The manner of the sotah's punishment as described in
this week's portion is most remarkable. Nowhere else in the
Torah do we find this kind of retribution for sins, a penalty
in which sacred waters are transformed into cursed waters, a
punishment which is wholly miraculous. This is how the Ramban
concludes his commentary on this portion: "Nowhere else in
the laws of the Torah do we find something exclusively
dependent upon a miracle except in this matter, which is an
established wonder and miracle that takes place among our
people when its majority are performing the will of Hashem,
for He desires, for the sake of His righteousness, to cleanse
Israel so that they be worthy of the Shechina dwelling
in their midst."
The Or HaChaim HaKodosh blazes a trail of understanding and
explains this unusual law so that we are able to better
understand the internal significance of this miraculous
retribution. He introduces his explanation with several
fundamental insights:
"Every living creature desires to cleave unto the living G-d,
and this yearning and desire is also present in inanimate
things, each creation according to its spiritual capacity and
level imbedded in it by the Creator Himself." Everything in
this world strives to get closer to Hashem, to serve Him to
its fullest capacity; it is like an insatiable spiritual
appetite. We see that the very stones which Yaakov Ovinu laid
under his head quarreled among themselves for the honor of
having the tzaddik lay his head upon them. The ox that
fell to the lot of the Baal worshipers refused to go to its
fate until Eliyohu Hanovi explained to it that by going with
the Baal idolaters and failing to be burnt as a sacrifice, it
would be equally serving the purpose of kiddush
Hashem, albeit by default. This yearning is the
underlying force that propels every creation in this world:
to fulfill its mission by serving Hashem and thus, getting
closer to Him.
This, says the Or HaChaim, explains the words of Chazal which
say that when on the second day of Creation Hashem separated
the Lower Waters from the Upper Waters through the heavenly
firmament, the lower waters pleaded and wept. They felt
themselves distanced from Hashem and relegated to a purely
physical, material world. They hungered for closer proximity
to Hashem! "They wept and sighed at not being privileged to
draw closer to the living G-d, in the upper world which was
more spiritual, since this is the craving and hope of all
creations."
We can thus better understand, he continues, that if there is
something more spiritual, more sanctified, more
representative of olom haboh, it stands to reason that
water will flow in that direction. The waters will not weep,
they will feel as if they were the upper waters, as if no
firmament divided them from their spiritual source. The
desire of the waters to approach holiness will thus find its
expression.
What can be holier than the Mishkan and the Beis
Hamikdosh? These are the very sites that contain, as it
were, the Shechina. If so, then the waters in the holy
Kiyor in the Mikdash must be happy waters,
"Waters where eyes shall not shed tears, for why should they
weep? This site is considered sublime, elevated soil, for
this is the site where the Shechina reposes, here, on
earth."
The transformation that takes place as a result of the
sotah's imbibing these holy, happy waters, is
described by the Or HaChaim very vividly:
The Kohen gives these living waters to the
sotah to drink. They are called "living" because they
possess the special sentient power of discerning
spirituality. To this water is added earth from the ground of
the Mishkan, which is likewise sensitive to holiness,
especially since it is so close to the Shechina here
below.
If these living waters enter the body of a sinner -- alas!
They will have catapulted rapidly from on high to the nether
depths, from the soil of the holiest place on earth to a
place of sin and iniquity, impurity and estrangement from
holiness. And they feel! These are living waters, named thus
for their capacity to feel and sense. They discern the sharp
transition from assuaging their spiritual hunger to draw
nearer to Hashem -- to the sudden fall of estrangement,
hunger, weeping! "And this is what makes these waters so
bitter, for they are acutely aware of their agony and
weeping. But Hashem wipes away their tears and the impurity
of the unfaithful woman is stricken by them."
The waters wreak their vengeance! They enter the unfaithful
woman's body and their curse becomes bitter. The power of the
Holy Name which was inscribed and immersed in the water
wrenches her innards apart and takes revenge, for this wicked
woman caused them to weep. They are merely acting in self-
defense. Since she caused them to turn bitter through her
terrible deed, she becomes the victim of their justified
revenge, their act of self preservation! Incredible to
contemplate!
*
It is worthwhile to remind oneself from time to time that the
spiritual world is a real one -- if not the real one.
When we speak of concepts in our this-world, we can feel
them, whereas talk about the spiritual experience is more
theoretical and abstract. But we are therefore reminded that
the world above the sun is the real, true world, whereas this
material one is a sham shadow world. In that real world, even
inanimate things have feelings and spiritual yearning, and if
these are frustrated, they weep, feel pain. And if a created
thing did satisfy its spiritual hunger and reach its
fulfillment, and something intervened to spoil the situation,
then it understandably seeks some revenge. It does not always
find the manner or opportunity, but these waters were vested
with a certain power and they used this power to strike back
at that which caused their distancing from their spiritual
source. It was the tactic of striking back defensively in
self preservation, self protection.
The Alter of Kelm zt'l used to note that when the
Torah discusses the different attractions that Rivka's
children felt in the womb -- Yaakov, a pull towards botei
midrash and Eisov, a pull towards temples of idolatry --
it is to teach us how very vital and tangible are these
spiritual forces, like magnetic attraction. The lesson can
well be applied to this portion, as well.
