Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Tuesday's Thoughts on the Daf - Sotah 3

Sotah 3 continues the introduction to the rules of Sotah including the number of witnesses who are required for the various stages of the process. Within the daf are a number of aggada type references that were interesting to me, and they are summarized below.

On Sotah 3a, R' Meir relates that if a person commits a sin in private, Hashem will reveal it publicly. He quotes a pasuk from Bamidbar as his proof - that it is stated "And it will pass over him (V'avar Alav) a spirit of kinna." R' Meir states that the use of the word V'avar means that Hashem will cause the matter to be (macriz) announced. Rashi explains this by saying that Hashem is ma'avir kol (from the same "avar" root) He will cause the sound to issue.

Also on Sotah 3a, Reish Lakish states that a person only sins when a "ruach shtus" (spirit of stupidity) passes over him. He links this to the pasuk "Ish Ish Ki Sishte Ishto" - translated as "a man, a man, whose wife has gone astray." In so doing, he uses the same root for different meanings - stupidity and adultery.

On Sotah 3b, R' Shmuel Bar Nachmeni says in the name of R' Yonatan that anyone who does a mitzva in this world, the mitzva runs ahead of him before he dies and announces his presence and merits in the world to come. On the other hand, one who sins in this world, the sin wraps around him and accompanies him to judgment day.

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