Dvar Torah for Parashat Naso (Num. 5:1 – 7:89)
(Offered at Temple Israel on Friday 6/14/2024)
Broadly speaking, the first ten chapters of the Book of Numbers deal with various efforts to organize the Israelite encampment and to prepare it for leaving Mt. Sinai on its journey to the Promised Land.
In last week’s Torah portion, Parashat Bemidbar, a military readiness census was taken and the various tribes were organized in terms of their positions around the tabernacle.
In this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Naso, a census of the Levites, begun towards the end of last week’s parasha, is concluded.
After that, the text turns to questions of preserving the holiness and ritual purity of the camp. In other words, last week’s parasha was about building up defenses against potential external foes. And this week’s portion is about building up defenses against internal threats.
What types of internal threats?
First, in Numbers 5: 1-4, there is a provision about temporary isolation of anyone who is ritually impure because of proximity to a corpse or because of abnormal bodily discharges.
Next, in Numbers 5: 5-10, we have a provision about restitution requirements when one person has wronged another in a monetary dispute.
Next in Numbers 5: 11-31, we have the case of the “Sotah” – a wife suspected by her husband of having committed adultery. A number of traditional commentators see the Sotah ritual as the Torah’s attempt to RECONCILE marriage partners whose union is on the rocks and whose marital disputes have become publicly disruptive to the community around them. Thus, this is a third example in Parashat Naso of attempts to promote harmony within Machane Yisael/ The Israelite Camp so as to ready them for the onward journey forth from Sinai to the Promised Land.
Finally, in Numbers, chapter 6, we have the ritual of the Nazirite vow. And this can be seen as a method for channeling the religious enthusiasm of individuals who, because they were not among the descendants of Aaron, could not become Kohanim or Priests.
As Rabbi David Kasher observes in a dvar torah he published this week,
All of these cases deal with social pariahs, people who have become isolated from the larger community. They are inserted here, just after the description of the camp and just before the camp is inaugurated with offerings. Together, they serve as a kind of warning, before the operation of the camp begins, of the kinds of circumstances that can endanger someone’s place in the camp. Each of these cases, therefore, also provides some mechanism for ending the state of social isolation,and bringing the castout back into the life of the camp.[1]
There’s a lot to be said for this basic analytic approach to our Torah portion.
But, as with much of Biblical Tradition, the “elephant in the room,” so to speak, is the sexist, and arguably misogynist attitude towards women. The Sotah ritual described in our Torah portion subjects a suspected wife to a trial by ordeal. If her husband suspects her of being a “sotah” (i.e, of having “gone astray” with another man), he is to bring her to a kohen (priest) who forces her to drink a bitter mixture of water and dirt. Supposedly, the drink will cause her to suffer serious, life-threatening physical ailments if she is guilty. But, if she’s innocent, then the drink will cause no ill effects and she’ll be assured of future fertility. But the reverse is not true: Adultery in the Torah is defined as a wife cheating on her husband, and not vice versa. There is no equivalent procedure that a wife can force upon a husband whom she suspects is cheating on her.
On Shavuot, just a few days ago, our holiday Torah reading featured the Ten Commandments, of which the seventh of those ten is “Lo Tin’af.”/ “You shall not commit adultery.” [2] This is indeed a serious offense – Leviticus 20:10 prescribes the death penalty for both participants in the extramarital affair!
The Sotah ritual in our Torah portion doesn’t use the term “Tin’af” because, by definition, the designation of a woman as a “Sotah” means that there were no witnesses to this woman’s real or alleged unfaithfulness. As it says in Numbers 5:13 ----
וְעֵד֙ אֵ֣ין בָּ֔הּ
“There is no witness against her.”
The only evidence of her transgression is that the husband has been overcome by “Ru’ach Kin’ah” a spirit of jealousy --- whether justifiably or not. (Numbers 5:14)
Studying the parasha this week I couldn’t help but think about how sexism continues to plague contemporary society. Recent years have seen many attempts here in the United States towards turning the clock backwards regarding female empowerment. The most egregious example of this is of course was the Supreme Court’s striking down last year of a woman’s right to reproductive choice.
Those who long sought to overturn Roe v. Wade often argued that they were doing so on the basis of States’ rights. In other words, individual states should have the right to ban abortion or not ban abortion, and it shouldn’t be a federal matter.
But, of course, as soon as Roe v. Wade was overruled last year by the Dobbs decision, anti-choice forces began lobbying for national bans on abortion.
The outcomes of this year’s Presidential and congressional elections may well determine whether or not they will succeed.
In recent years, abortions have become more likely to be carried out through medication rather than through surgical procedures. But now, anti-choice forces have been trying to restrict the use or distribution of the drugs needed for that procedure, despite those drugs having been approved for safety by the FDA decades ago.
So, there was a bit of good news this week that the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that plaintiffs who wanted to restrict the availability of the drug mifepristone did not have standing to bring the case. However, the future availability of medication abortion remains uncertain given that other legal challenges remain pending. [3]
We might argue that the United States is in danger of regressing in its legal treatment of women.
On the other hand, we can at least note that the Jewish legal tradition, the halacha, has shown a progressive side with respect to the ritual of the Sotah.
By the time of the Mishna in the early centuries of the common era, the entire procedure had been abolished by rabbinic fiat.
As it is taught in the Mishnah in Tractate Sotah --- yep – there is an entire tractate on this subject in the Mishnah and the Talmud –
מִשֶּׁרַבּוּ הַמְנָאֲפִים, פָּסְקוּ הַמַּיִם הַמָּרִים, וְרַבָּן יוֹחָנָן בֶּן זַכַּאי הִפְסִיקָן, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר "לֹא אֶפְקוֹד עַל בְּנוֹתֵיכֶם כִּי תִזְנֶינָה וְעַל כַּלּוֹתֵיכֶם כִּי תְנָאַפְנָה כִּי הֵם (עִם־הַזֹּנ֣וֹת יְפָרֵ֔דוּ)."
From the time when adulterers proliferated, the performance of the ritual of the bitter waters was nullified; they would not administer the bitter waters to the sota. And it was Rabbi Yoḥanan ben Zakkai who nullified it, as it is stated [in the Book of Hosea]: “I will not punish your daughters when they commit harlotry, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery; for they consort with lewd women” (Hosea 4:14), meaning that when the husbands are adulterers, the wives are not punished for their own adultery (M. Sotah 9:9)
It's a cynical sort of legal reasoning, but at least it’s a step towards equal treatment of men and women.
As for contemporary society, egalitarianism remains a goal whose level of attainment continues to vary depending on where one lives, but the struggle continues.
Shabbat shalom.
© Rabbi David Steinberg 5784/2024
[1] https://www.hadar.org/torah-tefillah/resources/out-camp
[2] Exodus 20:13
[3] https://theconversation.com/supreme-court-unanimously-concludes-that-anti-abortion-groups-have-no-standing-to-challenge-access-to-mifepristone-but-the-drug-likely-faces-more-court-challenges-232453
