The Sotah, the Nazir and the blessing that explains it all
Are you looking for a piece of text to show that Judaism is a patriarchal religion? Do you believe that Judaism is a barbaric, horrible set of beliefs, dangerous, especially for women?
Don’t look further, you’ve found it, and it is this week’s Torah portion.
This week’s Torah portion includes the description of the horrifying ritual of the Sotah [Numbers 5:11–29].
The term Sotah means “the woman who went astray”. The ritual worked this way. If the husband suspected that his wife had slept with someone else, this poor lady had to undergo an ordeal: to drink a potion administered by the priest. If she died -and the potion caused a horrible death -her bell and genitalia swelled, which meant she was guilty. But if she was not guilty, then the potion was supposed to have no effect on the woman’s body, and she was free to return to her husband, who -for a certain time at least- set aside his jealousy.
Everything in this ritual is horrible. It’s a case study of men’s will to control the woman’s body: a matter, literally, of life and death; the wife is presumed to be guilty unless proven otherwise, a horrifying thing in itself.
And even if the woman is lucky, survives and returns to her husband, can you imagine what sort of married life she will have with a man who was about to poison her?
The Sotah is a horrible procedure based on the assumption that women cannot be trusted and that the husbands must have the power of life and death over their spouses.
Except that it is nothing of all this.
To better understand the Sotah, we must consider that the description of the ritual is immediately followed by the norms and regulations of the Nazir [Num 6:1–18]
The Nazir was a man (or, in some cases, the woman) who had taken upon himself a series of extra obligations on top of what was required of the ordinary Israelite. The Nazir vowed to abstain from wine and all other grape products, such as vinegar, to refrain from cutting the hair on his head and not to contact corpses or graves, even those of family members. The Nazir were forbidden to attend the funerals of their family. In short, the Nazir took upon himself a series of obligations built on other duties required from all the Israelis.
For example, all corpses were considered defiling. Every Israelite who had been in touch with a corpse had to undergo a ritual process of purification.
The Nazir obligations were more strict and radical; they had to avoid corpses entirely, not visit the cemeteries and not even participate in funerals.
But what the Nazir has to do with the Sotah? Why, in other words, the descriptions of these two rituals are juxtaposed so that after having read of one, we are immediately faced with the other?
The Midrash answers this textual question with a simple explanation. If a man witnesses the horrible consequences of drinking poisoned water, as in the Sotah ritual. In that case, he will avoid any kind of alcohol, and alcohol-related material, even grapes. So he will become a Nazir.
This is somehow a funny reading, but there is a more profound truth
Both the Nazis and the Sotah are about avoidance. Both rituals teach us to avoid transgressing and being seen as transgressors, to avoid situations that may lead us to cheat or quickly get drunk.
Not by chance, the descriptions of these two rituals are followed by the Birkhat Cohanim [Num 6:22–27]. It is a formula of blessing with which we are all familiar. It is also the text of one of the oldest Hebrew inscriptions ever found by archaeologists: “May God bless you and keep you, May God shine his light upon you, May God be gracious to you and give you peace.”
According to Rashi, these three blessings are good wishes. With the first, we wish the person to receive material sustenance (“to keep you”). With the second, which mentions light, we want a spiritual blessing to live a meaningful life. The third blessing sums up the previous and wishes for peace because, without peace, no blessing is effective. And to have peace, we must learn to keep our distance from dubious situations.
The Kabbalists go to a great extent to draw parallels between the Nazir and the Sotah -which they explain is pure fantasy, as the Torah did not record one single case when the ritual was enacted. The Kabbalists explain that there are no stories in the Bible of women suspected of adultery and forced by the Cohen to drink poisoned water. Not one single record.
Therefore, this is the reasoning of the Kabbalists; if the procedure was never enacted, the description is there for another reason: to teach to all the Israelites. There are fascinating descriptions of the levels of the human souls — compared to the different obligations of the Nazir and the various stages of the rituals of the Sotah.
Let us think, once again, about the Birkat Cohanim. The first blessing is for financial safety, the second for a spiritually meaningful life, and the third is to live in shalom, in peace. It may sound a bit elitist; we may think that only privileged people can afford the luxury of living in shalom, in peace; for us normal human beings, life is a constant battle, and it is full of fights,
Which is true. But if you -like the Nazir- avoid putting yourself in difficult situations and avoid situations when you know you become angry too quickly (like a drunkard indeed)…. It is then possible to bring more shalom, and peace into your life. If you do not make your beloved drink the poisoned water of your jealousy, there will be more shalom, and peace in your life and your family.
Taking as single pieces of text, the Sotah describes a brutal ordeal, and the Nazir that of a mental health disorder, OCD, I believe is called. But if you read them together properly, as the Torah presents them to us, followed by the Birkat Cohanim.
In that case, you realise how these ancient texts do not actually describe the ancient Israelites’ society but teach something profound about human nature. That we need shalom, and we have at hand a way to achieve it.