Talmud Commentary: Bavli 5/4. bSukkah 53a-b (mSukkah 5:4)

@General observations

Through an aggadah, the gemara attempts to explain why there were fifteen steps between the Court of the Israelites and the Court of the Women in the Temple. According to the legend, when King David dug the pits (shitin) under the altar (see above Bavli 4/1. bSuk 49a), the subterranean waters threatened to flood the world. Eventually Ahitophel provided a solution to the dilemma: One should write God’s name on a pottery shared and cast it in the water. When David threw the shard into the water, the water line subsided 16,000 cubits (one cubit=56 cm). Realizing that a high water level is more beneficial for agriculture, David decided that instead of making the water recede it is preferable to build the altar higher above the ground. Therefore, he constructs fifteen steps leading up to the altar, each one a thousand cubits, and the altar itself a thousand cubits above the last step, thus the altar was raised to a level of 16,000 cubits above the ground.

@Feminist observations

Ahitophel’s a fortiori argument, which allowed David to use this method, runs as follows: If in order to reconcile a husband and wife the Torah permits writing the ineffable name on a piece of parchment, which will be erased by water during a sotah’s trial, then it is also permitted to write it on a pottery shard in order to avert a deluge. This argument refers to the sotah ritual described in Num 5:11- 31, wherein a wife whose husband suspects her of infidelity must drink “bitter water” in order to prove her innocence. This issue will be fully treated in FCBT to Massekhet Sotah. Here we will only address one particular aspect of the ritual. Acting as the messenger of God, a priest must determine the woman’s innocence through two processes: 1. Holy water is mixed with earth from the floor of the Tabernacle and 2. Curses (including God’s name) are written down and subsequently rubbed off in the water.

Rabbinic literature frequently mentions the idea that God allows His holy name to be erased in order to reconcile a husband and wife. This opinion originated in tannaitic literature and recurs in amoraic sources, both Palestinian and Babylonian. Massekhet Sotah contains an in-depth discussion of the matter.[1] According to the Bible, the only objective in drinking the bitter water was for God to test the woman and thereby demonstrate her innocence or guilt. Still, tannaim added other reasons for this ritual – frightening the wife into confessing if she was adulteress or calming the jealous husband so that he would continue to live with her if she was innocent.[2] Part of this general transformation of the ritual included changing the role of the divine symbols connected to the water. According to the Torah, these symbols show that God Himself examines the woman. Yet the sages postulated that the obliteration of the divine symbols by the water demonstrates God’s willingness to relinquish His honor and sets an example for the jealous husband.[3] Thus, in addition to examining the woman, this ritual also has two other roles: 1) to reconcile the husband with his wife by proving her innocence; 2) to encourage the husband to learn from God’s act of relinquishing His honor with the purpose of reconciling a husband and wife. According to M. D. Herr, the sages transformed the drinking of the bitter water into a psychological act. Thus, the husband is not viewed as one who is jealous of his wife but rather as one whose suspicions drive him mad, for doubt is more difficult to bear than certain knowledge.[4] Healing a jealous husband by injuring his wife’s honor may be viewed as either originating in a patriarchal mindset or in a realistic acknowledgement of the inequality in which women lived. The latter point of view recognizes that the sotah ritual afforded a woman with a jealous husband the possibility to live in reasonable conditions and with economic security.[5]