Numbers Naso 4:21-7:89

Naso

In Naso, we learn about the sotah, the suspected adulteress. She is important. In Torah her story takes 18 verses, a solid piece of writing. There is even a tractate in Talmud named after her. Clearly, she is more than meets the eye. While much has been said about her, I believe that in her beauty and power she shows us all why we are here.

Quickly, what we learn from her is that intimacy with God is inter-wound with betrayal. Here’s more. As long as we are in our human forms we are eternally unraveling and discerning the strands. The closer we get to the nexus, the tighter the strands, the more painful the process becomes. And, of course, once we get close to finishing the unraveling, we pause for a moment, and the weavings find their ways into each other once again. We are a bit closer to purity but the work continues.

We could just end it here, know the basic teaching of the sotah and be happy. The scene in Torah though is too disturbing for such a quick review. This is what we read. A woman, if she is suspected of being an adulteress by her husband (the amount of witnesses necessary fluctuates depending on the Talmudic rabbi) becomes the subject of humiliation and some strange acts on the part of the priests. To be direct, after her head is bared, she is to hold in her hands a barley offering. Then, she has to drink water mixed with the dirt of the Tabernacle floor. Then, the priest elevates the meal offering and burns it on the altar. And finally, it seems, if she has betrayed her husband her belly will distend and her thighs will sag.

This suspected adulteress is the sotah. How though (you might be wondering) is this woman so powerful? So beautiful? What do we do with the details? How do we deal with this?

First, we want to have compassion for her. After all, it is in the Talmudic tractate Sotah itself that we learn that Torah begins and ends with acts of loving kindness. It is said that in Genesis, God clothes Adam and Eve. In Deuteronomy, God conceals the burial place of Moses. Next, we can also support all women who have historically been degraded by men in our patriarchal society. However, would Torah be the appropriate tool of that research? Is that why we are reading Torah? With the proliferation of information today, is Torah the bridge to a cohesive understanding of women’s issues? I think not.

Therefore continuing on, let’s see how the sotah can contribute to an understanding of Torah and God, one that will promote respect, graciousness and peace. Let’s try to untangle just a bit the tight strands of betrayal and intimacy.

First, let’s look at the the words vaamalah (1:3) and umalah (5:12). The first is used many times in Bemidbar. (If the men are 20 years old and up they are to be counted). The root word here (ayin lamed hey) infers a rising up, as if to God. It can be compared to the title of the parsha (Naso) in that the heads of the Gershomites are to be lifted as they are counted. The idea of lifting and rising is used in Torah to infer daat, the action towards intimacy. The vuv in front of vaamalah means and. It is the third letter in the name of God, the backbone, the connecting agent. Next, let’s look at umalah, or betray. This word is spelled exactly the same as the first. The hard vuv though takes on the softer vowel. The boundary of the v sound is lost. Therefore, through the letters (and the spelling) alone we see the close relationship intimacy has with betrayal and the importance of boundaries in protecting the former from the latter.

Next, the Talmudic rabbis in tractate Sotah point out that any adultery must have occurred in a concealed place. Concealment suddenly becomes both a blessing and a curse…the image of God in that God is concealed…as well as the dark place where intimacy turns. For more Talmudic facts, , we read that when the Israelites enter the Promised Land and say the blessings on Mt. Gerizim and the curses on Mt Ebal, they then respond Amen Amen….just like the sotah. We all say amen amen.

Let’s look at the use of barley here. The only other time in Torah that a barley offering is used instead of wheat is at the counting of the Omer. In mystical circles, this is a highly introspective time, a mapping of our bodies, as if we are taking a microscope to all of the aspects of our soul. That time is now, climaxing on Shavuoth.

Finally, why (the Talmudic rabbis ask) in the Mishnah do they first write a book on the Nazarites and then the Sotah? In Torah, we first read about the Sotah and then the Nazarite. Ah, I think to myself, perhaps to entangle them both even more, the divine and the impure, the curse and the blessing, the place within all of us that rises to God in purity and the other still polluted with suspicion and fear. We are all, after all, the sotah and the priests…doing the necessary work to push out the doubt as we shoot our light up towards God. We are all saying amen amen in the Shabbat liturgy, saying the curses and blessings as we enter the Promised Land. We are drinking the dirt of the Tabernacle floor, baring our heads, to find our own pieces of betrayal, where we think we know the root of our pain but don’t, where we think we have found the proper boundaries, but they are confused, the place where we think we grasp the crown of divine love, but just have the barley, the means.

This is what the sotah is really about. She…or we, ourselves…our human bodies…become the tools that can disentangle the weavings so we can see ourselves and others clearly. This is why she is beautiful. Despite her physical disgrace she shows us why we are here. She leads the way. No doubt, she is the concealed Shechina within all of us, still in exile, yearning.

So, may we all have the humility to see and be seen. May the moment of pure disentanglement penetrate with priestly blessings. May we be concealed as is God. May we study Torah for the sake of Torah. May our bodies be the tools of God. May we rise beyond judgment and ego to present to God gift after gift of our eternal love.