Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Tuesday's Thoughts on the Daf - Sotah 24

Sotah 24 is the continuation of the first mishna in the fourth perek of Sotah. The mishna discusses which women are eligible to drink the water and who must forfeit her kesuba if she either can't or won't drink the water.

As part of the discussion, the mishna discusses a scenario where a man is married to an eilonis, or a woman who has reached an advanced age or a woman who has become sterile as a result of drinking a substance that causes infertility (as interpreted by Rashi). The Tanna Kama writes that if a woman in this category was subject to kinui and setira, she would not drink the water and would forfeit her kesuba. It is implied that the reason why she cannot be compelled to drink and loses the kesuba is because the marriage was subject to divorce based on its inability to produce children. R' Eliezer argues with the Tanna Kama and writes that since he could marry another at the same time, she should be permitted to drink because the marriage was not automatically subject to divorce as he could be mikayaim pru urvu through the second spouse. Although the point is academic because we don't paskin like R' Eliezer, I wonder what would be the situation where he has children from a prior marriage and would normally be permitted to stay married, despite the fact that the marriage could not produce children.

Another interesting point was raised by Shlomo K. during our daf session tonight. The mishna writes that the wife of a saris still drinks, even though she is ineligible to him based on his physical condition. Rashi writes that since he was not always a saris, she can drink the water, because there is no issue of whether the husband was preceded by the boel. The question Shlomo raised was -- if she is vindicated by the water, how can she become pregnant if her husband is a saris? I opined that the same way that the water is ineffective if he has prior bad acts (regardless of what she did or did not do) then maybe if she is vindicated by the water, he would be healed. R' Efrom G. who was sitting in with us this evening liked my theory, but I would love to see if anyone has written on the topic.

A final interesting point on Sotah 24a was that the beis din can step in and do kinui if the husband is either physically incapable (mute or insane) or he is not present (i.e incarcerated) and is unable to observe the happenings in town. Although the Tanna Kama writes that beis din can only do the kinui and at most force her to lose the kesuba, R' Yosi states that she can even be brought to drink by the husband once he is released from prison, if the kinui was previously done by beis din.

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