Copyright 2023 Neal Joseph Loevinger
Torah Portion: Naso
וְהֵבִ֤יא אֶת־קׇרְבָּנָהּ֙ עָלֶ֔יהָ עֲשִׂירִ֥ת הָאֵיפָ֖ה קֶ֣מַח שְׂעֹרִ֑ים לֹֽא־יִצֹ֨ק
עָלָ֜יו שֶׁ֗מֶן וְלֹֽא־יִתֵּ֤ן עָלָיו֙ לְבֹנָ֔ה כִּֽי־מִנְחַ֤ת קְנָאֹת֙ ה֔וּא מִנְחַ֥ת זִכָּר֖וֹן מַזְכֶּ֥רֶת עָוֺֽן׃
And he shall bring as an offering for her one-tenth of an ephah of barley flour. No oil shall be poured upon it and no frankincense shall be laid on it, for it is a meal offering of jealousy, a meal offering of remembrance which recalls wrongdoing. (Bamidbar 5:15)
Good afternoon! It’s been too long, I’ve been a bit busy the past 5 weeks or so, but the monkey is off my back and we’re back in business at rabbineal.net. This week’s Torah portion contains one of the most vexing set of laws in the Torah, that of the Sotah, a ritual of drinking bitter waters to demonstrate the guilt or innocence of a wife suspected of infidelity. There’s an entire tractate of Talmud dedicated to the laws of this ritual, as well as much commentary about its relationship to other Biblical and ancient laws, as well as trenchant observations about the unfairness of having a ritual that humiliates women suspected of infidelity but nothing comparable for men.
For today, however, I want to focus on one subtle aspect of the ritual, often overlooked in many other commentaries. The husband of the suspected wife brings an unusual meal-offering when he brings her to the priest, a meal-offering of rough barley flour, without oil or fragrance. Some commentaries suggest this meal-offering is rough barley flour because barley groats are more like animal feed than human food, and the woman being brought to the Sotah ritual is suspected of acting out of lust or passions like an animal might.
I would suggest it’s the other way around. Notice the relatively verbose description of this unique mincha-offering: a meal offering of jealousy, a meal offering of remembrance which recalls wrongdoing. The Hebrew root kuf-nun-aleph, translated as “jealousy,” can also mean zealous. The last phrase is especially interesting: literally, this offering is a “mincha of remembering, of the remembrance of sin,” with the word for “remembrance” being doubled in the phrase.
In other words, perhaps the mincha of the Sotah is plain barley, without oil or fragrance, because it’s the husband who is acting out of baser instincts like jealousy or possessiveness. Not only that, but look at how this offering is described ten verses later:
וְלָקַ֤ח הַכֹּהֵן֙ מִיַּ֣ד הָֽאִשָּׁ֔ה אֵ֖ת מִנְחַ֣ת הַקְּנָאֹ֑ת וְהֵנִ֤יף אֶת־הַמִּנְחָה֙ לִפְנֵ֣י יְהֹוָ֔ה וְהִקְרִ֥יב אֹתָ֖הּ אֶל־הַמִּזְבֵּֽחַ׃
Then the priest shall take from the woman’s hand the meal offering of jealousy, elevate the meal offering before יהוה, and present it on the altar. (5:25)
Now it’s merely the mincha of jealousy, without even being called a “zichron,” or remembrance. (See also verse 18.)
It seems to me that there’s a not very subtle hint here that a husband who remembers obsessively becomes someone who is consumed by his jealousy. The woman may or may not be innocent, but he’s the one acting out of baser emotions. We might further suggest that too much remembering can be just as bad as too much forgetting: if we kept account of every slight, injustice, or suspicion in our relationships, who would not ultimately become zealously enraged? The sources tell us the Sotah was discontinued in ancient times, but the task of moderating our emotions, and letting go of our suspicions, grudges, and wrath, is always our challenge, in every generation.
Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi Neal's Weekly Commentary 