The Spectacle of the Sotah: A Rabbinic Perspective on Justice and Punishment

• Main Author: Durdin, Andrew
• Format: Others
• Published: ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University 2007
• Subjects: Hebrew bible; rabbis; feminist reading; Judaism; religion; Religion
• Online Access: http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/rs_theses/9; http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=rs_theses

The first chapter of Mishnah tractate Sotah (m. Sot) records rabbinic elaboration and interpretation on the sotah ritual contained in the Hebrew Bible, Numbers 5:11-31. Specifically, the nine mishnayoth that compose m. Sot 1 discuss the circumstances for invoking the trial of the “bitter waters” and the overall treatment of the suspected wife during the trial. This paper argues that, when read together, m. Sot 1 describes an entire economy of justice and punishment that must be imposed on a wife who is merely suspected of adultery, quite apart from whether she is—or is not—guilty of adultery. Through a close reading of m. Sot 1 and by examining the current gender discourse surrounding this text, this paper maintains that the rabbis sought to justify and explain these aspects of the sotah ritual by elaborating their understanding of suspicion and drawing them under a larger conception of measure for measure justice.