Parashat Naso: Understanding the Sotah Numbers 5:11-31

Citing Rabbi Rebecca Alpert, Rabbi Lisa Gruschow offers two choices: “We can … try to wrest new meaning from them, or we can simply acknowledge the pain that they have caused—and continue to cause...The sotah ritual is most powerful as a teacher of change…. Just as the Rabbis of the Mishnah and the Talmud used the best conceptual tools of their time to understand change, so must we—with the tools of our own time. Such an approach is not abandoning our tradition; it is being true to it” (The Torah: A Women’s Commentary). The Rabbis devoted an entire tractate of Talmud to the sotah ordeal, much of which serves to limit and dismantle the problematic ritual. By the end of the tractate, we learn that the ritual was completely abolished following the destruction of the Second Temple (Sotah 47b).

1. What is the purpose of this Sotah ritual? Why do you think adultery is the only sin that is dealt with in this way?

2. Why do you think earth and water are the ingredients used for this magical potion?
3. What do you think the Torah means by the "mey hamarim," waters of bitterness?
4. What relevance might the Sotah ritual have for us today?

Alice Bach, "Good to the Last Drop" from Women in the Hebrew Bible:
"The challenge here is to stir up a new brew, where men's attempts to control women's bodies are reread as male vulnerability--the first of woman engorging male power through her enveloping sexuality...the Sotah is a unique vehicle for envisioning what is denied, repressed, and silenced in ancient Israelite culture." (504-505)
"Because the concern with ensuring paternity was so strong in Israel, a ritual was devised to further protect the husband from the possibility of a 'wandering wife,' and its attendant loss of prestige. The Sotah ritual described in Num. 5:11-31 is constructed around suspicion of adultery, rather than proof of the crime in which two witnesses were required in order to pass sentence of death. The horror of trial by ordeal applied to the woman accused indicates the social view of adultery. Further, it reflects the patriarchal attempt to assure a husband that his honor could be restored if he had so much as a suspicion that his wife had been fooling around. Female erotic desire, then, was understood as erratic, a threat to the social order. By drowning such desire, the traditional order was assured of continuing dominance over women's bodies." (506)

Dr. Aviva Zornberg writes that, while the ideal outcome of the sotah ritual is that “all ambiguity will be resolved,” the reality is quite different: “Total certainty can never be achieved in human affairs…. the sotah ordeal may seek to heal the world of its fractures, its lusts and jealousies. But it remains, nevertheless, an imperfect solution to the human need for certainty” (Bewilderments).
In seeking certainty, we might choose the path of least resistance: turning around and heading backwards, rushing recklessly towards the nearest destination, and clinging to false promises and false prophets. We would do anything to not have to try something new, to not have to deal with the discomfort of not knowing where we are going
But sometimes there is no easy answer. Our human relationships and our relationship with God are defined by the trust that we place in each other. And in any relationship—divine or human—there will be moments when that trust is broken. We may wish there were some magical litmus test to tell us whether to stay or go, fight or surrender, believe or question. But often, we are required to sit with the uncertainty for longer than we think we can bear.
We often make the mistake of seeking certainty when the situation calls us to have faith....
“Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns” (Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott).