Sotah 20 - April 18, 27 Nissan

Today’s daf is dedicated for Yom HaShoah in memory of all those who died in the Holocaust. Today's daf is sponsored by Caroline Ben-Ari in loving memory of her father, Ivor Rhodes, Yisrael ben Meir and Sarah on his 13th yahrzeit. "Dad was hard-working, caring, generous and honest to a fault, with a wicked sense of humor and a lifelong addiction to puns. Today I pledge to make as many terrible puns as I can in his honor."  Another contradiction is noted between the two braitot that quote Rabbi Akiva's opinion. A woman who refuses to drink the water from a position of strength is generally viewed as admitting she is guilty and does not drink the water. But what if she changes her mind, do we then believe that she was not previously admitting her guilt and was just scared, or not? Something bitter is added to the water as is derived from a verse. What is done with the scroll and the meal offering if the woman refuses to drink before the scroll was erased? What if she admits she is guilty after the scroll is erased? If she refuses to drink after the scroll is erased, she is forced to drink. If her face turns green after drinking and her eyes start bulging, she is immediately removed from the Temple so as not to cause impurity. If she has merits, then she can live up to three years, depending upon what merits she has. Ben Azai says that one should teach his daughter Torah specifically because of this so that she won't mistakenly think that the sotah waters don't work. Rabbi Eliezer disagrees and says that one who teaches his daughter Torah teaches her tiflut. Rabbi Meir was a scribe and would add copper sulfate to his ink when he would write a sefer Torah to make sure it wouldn't be erased. There are different versions regarding who was his teacher at first who didn't complain about this practice and which was his second teacher who was against this practice as the scroll of the sotah needs to be with ink that could be erased. In one version Rabbi Akiva is the first teacher and Rabbi Yishmael is the second and in the other, it is the reverse. Can the contradictions between the two versions be resolved? Two tannaim disagree about whether Rabbi Meir held one could add copper sulfate to the ink for writing a Torah, just not for the section about the sotah, or is the issue only for a scroll written for the sotah ceremony. The debate is really about whether or not one can take a section written for a Torah and use it for the sotah ceremony. Is this based on another tannaitic debate about whether the sotah scroll needs to be written lishma, for a particular woman? This suggestion is rejected in two ways. When the Mishna said they need to immediately remove the woman from the Temple after drinking the water, according to whose opinion was this stated? Initially, they suggest Rabbi Shimon who held the meal offering is sacrificed before the drinking of the water, but the part about the merits delaying her death is not Rabbi Shimon as he doesn't hold that merits can push off her death. They conclude the Mishna is like Rabbi Akiva who agreed with Rabbi Shimon about the first point and disagreed about the second. What impurity are they concerned about when they remove her from the Temple? It is not an impurity of death, since she is outside the azara and dead people are allowed to be in other areas of the Temple outside the azara. They conclude that it must be out of concern that the shock to the body may cause her to menstruate. The section in the Mishna about the merits delaying her death for up to three years doesn't seem to match any of the tannaitic opinions about this, as some say three months, some say nine months and others say twelve months, but none hold up to three years.