Save
Copy
Add to Collection
Export to Google Docs
Share(א) אֵלּוּ נֶאֱמָרִין בְּכָל לָשׁוֹן, פָּרָשַׁת סוֹטָה, וּוִדּוּי מַעֲשֵׂר, קְרִיאַת שְׁמַע, וּתְפִלָּה, וּבִרְכַּת הַמָּזוֹן, וּשְׁבוּעַת הָעֵדוּת, וּשְׁבוּעַת הַפִּקָּדוֹן:
(1) The following are said in any language: the paragraph of Sotah (Numbers 5:19-22), declaration of tithes (Deuteronomy 26:13), the recitation of Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9), prayer, the blessing after a meal, the oath of testimony, and the oath of a deposit.
- Personal relationship with God
- Individual responsibility
- There is importance in understanding what is being said
- With the exception of the Sotah they are said when they are called for in any place that occurs
(א) שבועות העדות והדיינים [נאמרה] בכל לשון [ששומעים]
ואמרו לו אמן הרי אלו חייבין שבועת הדיינין [באיזה צד] הרי
מי שנתחייב שבועה
A. The oath of witnesses and judges is said in any language [M.Sot.7.1A5].
B. If one has imposed an oath upon them five times in any language which they understand, and they replied to him, ``Amen,``
C. lo, they are liable.
Personal liability needs to be understood by the individual to whom it applies.
(ב) וְאֵלּוּ נֶאֱמָרִין בִּלְשׁוֹן הַקֹּדֶשׁ. מִקְרָא בִכּוּרִים, וַחֲלִיצָה, בְּרָכוֹת וּקְלָלוֹת, בִּרְכַּת כֹּהֲנִים, וּבִרְכַּת כֹּהֵן גָּדוֹל, וּפָרָשַׁת הַמֶּלֶךְ, וּפָרָשַׁת עֶגְלָה עֲרוּפָה, וּמְשׁוּחַ מִלְחָמָה בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁמְּדַבֵּר אֶל הָעָם:
(2) And the following are said in the holy tongue: The recitation for first fruits (Deuteronomy 26:5-10), chalitsah [the ceremony performed to release a widow of a childless man from a marriage to her brother-in-law] (Deuteronomy 25:7-8), the blessings and curses (Deuteronomy 27-28), the blessing of the priests (Numbers 6:24-26), the blessing of the high priest, the paragraph of the king, the paragraph of Eglah Arufah [the calf killed as atonement for an unsolved murder] (Deuteronomy 21:7-8), and the priest anointed for war when he would speak to the nation (Deuteronomy 20:3-4).
- These pertain to communal relationship with God
- They are said by or for the benefit of the community
- With the exception of the Eglah Arufah they are said in a public space, by or to a priest
(ה) ברכת כהנים אלו בשעה שהכהנים אומרים על מעלות האולם
C. The blessing of the priests [M.Sot.7.2A4, 7.6A]-this refers to the blessing which is said when the priests stand on the steps of the ulam.
Birkat Kohanim is said via the priests, a blessing transmitted from God to the people, in the space that is the liminal division between the public, at least for Jews, and the Holy space reserved for the sacred work for God.
The Sotah is not said at the time the accusation is made nor by the person making the accusation, instead it is said by the priest at the Temple, in front of a wide audience. Transforming an individual event of personal/marital significance into a communal event.
The Eglah Arufah is said in isolation by the elders of the community, in a place specifically chosen for it's remoteness from the society. Clearing the community of guilt when there is no suspect in a murder, but is hidden from the community, in the same manner that the murder occurred privately so does the ritual.
In both cases there are no witnesses to the precipitating event, but it is only in the case of murder that a crime is known to have been committed. The clearing of guilt in an unsolved murder is hidden from the wider community, in both place and speech, just as the crime was hidden. One possibility for this is because the public showing of clearing the guilt for an unsolved murder could send the message that the crime of murder can be absolved if one successfully absconds the legal authority of being apprehended as a murderer.
On the other hand the determination of guilt of the Sotah is made public in contrast to the private crime, if there even was one. Here the crime of adultery has the potential consequence of offspring, mamzerim, in the community. This potential consequence presents a threat to the community in terms of forbidden, incestous marriage in the next generation. In this manner the private action of the guilty Sotah crosses the boundary from private into communal responsibility. Thus the recitation of the curse transitions the private act to that of a communal one.