Naso: An Elixer of Peace
This week in Parshas Nasso begins with the laws of Sotah. A Sotah is a woman who was cautioned by her husband to avoid secluding herself with a specific suspect male. If she violates this warning, she is suspected of improper behavior and is deemed a Sotah. A special concoction is made in which select verses of the Torah are erased in water [these verses include the name of G-d which we are usually forbidden to erase]. The concoction serves to investigate. If she drinks the water and is guilty, she dies a horrible death.
There is a caveat which seems counterproductive. She has the right to refuse to drink the water, meaning she, the accused, has the power to upend the entire investigation. Why bother investigating? Which guilty woman would choose to drink the water? The following Medrash provides an answer.
The Medrash (MR: Vayikra 9:9) relates: R’ Meir was delivering a sermon on Friday night. The sermon took a while. There was a woman in attendance who stayed until the end. By the time she came home the candles had already dimmed. Her husband was furious and demanded to know where she had been. She explained that she was listening to the sermon. The woman’s husband was not pleased. He swore he would not allow her back in the house until she spit in the face of the Rabbi who was giving the sermon. She was out of the house for 3 weeks. Her neighbors understood something had to be done to rectify the situation. They approached the woman and told her to come with them to R’ Meir. As they approached, R’ Meir experienced a divine inspiration Ruach Hakodesh (perhaps giving him an understanding of the situation with this woman, a solution, or both). He feigned as if he had a pain in his eye. He then asked the group if any of the women knew how to cure his eye. Her friends nudged the woman forward, and told her “Now go, spit in his eye, you will be permitted to your husband!” She came forward, however in the presence of R’ Meir she could not bear to go ahead with it. She admitted to R’ Meir that she did not know how to cure his eye. R’ Meir instructed her to spit in his eye 7 times, to heal him. She acquiesced. R’ Meir then told her, go home to your husband, tell him, “You said 1 time, I spit on him 7 times!”
The students of R’ Meir were outraged. “This is a disgrace to the Torah! We could have settled this the right way; we could have forced the husband to let her back in!” R’ Meir explained, “It is sufficient for me to be equal to my creator (I don’t need to be treated any better than the Almighty), for R’ Yishmael taught [regarding the Sotah water], ‘Great is Shalom, for G-d allowed his great Name to be erased in order to bring peace between man and his wife.’”
This Midrash teaches us that the Sotah water is not a method to kill a guilty woman. Rather, the Sotah concoction is an elixir of peace! It is a tool we use to give an accused woman an opportunity to prove her innocence with the end goal being to preserve a Jewish home. A peaceful home in any representation is held in the highest regard. R’ Meir understood that the debasement of being spit on was akin to the debasement caused by erasing the name of G-d. To R’ Meir a self-disgrace of this magnitude is in order when it preserves peace even if that peace is far from lofty. Even if the only accomplishment is a simple dysfunctional Jewish couple being given the opportunity to live together again.
