Sota 22: Those Who Erode the World

We learn about two groups of people in today's daf.  The first are ignoramuses (am ha'aretz), boors, and sorcerers.  Who is whom?  The rabbis debate about people who do not learn Torah and/or Mishna.  They discuss those who do not say the shema in the morning and the evening; those who say prayers or learn without understanding the meaning of their words.  They consider people who do not wear ritual fringes and people who do not encourage their sons to learn Torah.  My favourite: those who do not serve Torah scholars.  our notes teach that we serve Torah scholars to spend time with them and emulate their ways.  More palatable than simply being told to serve them.

Sorcerers seem to signify something more specific.  Sorcerers are said to be Zoroastrian priests who recited words that they did not understand.  

The second group of people whom we learn about today are the three types of people who erode the world.  These are:

• a maiden who prays all day
• a widow who visits her neighbours frequently
• a child who is born without completing the last three months of gestation

The rabbis question the first two people: aren't these people in fact righteous? Well, not if they are trying to seem more righteous than they are; not if they are trying to impress people with their piety; not if they are causing problems for others rather than performing mitzvot.  

The third person is interpreted as a metaphor for a Torah scholar who teaches or judges without having learned for long enough.  Does a Torah scholar have to have forty years of learning before he rules on halacha?  Or must he be forty years old?  Or must he be the equal of another scholar who is considered to be the most learned Torah scholar in his town?

Finally, we learn about the third group of people: the pseudo-righteous who erode the world.  These are those who are:

• the self-castrating righteous of Shechem who do mitzvot to benefit themselves
• the self-flagellating righteous who harm their feet by walking slowly to appear pious
• the bloodletting righteous who bang their heads into walls by walking with their eyes closed to appear righteous
• the pestle-like righteous who walk in the shape of a mortar's pestle to appear pious
• asking for their obligations rather than asking for additional mitzvot to perform
• performing mitzvot out of love for the reward offered
• performing mitzvot out of fear rather than for its own sake - for eventually mitzvot will be performed for their own sake

All of these are similar in that people 'wear the cloak of righteousness'.  The Gemara notes that the last two mitzvot might describe our forefather Abraham, who performed mitzvot out of love, and Job, who performed mitzvot out of fear.  

Our daf ends with the beginning of a new Mishna.  It teaches that Rabbi Meir and Rabbi HaNasi argue about the effects of merit on the punishment of a sota.  What does the delayed punishment of a sota look like? She becomes increasingly ill until she dies the death described as that of a sota.  She would not be able to give birth nor would she flourish in any way if her punishment were delayed by merit.  The Mishna also notes that a sota's meal-offering is treated similarly to other meal-offerings if it is found to be impure at different points in the process; early on, it is redeemed; later, it is burned.

Both women and men are chastised for claiming to be more righteous than they are.  However, women are used in the first examples of those who 'erode the world'.  Younger women are critiqued for looking as though they are praying too much.  Older women are critiqued for visiting others too much.  What are women to do in such a hypervigilant culture?