The Sodah

Weekly Torah Lesson

Parasha: Naso “Elevate (the head)’
Torah: B’mid’bar 4:21 – 7:89

** This passage deals with a very unusual situation. The Torah teaches:

“One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.” (De 19:15)

** The Torah is explicit in it’s demand that there must be at least two credible witnesses to convict someone of a transgression. This command becomes even more rigid in the written elucidations of the ‘Oral Torah”. An additional requirement is needed to establish guilt. At least one of the witnesses must have confronted the accused and warned him/her that what they were doing was wrong and subject to a prescribed consequence. No verbal warning – no conviction.

In the case of the Sodah, guilt is “assumed” and she must “prove” her innocence by performing a prescribed ritual.

B’midbar 5:11 And Avinu spoke unto Moshe, saying, 12 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man’s wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him, 13 and a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, and be kept close, and she be defiled, and there be no witness against her, and she be not taken in the act; 14 and the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled: 15 then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and shall bring her oblation for her, the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon; for it is a meal-offering of jealousy, a meal-offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance. 16 And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before Avinu: 17 and the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water. 18 And the priest shall set the woman before Avinu, and let the hair of the woman’s head go loose, and put the meal-offering of memorial in her hands, which is the meal-offering of jealousy: and the priest shall have in his hand the water of bitterness that causes the curse. 19 And the priest shall cause her to swear, and shall say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou have not gone aside to uncleanness, being under thy husband, be thou free from this water of bitterness that causes the curse. 20 But if thou have gone aside, being under thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee besides thy husband: 21 then the priest shall cause the woman to swear with the oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, Avinu make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when Avinu doth make thy thigh to fall away, and thy body to swell; 22 and this water that causes the curse shall go into thy bowels, and make thy body to swell, and thy thigh to fall away. And the woman shall say, Amen, Amen. 23 And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out into the water of bitterness: 24 and he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that causes the curse; and the water that causes the curse shall enter into her and become bitter. 25 And the priest shall take the meal-offering of jealousy out of the woman’s hand, and shall wave the meal-offering before Avinu, and bring it unto the altar: 26 and the priest shall take a handful of the meal-offering, as the memorial thereof, and burn it upon the altar, and afterward shall make the woman drink the water. 27 And when he hath made her drink the water, then it shall come to pass, if she be defiled, and have committed a trespass against her husband, that the water that causes the curse shall enter into her and become bitter, and her body shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away: and the woman shall be a curse among her people. 28 And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed. 29 This is the law of jealousy, when a wife, being under her husband, goes aside, and is defiled; 30 or when the spirit of jealousy comes upon a man, and he is jealous of his wife; then shall he set the woman before Avinu, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law. 31 And the man shall be free from iniquity, and that woman shall bear her iniquity.

** I perceive that the “sodah” represents the firstborn Believers and the “husband” represents Yeshua HaMeshiach. It doesn’t sound very good for the firstborn except for:

“And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.” (Le 23:11 AKJV)

** Some versions translate “…that it might be acceptable for you…” The sacrifice of Meshiach and it’s imputed grace is enough to make us “acceptable” when we will be resurrected. Regardless of the sins that we have committed.