Sotah 2:1-2

Sotah 2:1

The woman’s husband would bring her flour offering in an Egyptian basket. He would place it in her hands in order to make her tired. (The hope was that, if guilty, wearing her out would motivate her to confess rather than undergo the sotah process.) All other flour offerings start and end in Temple vessels; this flour offering starts in an Egyptian basket and ends in a Temple vessel. All other flour offerings needed oil and frankincense but this flour offering used neither of these. All other flour offerings were of wheat but this one was of barley. The flour offering of the omer was also of barley but that one was sifted flour and this one was of coarse barley meal. Rabban Gamliel said that the woman’s actions were animalistic so her offering is animal feed.

Sotah 2:2

The kohein would bring a new clay bowl and pour half a log (about 7 oz.) of water from the laver into that bowl. Rabbi Yehuda says a reviis (about 3.3 oz.). Just as Rabbi Yehuda minimizes the writing (as we will see in 2:3), he minimizes the water. The kohein would enter the Heichal (Sanctuary) and turn right until he reached the one-cubit by one-cubit spot of marble stone that had a ring attached. He lifted the stone by the ring and took from beneath it enough dust to be visible on the surface of the water as per Numbers 5:17, “the kohein will take from the dust of the tabernacle’s floor and put it on the water.”