Sotah - Daf 2

• What constitutes קינוי and סתירה, and why Masechta Sotah follows Nazir

The opening Mishnah begins by discussing the number of witnesses necessary for קינוי – warning, and סתירה – subsequent seclusion, based on which a wife would have to drink the sotah waters. כיצד מקנא לה – How does he (her husband) warn her? אומר לה בפני שנים אל תדברי עם איש פלוני – If he says to her, “Do not speak with Ploni,” ודברה עמו – and she spoke with him anyway, she does not become a sotah. נכנסה עמו לבית הסתר ושהתה עמו כדי טומאה – But if she entered a secluded house with him after being warned not to do so, and remained for enough time for potential defilement, she is rendered a sotah, becoming forbidden to her husband and in eating terumah. The Gemara opens explaining the placement of Masechta Sotah: למה נסמכה פרשת נזיר לפרשת סוטה – Why was the passage of Nazir placed near the passage of Sotah in the Torah? לומר לך שכל הרואה סוטה בקלקולה  – To tell you that anyone who sees a sotah in her disgrace, יזיר עצמו מן היין – should restrain himself through nezirus from wine.

• The basis and difficulty of matching men and women for marriage

When Reish Lakish would begin to teach Sotah, he would say: אין מזווגין לו לאדם אשה אלא לפי מעשיו – They only pair a woman to a man according to his deeds, as it says:  כי לא ינוח שבט הרשע על גורל הצדיקים – “for the rod of the wicked will not rest on the lot of the righteous.” Rebbe Yochanan said: וקשין לזווגן כקריעת ים סוף – And they are as difficult to pair as splitting the Reed Sea, which he sources. The Gemara asks that this contradicts a statement of Rav:בת קול יוצאת ואומרת ארבעים יום קודם יצירת הולד, – Forty days before the forming of an embryo, a Heavenly voice goes forth and says:בת פלוני לפלוני בית פלוני לפלוני שדה פלוני לפלוני – “The daughter of Ploni is destined for Ploni, this particular house is destined for Ploni, and this particular field is destined for Ploni.” We see that one’s wife is predetermined at conception before he becomes wicked or righteous!? The Gemara answers: לא קשיא הא בזוג ראשון הא בזוג שני – This is not difficult. This statement that their match is predetermined at conception is regarding the first marriage, whereas this statement that they are paired based on their deeds is regarding the second marriage.

• The basis for the machlokes for how many witnesses to make her drink, and a third opinion

In the Mishnah, Rebbe Eliezer said: מקנא לה על פי שנים – he warns her based on two witnesses present, ומשקה על פי עד אחד או על פי עצמו – and makes her drink the sotah waters based on even one witness, or even his own testimony of her seclusion. Rebbe Yehoshua said that both the קינוי and the סתירה require two witnesses. The Gemara explains the basis of the machlokes: A Baraisa teaches that even a single witness to actual adultery during seclusion is believed. About this law the Torah says "בה" – about her, which, according to Rebbe Yehoshua, teaches: בה ולא בקינוי, בה ולא בסתירה – about her defilement a single witness is believed, but not about the warning; about her defilement, but not about the seclusion. Rebbe Eliezer agrees that בה excludes קינוי to require two witnesses but says that a hekesh between סתירה and טומאה (defilement) teaches that one witness suffices for סתירה. Rebbe Yose bar Rebbe Yehudah quotes a reverse version of Rebbe Eliezer, that one witness (or himself) suffices for קינוי, and two witnesses are required for סתירה.