The Weekly Daf #362
Sotah 25 - 31
Issue #362 Parshat Sh'mot
Week of 20 - 26 Tevet 5761 / 15 - 21 January 2001
By Rabbi Mendel Weinbach, Dean, Ohr Somayach Institutions
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BOOMERANG BENEFITS

What effect does the potion which the sotah drinks have on her
if she was indeed innocent of the suspected adultery?  "If she
was not defiled and is indeed pure," says the Torah (Bamidbar
5:28), "she will be exonerated and be enriched in childbirth."

Rabbi Akiva interprets this as a promise that if she was
previously barren she will now be blessed with children.  In
accordance with this view, Rabbi Elazar (Mesechta Berachot
31b) explains the vow which Chana made in her prayer to Hashem
for relief from her barrenness:  "If, You shall see, the
plight of Your maid...and will give Your maid human seed, I
shall give him to Hashem for all the days of his life."
(Shmuel I 1:11)  If You shall see my plight, said Chana, that
will be fine; and if not, I shall make a pretense of being
unfaithful to my husband Elkana and be compelled to drink the
potion which Your Torah promises will cause me to have
children.

This interpretation is challenged by Rabbi Yishmael on the
grounds that it would encourage all barren women to feign
infidelity, and only the one who maintains a perfect moral
standard would be left out.  He proposes instead that the
Torah promised the absolved sotah who previously experienced
painful childbirth a comfortable childbirth, boys instead of
girls and children of better size and complexion than her
earlier ones.

Tosefot raises the same question concerning Rabbi Yishmael's
approach that Rabbi Yishmael raised in regard to Rabbi
Akiva's:  Will this not encourage women to feign infidelity in
order to gain these advantages in childbirth?

Rabbi Yechezkel Landau, in his Zion Lanefesh Chaya (Tzlach)
commentary on Mesechta Berachot, supplies an interesting
answer.  There is hardly any possibility that a woman will
risk her marriage for the sake of a more advantageous
childbirth because there is no guarantee that her husband will
be interested in going through with the entire sotah procedure
rather than simply divorce her.  The barren woman, on the
other hand, anticipates that at the end of ten years of
childlessness her husband will in any case be inclined to
divorce her, so she has nothing to lose by trying the
stratagem proposed by Chana in order to be blessed with
children and save her marriage.

"What is wrong with a woman trying in this way to have
children?" ask the commentaries.  One of the answers given is
that it is improper to have Hashem's Name erased in the sotah
potion for a purpose other than proving the innocence, just as
we find (Sotah 7a) that the Sanhedrin attempted to persuade
her to confess her guilt in order to avoid such an
obliteration.

* Sotah 26a

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LOVE AND FEAR

Greater is the man who serves Hashem out of love, said Rabbi
Shimon ben Alazar, than the one who serves Him out of fear.
In regard to the first, Hashem said in the Ten Commandments:
"I show kindness to two thousand generations to those who love
Me and observe my mitzvot." (Shemot 20:6)  In reference to the
latter, Hashem is described as "Keeper of the covenant and
kindness...to those who observe His mitzvah for a thousand
generations." (Devarim 7:9)

Iyov, says Rabbi Meir, served Hashem out of love.  He is
described as a "G-d fearing man" (Iyov 1:1), and so is Avraham
at the conclusion of the Akeidah offering of his son Yitzchak
when Hashem tells him "Now I know that you are G-d fearing."
(Bereishet 22:12)  The fear in Avraham's case was the product
of love, as we see that this patriarch is described as
"Avraham who loved Me" (Yeshaya 41:8); so, too, is Iyov's fear
the product of love.

In order to understand how love can be a more sublime motive
than fear and that fear can be the product of love, we must
distinguish between fear of retribution and the fear of
reverence.  One who serves Hashem because of the fear of
punishment for not doing so is on a much lower level than one
who serves Him out of love.  Such love which serves as the
energizer for performing mitzvot also generates a reverence
for the greatness of Hashem, which deters one from doing
anything against Hashem's Will.

There is an interesting observation made by Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh
Leib, the great Gerrer Rebbe, in his "Sfat Emet" commentary on
Chumash.  If Avraham's service was motivated by love, why did
Hashem use the expression of fear in the above mentioned
passage praising his passing the test imposed on him in
offering his son as a sacrifice?  The answer is that when
someone like Avraham serves Hashem out of love, every fiber of
his being rushes forward with enthusiasm to please Hashem.
Since Hashem in reality did not want Yitzchak slaughtered, it
was impossible for Avraham to feel the excitement he always
felt in doing mitzvot.  But Hashem had commanded him to bring
Yitzchak to the altar as a sacrifice and Avraham, as a
faithful servant, asked no questions and ignored his lack of
instinctive enthusiasm.  This was praised by Hashem as an
expression of ultimate reverence, and it could therefore be
said of him, "Now I know that you are G-d fearing."

* Sotah 31a

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