One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
הִלְכוֹת סוֹטָה
Woman Suspected of Infidelity 4
Sefer Nashim · The close of Hilchot Sotah and of the book • Refusals and timing • What invalidates the scroll • The oath and the gentle warning
15
Adar, when the court
reviews these cases
1
Woman at a time,
never two together
1
Sheet of parchment;
two sheets are unfit
2
Amens, read as reaching
past, future and others
4:1-6When, Who, and the Right to Refuse
- A date for attention, not a deadline. On the fifteenth of Adar the court attends to communal needs and checks which women should be made to drink and which should be warned, yet a sotah may be made to drink at any time of year. (4:1)
- By day, and one at a time. She drinks only in the daytime, the whole day being fit, and two sotot are never made to drink together, since the verse speaks of the priest standing her in the singular. (4:2)
- Fear is not a confession. A refusal made because she is overcome by fear may be retracted. A refusal made calmly, when she is healthy and unafraid, cannot be retracted. (4:3)
- Before or after the blotting. Refusing before the scroll is blotted out, the scroll is entombed and may not serve another woman, and the offering goes to the ash heap. Refusing afterward, she is made to drink and told the water is like a powder on the skin that enters only where there is a wound. (4:4-5)
- An admission empties the cup. If she admits adultery even after the scroll was blotted out, the water is poured out, for it is not sacred, and her offering is scattered on the ash heap. (4:6)
RememberThe law listens for the difference between terror and truth. A frightened no can be taken back; a calm no is an answer.
4:7-13A Scroll Written Once, Correctly
- Order and timing. Written at night, out of sequence, or before she accepted the oath, the scroll is unfit, since the verses link writing to the daytime offering and place the oath first. (4:7)
- Form and material. Written like a letter, on two sheets instead of one scroll, or on paper or untreated hide, it is unfit; it must be a single parchment scroll. (4:8)
- Writer and ink. Written by an Israelite or a priest who is a minor, it is unfit. It may not be written with kankantum or anything permanent, since the verse says he writes and blots out; any trace left after blotting makes it unfit. (4:9-10)
- Whole, and hers alone. Writing and blotting letter by letter is unfit, as is a scroll not written or blotted out for her sake. Two women's scrolls mixed in one cup are unfit; mixed and then separated, they should not drink, though if forced it stands. (4:10-11)
- Water and dust. If the water spills, a new scroll is written. Water kept overnight, or dust placed before the water, is unfit. Dust may be brought into the Sanctuary from outside; ash may not serve, decayed matter may; digging with an axe is improper but valid. (4:11-13)
RememberThe Name may be erased for peace in a home, but only once, in daylight, in order, on one sheet, for this woman, in ink that can let go.
4:14-19The Offering, the Oath, and How to Warn
- The offering follows its purpose. If she admits or refuses before the fistful is taken, the husband declines, witnesses come, or either spouse dies, the whole meal offering is burned. An impure offering is redeemed if not yet in a sacred vessel, burned if it was. (4:14)
- A priest's wife, and false witnesses. Where the husband is a priest, the fistful is offered separately and the rest scattered, since both have a share. If the witnesses to the privacy are proven false, the offering was never consecrated. (4:15)
- One offering, many warnings. Warned about several men and secluded with each, she brings one offering covering all of them. (4:16)
- Amen, Amen, and its limits. By gilgul shevuah the oath may include other men, betrothal, marriage and the future, but not times when relations would not have forbidden her to him, such as before the marriage, between divorce and remarriage, or a yevamah's waiting period. (4:17)
- A warning in a spirit of purity. It is a mitzvah to warn, never in levity, mid-conversation, in argument or to frighten. It should first be spoken privately and gently, and only if that fails before witnesses. One who does not attend to his household's ways is himself a sinner. (4:18-19)
RememberSefer Nashim ends on a quiet voice inside a house: private before public, gentle before formal, guidance before suspicion.