Sotah 2:3-4

Sotah 2:3

When the kohein goes to write the scroll, he should write from “If no man has lain…but if you have strayed” (Numbers 5:19-20), skipping, “the kohein shall direct the woman” (verse 21), continuing with “May God make you a curse…” and “these curse-bearing waters will enter your bowels to make your belly swell and your thigh fall away” (verse 22). He does not write, “the woman answers ‘amen, amen.’” Rabbi Yosi says that the kohein doesn’t skip the “stage directions” (rather, he writes the entire section from start to finish). Rabbi Yehuda says that the kohein only writes “May God make you a curse…” and “these curse-bearing waters will enter your bowels…” but not “the woman answers ‘amen, amen’” (which is the conclusion of the same verse).

Sotah 2:4

The kohein doesn’t write the text on a tablet, or on papyrus, or on unprocessed parchment; he only writes it on processed parchment (which is fit for writing a sefer Torah) as per Numbers 5:23, “in a book.” He doesn’t write using sap or vitriol or any indelible dye; he only uses ink as the verse continues, “he shall dissolve it,” meaning a substance that can be erased.