Sotah - Daf 8
- אין משקין שתי סוטות כאחת
It was taught in a Baraisa: אין משקין שתי סוטות כאחת – We do not give two sotahs to drink at once, כדי שלא יהא לבה גס בחבירתה – so that her heart should not be emboldened by her friend (who stands fast in her denial). Rebbe Yehudah disagrees and says the source is a passuk: "אותה", לבדה – “The Kohen will make her swear,” her alone. Although the Tanna Kamma agrees with this derashah, it is Rebbe Shimon, דדריש טעם דקרא – who expounds the reason of the pasuk and limits the application accordingly. The nafka minah is a woman who is רותתת – trembling from fear of the waters, who could drink alongside her friend according to Rebbe Shimon, since the reason does not apply. The Gemara objects that we still may not give two sotahs to drink at once, because אין עושין מצות חבילות חבילות – we do not perform mitzvos in “bundles,” since it appears we are trying to get them over with. It answers that if two Kohanim are administering the waters simultaneously to two sotahs, there is no impression of bundling the mitzvos.
- Machlokes about concern for immoral thoughts re: sotah and stoning
The Chochomim in the Mishnah taught that the sotah’s heart and hair may be uncovered, but Rebbe Yehudah holds that if she is beautiful, they cannot. The Gemara asks: למימרא דר' יהודה חייש להרהורא ורבנן לא חיישי – Is this to say that Rebbe Yehudah is concerned about causing immoral thoughts to those watching and the Rabbis are not concerned? But the exact opposite can be shown from a Baraisa about one who is being stoned to death, where Rebbe Yehudah said that only the private areas of a man and woman must be covered (after their clothing is removed), while the Chochomim hold that a woman is not stoned unclothed altogether. We see, then, that the Chochomim are concerned for immoral thoughts of the onlookers, and Rebbe Yehudah is not!? Rabbah explains that although Rebbe Yehudah is concerned about someone sinning later with the sotah, who might leave unharmed, there is no concern of sinning with the woman who is being killed by stoning (and we have a tradition דאין יצר הרע שולט אלא במה שעיניו רואות – the Evil Inclination only rules over what one sees with his eyes, and therefore this does not arouse him towards other women). The Chochomim hold that although the sotah must be uncovered to achieve ונוסרו כל הנשים – “And all the women will be chastised,” regarding stoning it is unnecessary, because אין לך ייסור גדול מזה – there is no greater chastisement than this.
- במדה שאדם מודד בה מודדין לו re: sotah and capital punishment
The next Mishnah states: במדה שאדם מודד בה מודדין לו – According to the measure with which a person measures his actions, with it they measure for him in punishment or reward. The laws of sotah illustrate this: היא קשטה את עצמה לעבירה המקום נוולה – She adorned herself for sin; Hashem disgraced her. היא גלתה את עצמה לעבירה המקום גלה עליה – She revealed herself for sin; Hashem revealed her sin publicly. בירך התחילה בעבירה תחילה ואחר כך הבטן – She began her sin with her thigh (where she first derives pleasure from her sin), and then her stomach, לפיכך תלקה הירך תחילה ואחר כך הבטן ושאר כל הגוף לא פלט – therefore the thigh is struck first and then the stomach, and the rest of her body does not escape. In a Baraisa, Rebbe derives this principle from a passuk, and then draws twelve parallels between a sotah’s sin and her punishment. Although executions ceased after the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, דין ארבע מיתות לא בטלו – the punishment of the four types of executions has not ceased. Someone deserving of stoning falls from a roof or is trampled by a wild animal; one deserving of death by burning falls into a fire or is bitten by a poisonous snake; one deserving of beheading is killed by the government or bandits; and one deserving of strangulation either drowns or dies through a condition that causes suffocation.
