פירוש על סוטה 1:11

המקנא לאשתו – even though that one suspects [one’s wife], which implies, post-facto, yes, and ab initio, no, the Halakha is that a man is obligated to be jealous over one’s wife if she is in need of this, and further on (Mishnah 2), it (i.e., the Mishnah) explains how one suspects [one’s wife].

Introduction Numbers 5:14 states, “And a fit of jealousy came upon him and he was jealous about his wife.” The phrase “and he was jealous” is an active verb in Hebrew, and not an adjectival phrase as I have translated it in English. It is as if the verse states “and he jealoused his wife”. The rabbis understand this active verb not to be a state of mind of the husband but rather a warning that the husband states to his wife not to associate with a certain man, the man about whom he has suspicions. Throughout, I will translate this verb “kine” as “warn”. Our mishnah discusses this process. Again, we should note that the sotah ritual cannot be enacted unless there is some type of legal procedure that precedes it. This legal procedure makes it more likely that the husband’s suspicions are true. This mishnah and many others refer to the “bitter waters”. This is the water that the Sotah must drink as part of her test. The phrase comes from Number 5:23.

מקנא לה על פי שנים – if he comes to cause her to drink the bitter waters, he must bring two witnesses, and to say to her in their presence, “do not hide yourself with a certain man,” but if he didn’t accuse her of unfaithfulness before two [witnesses], she is not prohibited to him through her retirement with this man under suspicious circumstances, and he doesn’t cause her to drink [the bitter waters].

One who warns his wife [not to associate with a certain man]: Rabbi Eliezer says: he warns her on the testimony of two witnesses, and makes her drink [the bitter waters] on the testimony of one witness or on his own testimony. Rabbi Joshua says: he warns her on the testimony of two and makes her drink on the testimony of two. In tomorrow’s mishnah we shall see that the “warning” is a two-part procedure. First the husband must warn her not to associate with a certain man. If after this warning she is secluded with that very man, the husband can take her to the Temple for her to undergo the Sotah test. Without both steps, the Sotah ritual cannot be enacted. In our mishnah, Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua debate regarding the testimony necessary for each step. Both rabbis agree that he must warn her in front of two witnesses, the usual number for any legal procedure. They disagree with regard to her seclusion, the final step that will lead the husband to bring her to drink the bitter waters. According to Rabbi Eliezer, even the husband may testify that she was secluded with the man about whom she was warned, and thereby bring her to the Temple to undergo the Sotah test. Rabbi Joshua holds that just as “warning” requires two witnesses, so too does her the final step that will cause her to have to drink the bitter waters.

על פי עד אחד או ע"פ עצמו – even if there aren’t other than one witness that she secluded herself, or he himself states: “I saw her that she secluded herself [with him] after I suspected her of being unfaithful, she is forbidden through this woman’s retirement with a man under suspicious circumstances, until she drinks [the bitter waters], for her suspected retirement with this man under suspicious circumstances prohibits her to him (i.e., her husband) from a doubt.

ר' יהושע אומר כו' – one needs two witnesses even for the woman’s retirement with a man under suspicious circumstances. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yehoshua and even though we state in the Gemara (Talmud Sotah 2b) that at this time, a man should not say to his wife, even between him an her [alone] that she should not seclude herself with that particular man, for one fears for the words of Rabbi Yose the son of Rabbi Yehuda who stated that a warning [is effective] if given by one witness or on [the husband’s personal testimony. If she then secluded herself with the man, since we do no have now he water for a suspected woman to test her, the husband forbids her to himself for all time.

כיצד הוא מקנא לה אמר לה בפני שנים אל תדברי עם איש פלוני כו' – In the Gemara (Talmud Sotah 5b): He said in the presence of two [witnesses], “do not speak [with him]” and she speaks [with him], or “do not speak with him” and she secludes herself [with him], and it is nothing, and she is not prohibited neither to husband nor to [partaking of] Priest’s due–Terumah (if her husband is a Kohen). If he said to her, “do not seclude yourself [with him] and she spoke with him, for she was not yet secluded, she is permitted to her husband and she is permitted to eat Terumah if she is the wife of a Kohen. If she went with him into the house of seclusion and stayed with him [long enough] that she is impure, she is forbidden to her husband and forbidden to consume Terumah. And the measurement [of time] to become ritually impure is [the time it takes] to roast the egg of a chicken and to quaff it.

How does he warn her?
If he says to her in front of two [witnesses], “Do not speak with that man”, and she spoke with him, she is still permitted to her husband and permitted to eat terumah.
If she entered a private place with him and stayed with him a time sufficient for her to be defiled [by having sexual intercourse with him], she is forbidden to her husband and forbidden to eat terumah. If [her husband] died, she performs halitzah but cannot contract yibbum.
Yesterday’s mishnah taught that a husband cannot bring his wife to drink the Sotah waters unless he has first warned her not to seclude herself with a certain man. Today’s mishnah teaches what constitutes warning and what constitutes her transgression of his warning, such that she is brought to be tested.
Section one: The husband is overly strict in his warning. He suspects that she may be having an adulterous affair with a certain man, so he warns her in front of two witnesses not to even speak with this man. The mishnah teaches that even if she speaks with this man, she is not considered a Sotah. She is still permitted to her husband and, if her husband is a priest, she may still eat terumah. A man cannot prevent his wife from speaking to other men.
Section two: However, if he warned her, and she entered a secluded place with that man, then she is a Sotah, meaning a woman who must be tested before her innocence can be established. Since, she is now under the presumption of being an adulteress, she can no longer have intercourse with her husband. This is according to the rule that adultery forbids a woman from returning to her husband. If she is a priest’s wife, she can no longer eat terumah, since she may no longer be permitted to remain his wife. The woman is still his wife, but the normalcy of their marriage has ceased and therefore, to be strict, the halakhah forbids them to continue to act as man and wife. The fact that she still is his wife is evident from the last halakhah of the mishnah. If her husband died without children and she had a brother, she can no longer undergo the Sotah ritual. She is still required to have halitzah with her husband’s brother, because were she to have undergone the ritual she may have been found to be innocent, in which case the marriage would have returned to normal. However, she cannot have yibbum, because she may have actually been guilty. A wife prohibited to her husband as a Sotah is also prohibited to her yavam.
Note, that this last halakhah is the means by which the mishnah teaches that she is still married to her husband and that the fact that she is prohibited to him and cannot eat terumah are stringencies lest she is actually guilty.

אם מת חולצת ולא מתיבמת – but if her husband dies prior to causing her to drink [the bitter waters], she is released by Halitzah (i.e., she removes the shoe of her dead husband’s brother [and spits in his face]) and does not engage in a levirate marriage [with her dead husband’s brother], as it is written (Deuteronomy 24:2): “She leaves his household and becomes the wife of another man.” And they (i.e., the Rabbis) expound: “to another man” but not to the levir, and even though she is not permitted to a stranger without Halitzah, for just as if her husband were alive, she would not be permitted [to another man] without a Get–Jewish bill of divorce, so similarly, she is not permitted from the levir without Halizah.

Introduction There are some women who may be suspected of adultery but who do not have the opportunity or the obligation to drink the Sotah waters which would test her innocence or guilt. Had they passed the test, these women would have been allowed to return to being permitted to have intercourse with their husbands and, if married to a priest, to eat terumah. However, since they can’t drink the water, they cannot stay married to their husbands, nor can they eat terumah.

The following are prohibited to eat terumah:
She who says [to her husband], “I am unclean to you”, and witnesses came [and testified] that she was unclean; The Sotah ritual is meant to test a case where adultery is questionable. If the woman admits that she committed adultery, the ritual is no longer necessary and hence forbidden. Note that in the last mishnah in Nedarim, the mishnah ruled that a woman who states “I am unclean to you” is not forbidden to her husband. However, in this mishnah, after her husband had warned her, it is more likely that she really has committed adultery and therefore she is forbidden to her husband. The Talmud notes that it is obvious that if witnesses came that she is not a Sotah. Witnesses who testify to her having committed adultery certify her as an adulterous, and not a “suspected adulteress”. Therefore, the Talmud understands that the mishnah refers to a situation where she has already undergone the Sotah ritual and seemingly has not been ill-effected by the bitter waters, and then witnesses came and testified that she was unclean. The Talmud rules that the witnesses who state her guilt are greater than the waters which state her innocence. This is another example of the remarkable power given to human beings in rabbinic law. The divine, magical test of the bitter waters is less accurate than the normal human measure of testimony.

She who says, “I refuse to drink [the water]”. The husband cannot force his wife to undergo the Sotah ritual, a ritual that as we shall see was humiliating and probably frightening for the woman. Her husband must divorce her and he need not pay her ketubah, but he cannot force her to drink the bitter waters.

She whose husband does not want to make her drink [the water]: In this case, the husband does not want to make her drink the bitter waters, but she wants to. Perhaps he regrets having suspected his wife, or perhaps he himself will be embarrassed when everyone sees that he has made his wife into a Sotah. The mishnah rules that although he doesn’t want her to drink the waters, he cannot return to having her as his wife. Once he has gone through the process of warning her and her having been caught secluded with that person, it is too late to resume the marriage. He must divorce her, and since he is the one who doesn’t want her to drink, he must pay her the ketubah.

And she whose husband had intercourse with her on the journey. How does [the husband] deal with her? He brings her to the court in the place where he resides, and they assign to him two disciples of the sages lest he have intercourse with her on the journey. Rabbi Judah says, her husband is trusted with her. From the moment that she has been secluded with the man about whom she was warned, she and her husband are prohibited from having sexual relations. Just as adulterous women may not return to their husbands, so too suspected adulteresses may not. If he nevertheless has sexual relations with her on his way to the Temple to test her, he has committed a sin. The Talmud teaches that the Sotah ritual only works for a husband who is free from transgression. A husband who himself has transgressed the laws of forbidden sexual relations, may not bring his wife to test her. The mishnah is also stating that a husband cannot accuse his wife of being an adulteress and then keep living with her as usual. That would be hypocritical. This is a small measure of egalitarianism in Mishnah Sotah. We shall also see later the idea that just as the waters check her, they check him as well. The mishnah notes a problem. How can the husband accompany his wife on their way to Jerusalem to the Temple, without transgressing the prohibition? The fear is that while traveling and being secluded at night, the husband will have relations with her. The solution is that two disciples of the sages accompany them on their trip. Rabbi Judah holds that a husband is trusted not to have relations with his wife at times when she is prohibited to him.

היו מעלים אותה לב"ד הגדול – as it is written concerning the woman suspected by her husband of having been unfaithful (Numbers 5:30): “And the priest shall carry out all of this ritual (i.e., Torah) with her,” and it is written there (Deuteronomy 17:11): “You shall act in accordance with the instructions (i.e., Torah) given you.” Just as there it takes place in the High Jewish Court, so here too, in the High Jewish Court.

Introduction The mishnah now begins to describe the process of bringing the sotah to the Temple. First the judges warn her just how serious the ceremony and its consequences are. The point of this admonition and of all of what they say to her is to convince her to admit to her guilt so that the name of God will not be rubbed out from the scroll onto the water, as mandates the ceremony.

ומאיימין עליה – in order that she will confess.

They bring her up to the great court which is in Jerusalem, and [the judges] solemnly admonish her in the same way that they admonish witnesses in capital cases. And they say to her, “My daughter, much is done by wine does much, much is done by frivolity, much is done by youth, much is done by bad neighbors. For the sake of His great name which is written in holiness do it so that it may not be rubbed out on the water.” And they say to her matters which neither she nor all the family of her father's house is worthy to hear. In capital cases, the judges warn the witnesses that if they testify falsely, an innocent man will be executed. Similarly, here they warn the woman, that if she lies drastic results will occur. For the warning given to witnesses, see Sanhedrin 4:5. The judges also tell her that many things might have caused her to commit adultery and while these do not excuse her sin, they make her sin more understandable. They are telling her that she should not be shamed of admitting her guilt. They implore her not to go through with the ceremony, because part of the ceremony involves writing God’s name on a scroll and then rubbing it out. This is a great desecration and should only be done under the most dire of circumstances. Finally, they tell her things which the mishnah doesn’t even want to mention. Note that according to the mishnah, her family came along with her. Assumedly they are there to defend her, and hope that she is found innocent. The Talmud relates that they tell her stories where Biblical characters admitted to their sins. For example, Judah admits that he sinned with Tamar (Genesis 39:26).

הרבה ילדות עושה – and causes to give birth to moral corruption.

דברים שאינן כדאי לשומען – which is not appropriate to hear these things that they say in her presence from the deeds of the righteous people such as Judah who admitted and was not ashamed for the incident with Tamar. Reuven admitted and was not ashamed with the episode of Bilhah.

שוברת כתובתה – she writes a receipt on her Ketubah–marriage contract: “I have run about as a prostitute–been unfaithful and I have lost [the right to] my Ketubah in order that she would not be able to return and claim her Ketubah from him, but in a place where they do not write a Ketubah, but rather rely upon a condition of the Jewish court, is where she writes a receipt, but in a place where they write a Ketubah, she tears up her Ketubah and does not write a receipt.

Introduction This mishnah begins to describe the Sotah ritual. I should make at this point a general note about the process. We are going to encounter now a ceremony that was intended to disgrace the woman. I believe that the rabbis thought that by disgracing women who actually went through with the ceremony, they would discourage the ceremony from ever taking place. Furthermore, the public humiliation would serve to deter others from committing the same crimes. Finally, as I pointed out in the introduction to Sotah, it is likely that this woman has indeed committed adultery, for she secluded herself with the same man about whom her husband warned her. Nevertheless, we should appreciate how harsh the process is for the woman and that especially for the innocent woman who would have been dragged through the process, it would have been a trauma.

מעלין אותה לשער המזרח – they bring her up and take her down in order to tire her so that perhaps her mind will become insane and she will confess.

If she said, “I am defiled to you”, she gives him a receipt for her ketubah and goes out [with a get]. If, after the warnings are stated to her, she admits that she did commit adultery, she does not drink the Sotah waters. Rather, she loses her ketubah, gives her husband a receipt for the ketubah (even though she didn’t receive it), and is divorced. Note that she is not tried as an adulterer since, even if there were witnesses, she was not warned about the consequences of her act when she committed adultery. In general, as we learned in Sanhedrin, it is exceedingly difficult in Jewish law to convict a person of a capital crime.

שעל פתח שער נקנור – a man whose name is Nicanor who brought doors to that opening from Alexandria of Egypt and miracles occurred for him and it is called the Gate of Nicanor in his name as we state in [Tractate] Yoma [38a].

But if she says, “I am pure”, they bring her up to the east gate, Nicanor’s gate, where they give women suspected of adultery the water to drink, purify women after childbirth and purify lepers. If she continues to insist that she is innocent, she is brought to the east gate of the Temple. The mishnah notes that two other ceremonies were also performed at this gate. There women who had given birth waited while the priests offered their sacrifices which are mandatory for a woman to purify herself after birth (Leviticus 12:6-7) and there lepers waited while priests offered their purificatory sacrifices (Leviticus 14:11). Neither lepers nor women who had given birth could go further into the Temple courtyards since they were impure until their sacrifices were offered.

ששם משקין את הסוטות – since we require “before God.”

A priest seizes her clothing if they are torn, then they are torn, and if they become unstitched, then they are unstitched, until he uncovers her bosom, and he undoes [the braids of] her hair. Rabbi Judah says: if her bosom was beautiful he does not uncover it, and if her hair was beautiful he does not undo it. The mishnah prescribes that the priest publicly shame her. Part of the function of this process was to deter others from committing the same sin. By publicly at least partially stripping her and undoing her hair, the nature of her crime would be literally and figuratively laid bare to all. Rabbi Judah seems to note that this process may have had an opposite effect. While it is intended to deter others it may have served as a source of titillation. Therefore, if the effect of baring her bosom, or undoing her hair would serve to arouse others for she is a beautiful woman, it is not to be done.

ומטהרין את היולדות – in order that they will stand on top of their sacrifices and the same law applies regarding men and women with a flux which require a sacrifice.

ומטהרין את המצורע – as it is written (Leviticus 14:11): “These shall be presented before the LORD [with the man to be cleansed at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting] by the priest who performs the cleansing.”

אוחז בבגדיה – at their front of the neck.

אם נקרעו – he does not suspect and if they were torn, he does not suspect for the rending of garments is greater than rending, which was rent into many torn pieces. Another language: tearing from the sides is tearing by length.

עד שמגלה את לבה – as it is written (Numbers 5:18): “[the priest] shall bare the woman’s head.” I don’t know anything other than her head; her body – from where? The inference teaches us: “the woman.” If so, what is the inference concerning “her head?” It teaches that he cuts her hair.

רבי יהודה אומר כו' – perhaps she goes out innocent and the young priests become jealous of her for they saw that her heart was pleasant and her beautiful hair, but the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.

היתה מכוסה בלבנים מכסה בשחורים – if they were black [clothing] that were nice for her, cover her with ugly black clothing.

Introduction This mishnah continues to describe the public humiliation which the Sotah must undergo.

קטליות – large that they place around the neck and because the woman chokes herself with them in order that she would appear to have a lot of skin, they are called קטליות –chains–necklaces.

If she was clothed in white, he clothes her in black. If she wore gold jewelry or necklaces, ear-rings and finger-rings, they remove them from her in order to make her repulsive. The Sotah is not allowed to continue to wear clothes or jewelry that make her more beautiful.

נזמים וטבעות מעבירים ממנה – The Gemara (Talmud Sotah 8b) explains that you would not say that she should leave the earrings and rings after her clothes had been torn and revealed her heart–bosom that this is more of a disgrace to her just as it is a greater disgrace for a naked man that he should walk with shoes on his feet than walk barefoot. It comes to teach us that this is not the case.

After that [the priest] takes a rope made of twigs and binds it over her breasts. After the clothes were torn (see previous mishnah), the priest uses a coarse rope to tie them above her breasts. She is not meant to stand there naked, but rather just disheveled.

חבל מצרי – It explains in the Jerusalem Talmud that because she acted in the ways of Egypt, but if there is no “common rope”–Egyptian rope, bring other ropes.

Whoever wishes to look upon her comes to look with the exception of her male and female slaves, since she has no shame in front of them. The mishnah allows, indeed encourages, the Sotah to be made into a public spectacle. Anyone who wishes to look at her can do so. The only exceptions are her male and female slaves, for they are accustomed to seeing her at her most intimate moments. Seeing them might encourage her not to admit to her crime, and one of the goals of the ceremony is for her to crime.

קושרו למעלה מדדיה – so that her clothing doesn’t fall and she would remain naked.

All of the women are permitted to look upon her, as it is said, “That all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness” (Ezekiel 23:48). The Talmud understands that not only are other women permitted to look at her, but they are actually obligated to look at her. This is learned from Ezekiel who says that other women shall see the adulteress punished and will not repeat her crimes. Note that the chapter in Ezekiel uses the metaphor of adultery to describe Israel’s “whoring” itself after foreign Gods. The vivid descriptions of her crimes and the description of her punishment are reflections of the punishment of adulteresses.

וכל הרוצה לראות יבא ויראה – and specifically, with men, it is optional and not obligatory, but with women, it is obligatory upon all the women that are found there to come and look as it is written (Ezekiel 23:48): “and all the women shall take warning [not to imitate your wantonness].”

וכל הנשים מותרות לראותה. חייבין לראות – But women are permitted to look at her and obligated to look at her. This is explained in the Gemara (Talmud Sotah 8b).

המקום ניולה – that a Kohen reveals her head and unravels her hair and rends her clothing.

Introduction This mishnah and those that follow are about the concept “measure for measure”. The Sotah’s humiliation and punishment fits her crime of adultery.

היא גלתה את עצמה – she sat at the crossroads and revealed herself to an adulterer.

In the measure with which a person metes out to others, they mete out to him. She adorned herself for a sin; the Omnipresent made her repulsive. She exposed herself for a sin; the Omnipresent exposed her. She began the transgression with the thigh and afterwards with the womb; therefore she is punished first in the thigh and afterwards in the womb, nor does all the body escape. According to the theology of this mishnah, God acts upon a person in relation to that person’s actions. So too, the Torah’s punishments for the Sotah are commensurate with her crimes. The mishnah now illustrates this. She is made repulsive, her clothes are ripped and her hair is torn, in response to her adorning herself in preparation for adultery. She is exposed for all to see, because she exposed herself to her lover. Finally, the Torah states that if the waters find her to be guilty, her thigh and then womb (belly) will be disfigured. These are two of the areas of her body that were involved in the affair. She exposed to him her thigh, which is often understood to be the genitalia, and then she allowed him to enter her womb. The mishnah notes that this is only the beginning of her curse. She should not think that only her thigh and belly will be disfigured. Rather they are just the start.

המקום גלה עליה – that a Kohen places her at the Nicanor Gate and shows her disgrace to everyone.

בירך התחילה בעבירה תחילה – on the way to sexual intercourse, the thigh benefits first through the closeness of the flesh.

ושאר כל הגוף לא פלט the other limbs of her body are not spared from the illness, even though they are not mentioned in the Bible other than the stomach and the thigh.

לונביאות – spears.

Introduction This mishnah continues to discuss cases where a person is punished in correspondence to his crime. This is more than someone receiving his “just desserts”. Rather it is the idea that the part of the body that sinned is directly punished, or that the precise details of the sin are replayed on the body of the one who committed the crime. The two examples in our mishnah are Samson and Absalom, David’s rebellious son.

לב אביו – Absalom said to his father (i.e., King David): “Write for me that two people that I will choose from all of Israel will go with me.” He wrote for him. He would show his father’s signature to two [people] and they follow him. [He then shows it to] two others and they follow him until he gathered two hundred men. All of them are heads of the Sanhedrins. For he stole the heart of his father, the heart of the Jewish court and the heart of all Israel, as it is written (II Samuel 15:6): “Thus Absalom won away the hearts of the men of Israel.”

Samson went after [the desire of] his eyes; therefore the Philistines put out his eyes, as it is said, “And the Philistines laid hold of him, and put out his eyes” (Judges 16:2. In Judges 14:3 Samson tells his father concerning the Philistine woman in Timnah, “Get that one for me, for she is fitting in my eyes.” From here we can see that he sinned by following the lusts of his eyes. Therefore, his eyes were put out by the Philistines. Interestingly, this is literally a case of “an eye for an eye.” While the rabbis believed that the actual “eye for an eye” law was not meant to be taken literally, the aggadic idea that one who sins with his eyes will be punished there as well, is an accepted idea.

Absalom was proud of his hair, therefore he was hanged by his hair. II Samuel 14:25-26 deals with Absalom’s pride in his hair at some length. Here it is even stated how much his hair was worth when he cut it once a year. His pride in his hair led to his being punished, or ensnared, by his hair. As he was riding on his mule his hair was entangled in a terebinth and he was wrenched off the mule and unable to get free. [I guess there are some advantages to being bald!] This is how he was caught and executed.

And because he had relations with the ten of his father’s concubines, therefore [they thrust] ten spears in him, as it is said, “And ten of Joab’s young arms-bearers closed in [and struck Absalom until he died]” (II Samuel 18:15). The mishnah continues to discuss Absalom. As part of his usurping of his father’s power, he had relations with ten of David’s concubines (II Samuel 16:22). Therefore, he was punished by ten of Joab’s arms-bearers.

And because he stole three hearts, the heart of his father, the heart of the court, and the heart of Israel, as it is said, “So Absalom stole the hearts of the people of Israel” (II Samuel 15:6), therefore three darts were driven into him, as it is said, “And he took three darts in his hand, and drove them through the heart of Absalom” (II Samuel 18:1. Absalom managed to get his father, the court and indeed all of Israel to love him, or at least to follow him. This is called “stealing hearts”, for Absalom did not truly deserve the adoration which he received. Therefore, as a parallel to his stealing other people’s hearts, he was punished by Joab thrusting three darts into his heart and killing him.

וכן לענין הטובה – we give a man a reward of the nature of the good that he did. But, however, more than what he did he is recompensed, for a good measure is greater in payments than the measure of retribution.

Introduction The previous two mishnayoth taught that people are punished in a manner that fits their crime. Our mishnah gives a message of hope by teaching that people are also rewarded in a manner that fits their good deeds. This idea reminds me of what we were constantly told as children: if you want a friend you have to be a friend. The examples of good deeds in this mishnah are those of kindness, waiting for people in their time need and especially taking care of the dead, which is considered the highest act of kindness in Judaism. We should also note that whereas a person received punishments commensurate to his sin, the rewards are greater than the good deed performed.

The same is true for good.
Miriam waited one hour for Moses, as it is said, “And his sister stood afar off”, (Exodus 2:4), therefore Israel was delayed for her seven days in the wilderness, as it is said, “And the people did not journey until Miriam was brought in again” (Numbers 12:15). Miriam watched baby Moses while he was in the basket in the Nile, and in return, when she was struck by leprosy, the entire people of Israel waited for her for seven full days.

Joseph had the merit of burying his father and there was none among his brothers greater than he, as it is said, “And Joseph went up to bury his father…and there both chariots and horsemen went up with him” (Exodus 50:7,9). Whom do we have who is greater than Joseph since none other than Moses occupied himself [with his burial]? Moses had the merit [to bury] the bones of Joseph and there was none in Israel greater than he, as it is said, “And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him” (Exodus 13:19). Whom do have greater than Moses since none other than the Omnipresent was occupied [with his burial], as it is said, “And He buried him in the valley” (Deuteronomy 34:6)? Not only concerning Moses did they say this, but concerning all the righteous, as it is said, “And your righteousness shall go before your, the presence of God shall gather you [in death]” (Isaiah 58:8). This entire section is concerned with burial. Joseph buried his father and as a reward, Moses took Joseph’s bones out of Egypt so that they could be buried in the promised land. As a reward for ensuring that Joseph’s bones received a proper burial, God Himself took care of burying Moses. The mishnah ends by stating that this is not only a history lesson but a message for the future as well. God takes care of the burial of the righteous. I can’t help but think about the many Jews (and righteous Gentiles, for the mishnah does not limit this to Jews) who in the past century have not receive proper burials. The idea that God takes care of those whom humans can’t take care of, is certainly one of great comfort.