סוטה · Sotah

About Masechta Sotah · מסכת סוטה

Sotah learns the sotah - the wife who was warned by her husband not to be secluded with a certain man, and was - and the waters of the Beis HaMikdash that tested her: the warning before witnesses, the journey to Yerushalayim, the words of the kohen, and the parshah written on a scroll and erased into the water to make peace between husband and wife.

From there the Gemara turns to middah k'neged middah - Hashem pays a person measure for measure, in punishment and in reward - with Shimshon, Avshalom, Miriam, Yosef and Moshe. The seventh perek, Eilu Ne'emarin, learns which mitzvos may be said in any language - Krias Shema, Tefillah and Birkas HaMazon among them - and which only in lashon hakodesh: the bikkurim declaration, chalitzah, the blessings and curses at Har Gerizim and Har Eival, Birkas Kohanim and the king's reading of the Torah.

The eighth perek learns the kohen anointed for war and those sent home from the battle lines, and the ninth the eglah arufah, the calf brought when a body is found in the field. The masechta ends with the things that ceased - the shamir, the honey of the forest, the men of faith - and the signs of the generation before Mashiach, when the face of the generation is like the face of a dog; and on whom can we lean? On our Father in heaven.

From the pages of Sotah

Of one who is haughty, Hashem says 'he and I cannot live together in the world'; Miriam waited one hour for Moshe by the river, so all Israel waited seven days for her in the desert; Moshe himself carried the bones of Yosef; one should push away with the left hand and draw near with the right; and when Rebbi died humility ceased - and Rav Yosef said, 'do not say humility, for I am here'. A mitzvah protects a person while he does it, but Torah protects and saves him both while he learns and when he does not. And one who sees a sotah in her disgrace should keep himself far from wine - which is why the parshah of the nazir stands beside hers.

This page holds 282 shiurim on Masechta Sotah from 7 maggidei shiur; the most come from Rabbi Shmuel Silber (78), Rabbi David Elmaleh (50) and Rabbi Eli Stefansky (48). 193 of them learn the whole daf and 89 are short reviews. 48 dafim have their own shiurim here, each in its own row above, and “Learn in the Daf Room” opens that daf with its text and its shiurim side by side.

Masechta Sotah in the Daf Yomi

The 14th Daf Yomi cycle learned Masechta Sotah one daf a day for 48 days, from daf 2 to daf 49, from March 31, 2023 to May 17, 2023; the 15th cycle, which opens with Berachos on June 8, 2027, reaches it on September 1, 2030. Masechta Sotah is in Seder Nashim, the third of the six orders of the Mishnah, and in the order of the Daf Yomi it comes after Masechta Nazir and before Masechta Gittin. On each of those days the Daf Room opens the day's daf with its text and every shiur on it, and the rows above keep the shiurim of every daf of the masechta for anyone who learns at his own pace.

The perakim of Sotah

Masechta Sotah has nine perakim, from daf 2a to daf 49b. Each perek below opens its first daf in the Daf Room, where the Gemara’s text and every shiur on that daf sit together.

1. Perek 1 המקנא 2a – 14a
2. Perek 2 היה מביא 14a – 19a
3. Perek 3 היה נוטל 19a – 23b
4. Perek 4 ארוסה 23b – 27b
5. Perek 5 כשם שהמים 27b – 31a
6. Perek 6 מי שקינא 31a – 32a
7. Perek 7 אלו נאמרין 32a – 42a
8. Perek 8 משוח מלחמה 42a – 44b
9. Perek 9 עגלה ערופה 44b – 49b