Sotah 28 - Yom Haazmaut - April 26, 5 Iyar - a podcast by Michelle Cohen Farber

Today's daf is sponsored by Laura Shechter in honor of her daughter, Kayla. "Behatzlacha to all of the contestants competing today in the Chidon HaTanach, most especially to Kayla. The learning we have done together as a family because of your commitment has brought us all so much joy. Kayla, you are our champion always. Mazal tov!"

When the Mishna said that the man also dies when the woman drinks the sotah water, it could not be referring to her husband because if the husband has done wrongdoing, the sotah water doesn’t work to kill the woman. From where is this derived? From here they conclude it is the adulterer who will die when the sotah drinks the water. Is this derived from the word “and they came (referring to the waters)” which appears twice or because of the addition of the “and”? They conclude that Rabbi Akiva derives it from “and” and then proceed to explain the six drashot that Rabbi Akiva learns from the three mentions of “and they came” – as each one coming to teach two things. Rebbi doesn’t derive anything from “and” and therefore derives only three things from the fact that the same words appear three times. From where does he derive that the man gets punished as well? A braita is brought explaining what Rabbi Akiva learns from the three verses that say “and the woman was impure.” Rabbi Yishmael raises a question against Rabbi Akiva, although the Gemara will later have to explain the question as it is not very clear. He also shows how we derive that the sotah is forbidden to her husband until she drinks the water and proves her innocence. He then makes a kal vachomer argument from sotah to a sheretz that a sheretz should also be forbidden even in a case of doubt. However, this is limited to cases that are similar to sotah – where the doubt is in the private domain and theoretically there is someone who knows whether or not it became impure.

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