Commentaire sur Sotah 2:1
הָיָה מֵבִיא אֶת מִנְחָתָהּ בְּתוֹךְ כְּפִיפָה מִצְרִית וְנוֹתְנָהּ עַל יָדֶיהָ כְּדֵי לְיַגְּעָהּ. כָּל הַמְּנָחוֹת תְּחִלָּתָן וְסוֹפָן בִּכְלִי שָׁרֵת, וְזוֹ תְּחִלָּתָהּ בִּכְפִיפָה מִצְרִית וְסוֹפָהּ בִּכְלִי שָׁרֵת. כָּל הַמְּנָחוֹת טְעוּנוֹת שֶׁמֶן וּלְבֹנָה, וְזוֹ אֵינָהּ טְעוּנָה לֹא שֶׁמֶן וְלֹא לְבֹנָה. כָּל הַמְּנָחוֹת בָּאוֹת מִן הַחִטִּין, וְזוֹ בָאָה מִן הַשְּׂעוֹרִין. מִנְחַת הָעֹמֶר אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁבָּאָה מִן הַשְּׂעוֹרִין הִיא הָיְתָה בָאָה גֶרֶשׂ, וְזוֹ בָאָה קֶמַח. רַבָּן גַּמְלִיאֵל אוֹמֵר, כְּשֵׁם שֶׁמַּעֲשֶׂיהָ מַעֲשֵׂה בְהֵמָה, כָּךְ קָרְבָּנָהּ מַאֲכַל בְּהֵמָה:
Il apportait son offrande de repas dans un panier tordu et le mettait dans sa main pour la fatiguer. Toutes les offres de repas commencent et se terminent dans des navires de service, mais celui-ci commence dans un panier tordu et se termine dans un navire de service. Toutes les offrandes de repas nécessitent de l'huile et de l'encens, mais celle-ci ne nécessite ni huile ni encens. Toutes les offrandes de repas proviennent de blé, mais celle-ci provient d'orge. L'offrande de farine de l' omer , bien qu'elle vienne d'orge, vient de ce qui a été tamisé, mais celle-ci vient de non tamisée. Le rabbin Gamliel a dit: Tout comme ses actes étaient comme ceux d'un animal, de même son sacrifice provient de la nourriture pour les animaux.
Bartenura on Mishnah Sotah
היה מביא – the husband.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sotah
Introduction
As part of the Sotah ritual, Numbers 5:15 states, “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 transgression.”
From this passage we can already see that this meal-offering differs from other meal-offerings and that it is not a “fancy” offering, but rather base. Most of our mishnah is based on this passage, but the sages add a few flourishes of their own to the baseness of this meal-offering.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Sotah
את מנחתה – as it is written (Numbers 5:15): “[The man shall bring his wife to the priest.] And he shall bring as an offering for her [one-tenth of an ephah of barley flour].”
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sotah
[The husband] brings her meal-offering in a basket of palm-twigs and places it upon her hands in order to weary her. With all other meal-offerings, their beginning and their end are in ministering vessels; but with this, its beginning is in a basket of palm-twigs and its end in a ministering vessel. Numbers 5:18 states that the husband places the meal offering on his wife’s hands. The mishnah reads this as an attempt to tire her out, and thereby convince her to admit her guilt and avoid the ceremony. Again, we see that the rabbis are trying to avoid at all costs the enactment of the ceremony, for this will cause God’s name to be rubbed out. The mishnah adds to the humiliation, or at least lack of adornment of the ceremony, by stating that unlike all other meal-offerings, which are brought and then brought back in ministering vessels of gold and silver, this one is initially put into a simple reed basket.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Sotah
בכפיפה מצרית – a basket made from palm bark [from] the soft that grew around the palm tree.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sotah
All other meal-offerings require oil and frankincense, but this requires neither oil nor frankincense. This rule is stated explicitly in the verse from Numbers.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Sotah
כדי ליגעה – that she should confess [her sin of adultery] and not blot out the Name [of God] on the [bitter] waters. And according to the one who says that at the beginning, they would cause her to drink [the bitter waters], and afterwards bring her meal offering, even though the Name [of God] was blotted out, from when she hired, in order that she would confess and not die a disgraced–disfigured death, and even though the scroll was blotted out, if she said, “I am ritually impure,” she does not drink [the waters of bitterness].
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sotah
All other meal-offerings come from wheat, but this comes from barley. Barley was considered a much coarser grain than wheat. The fact that the Torah demands that the Sotah’s meal-offering be brought from barley is again evidence of the fact that it is almost like animal food, as Rabban Gamaliel states below.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Sotah
תחלתן וסופן בכלי שרת – not in actual vessels dedicated to Temple service–sacred vessels is spoken of for a person does not bring his meal-offering from the midst of his home in sacred vessels but rather in women’s work baskets of silver or of gold which are appropriate for use as sacred vessels.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sotah
The meal-offering of the Omer, although it comes from barley, was in the form of sifted flour; but this comes from unsifted flour. The mishnah notes that there is one other meal-offering that was also brought from barley. What distinguishes the Omer offering from that of the Sotah is the fact that the former is sifted and the latter is not.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Sotah
וזו בכפיפה מצרית – And this is in a basket made of palm-twigs for it is not appropriate to make from it sacred vessels for it is similar to (Malachi 1:8): “Just offer it to your governor.”
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sotah
Rabban Gamaliel says: just as her actions were the actions of an animal, so her offering [consisted of] animal's fodder. The final note of our mishnah is clearly where the whole passage was headed. The meal-offering of the Sotah is symbolic of her (albeit) alleged crime of adultery. Uncontrolled sexuality is not proper behavior for human beings; it is behavior fit for an animal. To symbolize this, the Torah and Rabbis made the Sotah’s meal-offering close to animal food.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Sotah
כל המנחות טעונות שמן ולבונה – In the Gemara (Tractate Sotah 14b), the objection is raised: But this is the meal offering of sin-offering, as it is written about it (Leviticus 5:11): “he shall not add oil to it or lay frankincense on it, [for it is a sin offering].” But, that which we teach [in this Mishnah]: "כל המנחות באות חטים" –”All meal offerings derive from wheat,” is difficult, for this meal offering of the Omer comes from barley. And the Gemara (Talmud Sotah 14b) resolves the difficulty – one should not teach anything singly but rather, wrapped up–combined and it is taught and this is what it said: all of the meal offerings require oil and frankincense–"כל המנחות טעונות שמן ולבונה", but those that don’t require oil and frankincense come from wheat and the sin meal-offering comes from sifted fine flour, even though it does not require oil and frankincense, it comes from wheat and sifted fine flour.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Sotah
And it comes from grits–unsifted flour, and this does not require oil or frankincense and comes from barley and is derived from flour.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Sotah
גרש – it is sifted and winnowed in thirteen sieves like a kind of fine sifted flour with wheat.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Sotah
קמח – everything is combined like it is grinded.
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