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II Adar 4, 5763 / Mar 8, 2003
Adar 18, 5766 / Mar 18, 2006
Adar 18, 5769 / Mar 14, 2009
Adar 16, 5772 / Mar 10, 2012
Adar 16, 5775 / Mar 7, 2015
Adar 16, 5778 / Mar 3, 2018
Adar 15, 5781 / Feb 27, 2021
Ki Tisteh /
If She Goes Astray
SCRIPTURES (should be read first)
Today’s Torah
portion, concerning a sotah (wayward wife), is one of those which seem
difficult to understand upon a surface reading. However, when looking at “line
upon line, and precept upon precept,” and considering the context, understanding
becomes easier.
Firstly, it
should be remembered, that marriage is to picture something greater – our
relationship (as the church) with Messiah. This bride is not in the same
position as Messiah, but both are to be faithful and holy. Hosea 4:14-15
indicates such a comparison.
This portion
follows the teaching on stealing dedicated property and purity required in the
camp of Israel. Using dedicated items for personal use was called ma’iylah
– treachery (Numbers 5:6), and the user was required to make an atonement
offering in order to become pure before God.
Numbers uses
these two terms for marital unfaithfulness: adultery is ma’iylah –
treachery (v.12), and the adulteress is nitma’ah – defiled (v.13); the
latter term is the opposite of purity required for Temple worship. Marriage is
thus presented as a sacred relationship that requires both faithfulness and
purity, just as the relationship between Israel and Messiah.
The situation
is where a wife has acted in such a way as to cause her husband to be suspicious
of her faithfulness. Based upon Torah requirements for judgment to take place,
there must be witnesses that she had been secluded with another man (without
coercion), after having been warned against such action. However, in this
circumstance, there are no witnesses to the further act of adultery.
The jealous
husband must bring a meal offering. Whereas most meal offerings are made with
fine wheat flour, this one is made with coarse barley flour: coarse because the
wife’s actions were coarse, and animal food (barley) because she acted like an
animal. The offering is not made with oil, because that represents light, and
the act was done in darkness (hidden). The offering is not adorned with
frankincense for a sweet aroma to God. The offering is called “jealousies”
(plural), meaning that she acted against both her husband and God.
The wife
cannot be punished because the required witnesses do not exist. However, if she
were guilty, the prospect of an horrible death might induce her to confess; a
confession would end a judgment by the court. If she were innocent, she would be
vindicated by the test.
Mayim
kodashim / sacred water from the
Tabernacle or Temple laver is used; it represents purity and devotion. Earth is
used from the floor of the Tabernacle, or from under a marble tile of the Temple
floor; it represents death – returning to dust. The dirt is put into the water.
The suspect
wife has the meal-offering placed in her outstretched hands, and is required to
take an oath. After offering the meal-offering upon the altar, the wife is made
to drink the water-dirt mixture. If she is guilty, she will die the death
described in verse 21. The punishment being repeated in verse 22 is taken to
mean that the man with whom she sinned will experience a similar death.
If the jealous
husband is himself guilty of adultery, then the mixture will not bring death
upon the guilty wife (based on the Hebrew of verse 31). If the suspect wife is
innocent, she will have incurred public humiliation for her defiance in being in
the company of the other man.
If she is
innocent, she will be fully accepted by the husband and bear children without
difficulty. This has apparent Messianic symbolism, indicative of the church that
is not idolatrous bearing children.
The judgment
of a sotah (wayward wife) is the only halachic action in Torah,
where God directly intervenes. According to rabbinic history, it was
discontinued during Second Temple times – due to rampant sin as described in the
Hosea portion. God said that He would no longer punish adulteresses, when the
men go apart with prostitutes.
Psalm 96 is
about Yahweh judging the world with equity and righteousness. It rings with the
joy of one who is devoted and expecting to be found pure.
1 Peter is
about those of us who have found mercy, and how we are to be devoted and pure.
We are to desire the Word of God, to grow thereby (v.2). We are to abstain from
the desires of this world (v.11). we are to display righteous living before the
world (v.12).We are to submit to government authority, which punishes evildoers
and praises those who do right (v.13-14). Yeshua committed no sin, and no deceit
was found in His mouth: we are to be likewise holy (v.21-22).
Readings:
"Blessed are You, Yahweh our God, King
of the Universe,
Who chose us from among all peoples by
giving us Your Torah.
Blessed are You, Yahweh, giver of the
Torah."
Reader 1*
Amen. 11 Then Yahweh
spoke to Moses, saying, 12 "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to
them, 'If any man's wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him, 13 and
a man has intercourse with her and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband and
she is undetected, although she has defiled herself, and there is no witness
against her and she has not been caught in the act,
Reader 2*
Amen. 14 if a spirit of
jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife when she has defiled
herself, or if a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife
when she has not defiled herself, 15 the man shall then bring his
wife to the priest, and shall bring as an offering for her one-tenth of an ephah
of barley meal; he shall not pour oil on it nor put frankincense on it, for it
is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of memorial, a reminder of
iniquity. 16 'Then the priest shall bring her near and have her stand
before Yahweh,
Reader 3*
Amen. 17 and the priest
shall take holy water in an earthenware vessel; and he shall take some of the
dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. 18
'The priest shall then have the woman stand before Yahweh and let the hair of
the woman's head go loose, and place the grain offering of memorial in her
hands, which is the grain offering of jealousy, and in the hand of the priest is
to be the water of bitterness that brings a curse. 19 'The priest
shall have her take an oath and shall say to the woman, "If no man has lain with
you and if you have not gone astray into uncleanness, being under the authority
of your husband, be immune to this water of bitterness that brings a curse;
Reader 4*
Amen. 20 if you,
however, have gone astray, being under the authority of your husband, and if you
have defiled yourself and a man other than your husband has had intercourse with
you" 21 (then the priest shall have the woman swear with the oath of
the curse, and the priest shall say to the woman), "Yahweh make you a curse and
an oath among your people by Yahweh'S making your thigh waste away and your
abdomen swell; 22 and this water that brings a curse shall go into
your stomach, and make your abdomen swell and your thigh waste away." And the
woman shall say, "Amen. Amen."
Reader 5*
Amen. 23 'The priest
shall then write these curses on a scroll, and he shall wash them off into the
water of bitterness. 24 'Then he shall make the woman drink the water
of bitterness that brings a curse, so that the water which brings a curse will
go into her and cause bitterness. 25 'The priest shall take the grain
offering of jealousy from the woman's hand, and he shall wave the grain offering
before Yahweh and bring it to the altar;
Reader 6*
Amen. 26 and the priest
shall take a handful of the grain offering as its memorial offering and offer it
up in smoke on the altar, and afterward he shall make the woman drink the water.
27 'When he has made her drink the water, then it shall come about,
if she has defiled herself and has been unfaithful to her husband, that the
water which brings a curse will go into her and cause bitterness, and her
abdomen will swell and her thigh will waste away, and the woman will become a
curse among her people. 28 'But if the woman has not defiled herself
and is clean, she will then be free and conceive children.
Reader 7*
Amen. 29 'This is the
law of jealousy: when a wife, being under the authority of her husband, goes
astray and defiles herself, 30 or when a spirit of jealousy comes
over a man and he is jealous of his wife, he shall then make the woman stand
before Yahweh, and the priest shall apply all this law to her. 31
'Moreover, the man will be free from guilt, but that woman shall bear her
guilt.'"
"Blessed are You, Yahweh our God, King
of the Universe,
Who in giving us Yeshua, the Living
Torah, has planted everlasting life in our midst.
Blessed are You, Yahweh, giver of the
Torah."
______________________
"Blessed are You, Yahweh our God, King
of the Universe,
Who selected good prophets, delighting
in their words which were spoken truthfully.
Blessed are You, Yahweh, Who chose the
Torah, Your servant Moses, Your people Israel,
and the prophets of truth and
righteousness."
Hosea 4:14
Reader 8*
Amen. 14 I will not
punish your daughters when they play the harlot or your brides when they commit
adultery, for the men themselves go apart with harlots and offer sacrifices with
temple prostitutes; so the people without understanding are ruined.
Psalm 96 (To be sung.)
1 Sing to Yahweh a new song;
sing to Yahweh, all the earth. 2 Sing to Yahweh, bless His name;
proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. 3 Tell of His
glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. 4
For great is Yahweh and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all
gods. 5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but Yahweh made
the heavens. 6 Splendor and majesty are before Him, strength and
beauty are in His sanctuary. 7 Ascribe to Yahweh, O families of the
peoples, ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength. 8 Ascribe to Yahweh
the glory of His name; bring an offering and come into His courts. 9
Worship Yahweh in holy attire; tremble before Him, all the earth. 10
Say among the nations, "Yahweh reigns; Indeed, the world is firmly established,
it will not be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity." 11 Let
the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all it
contains; 12 Let the field exult, and all that is in it. Then all the
trees of the forest will sing for joy 13 before Yahweh, for He is
coming, for He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in
righteousness and the peoples in His faithfulness.
2 Peter 2:1-22
Reader 9*
Amen. 1 But false
prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers
among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the
Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2
Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will
be maligned; 3 and in their greed they will exploit you with false
words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not
asleep.
Reader 10*
Amen. 4 For if God did
not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to
pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the
ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven
others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 and
if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them
to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives
thereafter; 7 and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the
sensual conduct of unprincipled men 8 (for by what he saw and heard
that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented
day after day by their lawless deeds), 9 then the Lord knows how to
rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment
for the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge the
flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they do
not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, 11 whereas angels who
are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them
before the Lord.
Reader 11*
Amen. 12 But these, like
unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed,
reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those
creatures also be destroyed, 13 suffering wrong as the wages of doing
wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and
blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you, 14
having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls,
having a heart trained in greed, accursed children; 15 forsaking the
right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of
Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 16 but he received a
rebuke for his own transgression, for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a
man, restrained the madness of the prophet. 17 These are springs
without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been
reserved. 18 For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by
fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live
in error, 19 promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves
of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.
Reader 12*
Amen. 20 For if, after
they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and
Savior Yeshua the Messiah, they are again entangled in them and are overcome,
the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it
would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having
known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. 22
It has happened to them according to the true proverb, "A dog returns to its own
vomit," and, "A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire."
"Blessed are You, Yahweh
our God, King of the Universe,
Rock of Ages, righteous
throughout all generations.
You are the faithful God,
promising and then performing, speaking and then fulfilling,
for all Your words are true
and righteous.
Faithful are You, Yahweh
our God, and faithful are Your words,
for no word of Yours shall
remain unfulfilled;
You are a faithful and
merciful God and King.
Blessed are You, Yahweh our
God, Who are faithful in fulfilling all Your words."
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