Mesechtas Sotah

Mesechtas Sotah is a tractate from the Order of Nashim (Women), and includes nine chapters and forty-eight pages.

During the days of Sefirat HaOmer, the custom is to learn Masechet Sotah - one page per day.

Subject of the Tractate

The tractate deals with the laws of Sotah.

A woman whose husband is jealous for her, and forbids her to be in seclusion with another man, and she violates his warning and is caught in seclusion with that man, the law of 'Sotah' applies to her.

The Sotah must present herself before the Kohen and bring a meal offering of barley flour. After offering the meal offering, the Kohen takes water from the basin and mixes it with dust from the floor of the Beit Hamikdash courtyard. The Kohen warns the woman and allows her to confess if she was defiled during her seclusion with the strange man. If she does not confess, he writes the words of the Sotah passage from the Torah on parchment, and dissolves the ink that was written on the parchment into the water. The Kohen gives the suspected woman to drink from the water that tests her purity: if she sinned - her belly will swell, and if she was innocent - these waters will enter her stomach as a blessing, and will help her in her future births for an easy and successful delivery.

Humility and Fear of Sin

At the conclusion of Masechet Sotah we learn: "When Rebbi died, humility and fear of sin ceased. Rav Yosef said to the Tanna: Do not teach that humility ceased, for I am here. Rav Nachman said to the Tanna: Do not teach that fear of sin ceased, for I am here."

The Rebbe asks: Rav Yosef and Rav Nachman are Amoraim, so how can they disagree with the Tanna and tell him: "Do not teach humility," "Do not teach fear of sin"? The Rebbe further asks, that the statement "Do not teach humility for I am here," and in Rashi's language "for I am humble" - is seemingly the opposite of humility?

Do Not Teach Humility

The Rebbe explains that regarding humility, it is explained that a humble person knows his own virtues, and knows that these virtues are very important, but because he recognizes the truth, he does not consider them his own virtue and level, as he recognizes the truth that all the good he has is not from himself but rather what was inherited from our forefathers, etc., and furthermore he calculates in his soul that if these abilities were given to someone else, perhaps they would reveal these abilities even more.

This is also the explanation here. Rav Yosef certainly knew the greatness of his merit in Torah study - as he said "If not for this day that caused it (that I learned Torah and was elevated), how many Yosefs are there in the marketplace" - to the extent that he was called by the name "Sinai," named because "Mishnayot and Beraitot were arranged for him as they were given from Mount Sinai," and despite this he did not consider it his own achievement, knowing that all his virtues were given to him as a gift from above, and in his words: "If not for this day that caused it." Therefore, he could say "I am humble" - since the trait of humility is not at all contradictory to knowing one's own virtues, including the virtue of humility itself.

Therefore, Rav Yosef also told the Tanna not to teach humility, because of Rav Yosef's humility which recognized that all his virtues were given to him as a gift from above - he attributed them not to himself, but to Rebbi. And when he said to the Tanna "Do not teach humility for I am here," he did not intend to disagree with the Tanna's statement that "When Rebbi died, humility ceased," because without Rebbi there is no more virtue of humility, but rather meant to say that the fact that he is humble proves that Rebbi did not die.

True humility - knowing one's own virtues, on one hand, and complete self-nullification knowing that his virtues are not from himself, on the other hand - is possible only through Rebbi.

Do Not Teach Fear of Sin

The Rebbe explains, prefacing with the difference between Rav Yosef (humility) and Rav Nachman (fear of sin), that Rav Yosef, being blind, his evil inclination ceased from him, so he was not susceptible to sin, and therefore, does not need fear of sin, and thus, the virtue of humility is emphasized in him; whereas Rav Nachman, we find in the Gemara that "Rav Nachman's mother was told by astrologers that her son would be a thief, so she never let him go with his head uncovered, saying to him: 'Cover your head so that the fear of Heaven should be upon you,'" and therefore the virtue of fear of sin is emphasized in him.

The power for this "that the fear of Heaven should be upon you" comes from Rebbi: Regarding Rebbi's virtue, we find that "he never put his hand beneath his belt," meaning that for him there was no division between the elevated matters that belong to heaven and the lower matters that belong to earth, but rather, even the physical matters (from your midsection downward) were directed toward heaven, to such an extent that although "there never ceased from his table lettuce, etc., neither in the summer nor in the winter," nevertheless, "at the time of his passing, he raised his ten fingers upward and said, 'I have not derived pleasure from this world even with my little finger.'" And through Rebbi's power, whose entire existence and all his matters (even the lower ones) were directed toward heaven, Rav Nachman also attained the quality of fear of sin.

Therefore, he said "Do not teach fear of sin for I am here" - by which he did not intend to disagree with the Tanna's statement ("When Rebbi died, fear of sin ceased") that without Rebbi there is no more virtue of fear of sin, but rather, that the fact that he has fear of sin (through Rebbi's power) proves that "Rebbi did not die."

Rebbe's Explanations

Learning Masechet Sotah during the days of the Sefirah. Torat Menachem Volume 26, p. 33 (p. 33)

• "Why is the section of Nazir placed next to the section of Sotah? To teach you that whoever sees a Sotah in her disgrace..." Likkutei Sichot Volume 18, p. 55 (p. 64)
• 3a. Tosafot "V'Rabbi." But it is difficult from the Yerushalmi. Likkutei Sichot Volume 18, p. 55 (p. 64)
• 3a. "A person does not commit a transgression unless a spirit of folly enters him." Likkutei Sichot p. 311 (p. 37)
• 3a. "A husband who forgoes his warning, his warning is forgone." Torat Menachem Volume 26, p. 5 (p. 5)
• 11a. "Rav and Shmuel - one says it was actually a new king and one says that his decrees were renewed." Likkutei Sichot Vol. 16, p. 1 (p. 16)
• 12a. "He stood and divorced his wife." Likkutei Sichot p. 245 (p. 158)
• 14a. "The Holy One, blessed be He, visited the sick, as it is written 'And Hashem appeared to him in the plains of Mamre,' so you too should visit the sick." Likkutei Sichot Vol. 20, p. 63, note 17 (p. 76)
• 36b. "Rav and Shmuel - one says 'to do his work' literally, and one says 'to attend to his needs' he entered." Likkutei Sichot Volume 16, p. 3 (p. 18)
• Conclusion of the Tractate. "Our Rabbis taught: When Rabbi Eliezer died, the Torah scroll was hidden... Do not teach that fear of sin [has ceased] for I am here." Torat Menachem Volume 16, p. 290 (p. 290)
• Conclusion of the Tractate. "Do not teach that humility [has ceased] for I am here... Do not teach that fear of sin [has ceased] for I am here." Likkutei Sichot Volume 34, p. 72 (p. 84)
• Conclusion of the Tractate. "Do not teach that humility [has ceased] for I am here... Do not teach that fear of sin [has ceased] for I am here." Torat Menachem Volume 26, p. 3 (p. 3)

Explanations of the Tzemach Tzedek

• Chapter One
• Chapter Four
• Chapter Six

Further Reading

• The Rebbe, Hadran on Masechet Sotah, Talk from the second day of Shavuot, 5710

External Links

• Darash Rebbi, The Rebbe's explanations on Masechet Sotah