Naso: appearance

Naso: appearance

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The core of the parsha, the fourth aliya, includes the suspected woman (sotah), the Nazerite, and the Priestly Blessing.  

In our time, the sotah is a very disturbing section.  A husband's suspicion (supported by circumstances that appear to support the accusation) compels his wife to undergo a trial by ordeal... and the ordeal of a publicly embarrassing trial.  I presume that the embarrassment of the trial process, imagining its appearance, was the major deterrent for the husband starting the process. 

The sotah trial includes the production of the potion, a drink formulated from water, the dust of the temple floor  and the erasure of the relevant text, including the (otherwise unerasable) name of Gd. The powerful name of the Almighty disappears and is transformed into a concoction  Once this diagnostic chemotherapy is mixed, there is no choice, the accused woman must drink. 

We are told that if a guilty woman drinks the sotah elixir, her belly swells and her thigh falls away.  Furthermore, by virtue of these findings, she becomes a curse and an oath for the people.  The physical findings, especially ascites ( abdominal distention from fluid collecting in the abdominal cavity) are seen in (what we now call) diseases: cirrhosis, ovarian cancer, other intra-abdominal cancers.  I do not want to believe that women who suffer from these ( and other conditions) that cause ascites are, by virtue of their appearance, guilty of adultery. These  diseases are not the scarlet letter. Another disturbing aspect of the text. 

The Nazerite is instructed to cultivate the appearance of alienation from the world.  He must be careful to not care about his appearance. She is not in the appearance world, nor in the real world - she must deny the significance of death. 

The end of the Priestly Blessing says: 

The LRD lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

Does that mean that Gd looks at you?... And sees how pitiful you look 

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