we sin against G-d, we should not think that we are lost and cannot return or that G-d has forsaken us. Rather, we must remember that even when we sinned, the Divine soul within us remained faithful to God. Our relationship with God can be reinstated and even improve, with greater depth and permanence.

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