Nazir 4: How Long Does Defilement Take?; Hand Washing, Adultery and Pride

So how long does it take for a wife forbidden from secluding herself with a particular man to actually be defiled?  The rabbis debate what defilement entails - full intercourse?  Partial intercourse?  Simply genitals touching each other?  Clearly they lean toward the minimal contact required, for their suggestions of how long defilement will take are extremely short.  

The rabbis suggest different amounts of time: the time it takes to roast an egg, to circle a palm tree, to lift one's hand to her teeth, to remove a loaf of bread from a basket... and so on.  Why didn't any one rabbi suggest that it might take the amount of time required for a woman to lift her skirts and remove her undergarment? 

The rabbis include appeasement in their measures of time, too: this is the amount it takes to convince a woman to have intercourse and to touch genitals.  In the end, Rabbi Akiva's suggestion is our halacha: the amount of time it takes to defile oneself while in seclusion is the same amount of time it would take to roast and swallow an egg.

The rabbis had quoted from Psalms 6:26 regarding the example of a loaf of bread.  That verse teaches that "For on account of a harlot, a man is brought to a loaf of bread".  This is interpreted to mean that harlotry leaves one needy.  The conversation turns to handwashing.  We learn that Rabbi Elazar believes that one who is contemptuous toward the handwashing ritual is uprooted from the world.

The rabbis go to some length discussing the manner in which hands should be washed.  They are washed for two reasons.  The first is to remove ritual impurity, which is said to be contracted on one hands.  The second is for reasons of hygiene.  This section of today's daf read like a how-to for people struggling with OCD.  We wash our hands twice, once to remove impurity and the second to remove any lingering impurity.  We hold our hands in a position that ensures no cross-contamination. We ensure that all spots that were wet in the first wash are wet again during the second wash... and so on.  OCD is often characterized by symptoms including excessive hand washing... it is difficult to imagine a more authoritative source for this debilitating disorder.

We end our daf with a discussion of the dangers of arrogance.  Much of today's conversation included  connections to harlotry.  It seems that our rabbis might link the experience of an adulterous woman with those of women who  engage in prostitution.  The notion that a wife might be coerced into seclusion and intercourse with a 'forbidden' man seems to be unimportant at this point in Masechet Sota.  We'll find out whether or not that is a question as we continue to learn.