Sotah - Daf 20
- The guilty sotah’s death, merits delaying punishment
The next Mishnah describes the death of the guilty sotah: אינה מספקת לשתות עד שפניה מוריקות ועיניה בולטות והיא מתמלאת גידין – She does not finish drinking before her face turns pale, her eyes bulge, and she appears filled with veins (from swelling), והם אומרים הוציאוה, שלא תטמא העזרה – and they say, “Take her out!” so she is not metamei the Courtyard. The Gemara will explain that the concern of tumah is that she may become a niddah from fear. The Mishnah continues: אם יש לה זכות היתה תולה לה – If she has a merit (defined on Daf 21), the merit suspends the punishment for her. Merits can enable suspensions for one, two, or three years. [The Gemara will bring other opinions of Tannaim about the potential duration of the suspension]. Based on this, Ben Azzai said: חייב אדם ללמד את בתו תורה – A man is obligated to teach his daughter Torah,שאם תשתה תדע שהזכות תולה לה – so that if she drinks and is unharmed despite her guilt, she will know that merit suspends her punishment, and not doubt the waters’ efficacy. Rebbe Eliezer says:כל המלמד בתו תורה (כאילו) לומדה תפלות – Anyone who teaches his daughter Torah, (is as if he) teaches her intimacy, because her enhanced intelligence helps her hide immoral activities.
- Rebbe Meir’s putting kankantom into his ink, and the sequence of whom he studied under
Rebbe Meir related that when he studied under Rebbe Akiva, he would put kankantom (a substance which makes the writing indelible) into the ink he used for writing sifrei Torah, and Rebbe Akiva said nothing. But when he came to Rebbe Yishmael, and told him he was a scribe, Rebbe Yishmael said: בני הוי זהיר שמלאכתך מלאכת שמים היא – “My son, be careful, for your work is the work of Heaven, and an error of a single letter could have disastrous consequences. Rebbe Meir responded, as the Gemara explains, that he was an expert in the letters of the Torah, and even avoided incidental erasures by adding kankantom to his ink. Rebbe Yishmael objected that the Torah teaches regarding sotah that the words must be erasable (and he holds that the verses may be erased from a sefer Torah). The Gemara asks a contradiction from another Baraisa which indicates that Rebbe Meir studied first under Rebbe Yishmael, and then Rebbe Akiva. It answers that he went to study under Rebbe Akiva but could not discern his true opinion (since he defended both sides of a question), so he went to Rebbe Yishmael וגמר גמרא – and learned the traditions (the laws), and then returned to Rebbe Akiva to fully understand them.
- Machlokes about using a sefer Torah for a sotah, or another sotah’s scroll
Rebbe Yehudah quoted Rebbe Meir: לכל מטילין קנקנתום לתוך הדיו – For all of the Torah we may put kankantom into the ink, חוץ מפרשת סוטה בלבד – except for the sotah section (so it may be erased). Rebbe Yaakov quoted Rebbe Meir as only disallowing it in a scroll written for a sotah in the Mikdash. The Gemara explains that they dispute if the pesukim of a sefer Torah may be used for a sotah, despite their not being written for that purpose. The Gemara first suggests this machlokes reflects another:אין מגילתה כשירה להשקות בה סוטה אחרת – The scroll [of one sotah] is not valid to use for waters to give another sotah to drink, because it was not written for her. Rebbe Achai bar Yoshiyah says it is valid for another sotah’s use. The comparison is rejected: This second Tanna Kamma’s reasoning may be that it was written for a different woman, but he might allow a sefer Torah to be used. Rebbe Achai may allow a scroll that was at least written for a sotah’s use (albeit a different one), but not a sefer Torah, which was not written for that purpose at all.
