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Sotah 3a

סוטה ג׳ ע״א

Learn Sotah 3a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

The husband's warning (קינוי) in the סוטה פסוקים: what the word means, why one witness is believed, and whether the warning is optional or required.

Overview

The גמרא first finishes a discussion about the word קינוי, the husband's warning to his wife. Those who read it as 'anger' forbid the warning, while רב נחמן בר יצחק reads it as 'warning,' so it is permitted. Next come two lessons drawn from the סוטה פסוקים. רבי מאיר teaches that a sin done in secret is announced by הקדוש ברוך הוא in public, and ריש לקיש teaches that a person sins only when a spirit of foolishness (שטות) enters him. A ברייתא then explains that one witness is believed against a סוטה because her husband's warning and her seclusion already make the matter suspicious. אביי defends the order of events, warning first and then seclusion, by reading ועבר as 'it had already come.' The גמרא then concludes that the 'spirit' that moves a husband to warn his wife is a רוח טהרה. It proves this from a ברייתא where רבי ישמעאל calls the warning optional and רבי עקיבא calls it required. Finally, it shows that their disputes, about the warning and about a כהן becoming טמא for his sister, each come from reading a specific פסוק, not from one general rule.

Opening lines

אַלְמָא קָסָבְרִי

Evidently, they hold

דְּאָסוּר לְקַנּאוֹת.

that it is forbidden to issue a warning.

וּמַאן דְּאָמַר מוּתָּר לְקַנּאוֹת,

And according to the one who says it is permitted to issue a warning,

מַהוּ לְשׁוֹן ״קִינּוּי״?

what is the meaning of the term 'kinnui'?

The steps (28)

  1. ConclusionSo these opinions hold that warning is forbidden
  2. QuestionHow does the permitting opinion read the word?
  3. Responseקינוי simply means a warning
  4. StatementA secret sin is announced in public
  5. StatementSin comes only from a spirit of foolishness
  6. StatementWhy one witness is believed about a סוטה
  7. ChallengeThe warning is written after the seclusion
  8. Resolutionועבר means it had already happened
  9. ChallengeChallenge from the tribes crossing the ירדן
  10. ResolutionThe context decides what ועבר means
  11. StatementA husband warns his wife only when a spirit enters him
  12. QuestionWhat kind of spirit?
  13. ResponseSpirit of impurity or spirit of purity
  14. ProofProof that it is a spirit of purity
  15. StatementThe full ברייתא: three optional-or-required disputes
  16. QuestionDo they argue this way throughout the whole Torah?
  17. ResponseNo, each dispute comes from its own פסוק
  18. StatementGoing back to the first פסוק: the warning
  19. QuestionWhat is רבי ישמעאל's reason?
  20. Responseרבי ישמעאל follows רבי אליעזר בן יעקב: the warning is only permitted
  21. Responseרבי עקיבא: a second warning is written
  22. Resolutionרבי ישמעאל: the second warning is there only because of 'defiled' and 'not defiled'
  23. ProofSupport from the school of רבי ישמעאל: a repeated passage is repeated only for its new detail
  24. StatementThe second dispute: is becoming impure for a relative optional or required?
  25. QuestionWhat is the reason of רבי ישמעאל?
  26. Responseרבי ישמעאל: the verse was needed to permit what was forbidden
  27. Responseרבי עקיבא: permission is already known, so the extra words make it required
  28. Resolutionרבי ישמעאל: the extra words exclude becoming impure for just a limb