Daf Yomi Sotah

Sotah 2a and Sotah 2b, starting our journey with a discussion of levels of proof needed to launch a Sotah ceremony, along with questions of propriety of doing so, and the fatedness of marriages.

Sotah 3a and Sotah 3b, how many witnesses are needed for the processes of sotah, whether it is bad, good, or required for a husband to warn his wife about her suspected adultery, and the  question of whether the Torah allowed or obligated husbands, masters of avadim kena’anim, and kohen relatives of those who passed away.

Sotah 4a and Sotah 4b, the time it takes to commit adultery.

Sotah 5a and Sotah 5b, arrogance and its problems.

Sotah 6a and Sotah 6b, the evidence needed for a woman to become prohibited to her husband and to eat terumah.

Sotah 7a and Sotah 7b, the procedure for making her a sotah, starting with the husband bringing her, the court warning her, and moving on from there.

Sotah 8a and Sotah 8b, the procedure for readying a suspected adulteress for drinking the sotah water, with the very important idea of God’s punishments being middah ke-negged middah.

Sotah 9a and Sotah 9b, how middah ke-negged middah works, both for punishment to fit the crime and to fit the reward, with an extended discussion of Shimshon and his life events.

Sotah 10a and Sotah 10b, Shimshon and his story, Tamar and her story, ways of being good and not.

Sotah 11a and Sotah 11b, how reward also reflects the good deed, and then the sequence of Jews’ birth in Egypt.

Sotah 12a and Sotah 12b, Miriam and the hiding of Moshe in the basket on the marsh.

Sotah 13a and Sotah 13b, the burial of Ya’akov, bringing Yosef’s bones out of Egypt, the death of Moshe.

Sotah 14a and Sotah 14b, Moshe’s burial place and its meaning, how we emulate God, and then a discussion of menachot, flour offerings, to lead in to how the sotah‘s flour offering differs.

Sotah 15a and Sotah 15b, the process of offering a regular mincha, how it differed from a sotah‘s mincha, and the process of the sotah‘s offering as well.

Sotah 16a and Sotah 16b, the role of the dirt in the making of the sotah water.

Sotah 17a and Sotah 17b, the sefer on which the woman’s curses are written, what is written, what kind of material, with what ink.

Sotah 18a and Sotah 18b, more rules of the megillah the kohen writes and erases into the water to check the sotah.

Sotah 19a and Sotah 19b, when the sotah drinks the water, with the verses leading to each side’s view.

Sotah 20a and Sotah 20b, the ink of the sotah parchment, whether it has to be written specifically for her, why she is removed from the Temple Mount if the water is hurting her, and starting on the merits that could save her.

Sotah 21a and Sotah 21b, the workings of merits of Torah and of mitzvah that might help a sotah delay the consequences of her act.

Sotah 22a and Sotah 22b, ways to seem more religious than we are, ways to be more ignorant than we think we are.

Sotah 23a and Sotah 23b, some differences between kohanim and kohanot, men and women of the priestly clan, and between men and women generally.

Sotah 24a and Sotah 24b, women who will not drink sotah water ever, and why, starting with an arusah, a woman who has had the first part of the marriage (the ring ceremony) and the shomeret yabam, widow of a childless man waiting for yibum.

Sotah 25a and Sotah 25b, proving whether a Biblically immodest woman gets warning before losing her ketubah, whether a husband may stay with a wife rather than warn her about her conduct with another man, and whether he can relinquish a warning once administered.

Sotah 26a and Sotah 26b, wives and possible adulterers who do and don’t allow for the sotah process, and/or for removing a woman’s right to eat terumah.

Sotah 27a and Sotah 27b, worries about the children of a woman strongly suspected of adultery, whether a man may stay married to such a woman, and a new chapter, with various inferences from Scripture learned on the day R. Elazar b. Azaryah became the head of the yeshiva.

Sotah 28a and Sotah 28b, the multiple verses within the sotah ceremony and what they each teach us, about the waters’ effect on the adulterer, the prohibitions created on the woman, the status of doubtful situations.

Sotah 29a and Sotah 29b, doubts about tum’ah, and then levels of tum’ah produced in various situations.

Sotah 30a and Sotah 30b, how levels of tum’ah interact with each other, and the group who think there’s no such thing as a shelishi for chullin.

Sotah 31a and Sotah 31b, finishing off the Mishnah about serving God out of love or fear, and then a new chapter, on the kind of testimony that will stop her from drinking the sotah water.

Sotah 32a and Sotah 32b, the Mishnah that lays out ceremonies requiring Hebrew or not, starting to give sources for those ideas.

Sotah 33a and Sotah 33b, giving sources for which ceremonies require the original Hebrew and which do not.

Sotah 34a and Sotah 34b, how the Jews crossed the Jordan.

Sotah 35a and Sotah 35b, finishing crossing the Jordan, turning to issues of carrying the Aron.

Sotah 36a and Sotah 36b, how Yosef earned a letter of God’s Name in his.

Sotah 37a and Sotah 37b, the covenants of the Jewish people and our responsibilities for each other.

Sotah 38a and Sotah 38b, some rules and practices of the priestly blessing, with a series of ideas of R. Yehoshu’a b. Levi.

Sotah 39a and Sotah 39b, more details of the process of birkhat kohanim.

Sotah 40a and Sotah 40b, what we say during birchat kohanim, or don’t, the humility of great rabbis, and the Modim we say during Modim.

Sotah 41a and Sotah 41b, the reading of the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur and of the king at Hakhel.

Sotah 42a and Sotah 42b, finishing the flaws of flattery and then the ceremony for preparing soldiers for battle.

Sotah 43a and Sotah 43b, more of the procedure for going to war, who was exempt and for what.

Sotah 44a and Sotah 44b, finishing the war rules, moving on to egla arufa.

Sotah 45a and Sotah 45b, more on the eglah arufah ceremony, how many members of the Sanhedrin had to be involved, where the body could be found, how we measure to the nearest city.

Sotah 46a and Sotah 46b, comparing egla arufa to para aduma, and then more rules of egla arufa on its own.

Sotah 47a and Sotah 47b, a lot, including a story about Jesus.

Sotah 48a and Sotah 48b, more of what we lost in the runup to the destruction of the First Temple.

Sotah 49a and Sotah 49b, a much fuller last Daf than usual…