When the Verdict Is Wrong
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Chapter 5, verses 11-31, of the Book of Numbers, relates the Laws of the 'Sotah,' the woman who goes astray, the adulteress. It is not a passage for the faint-hearted! ... This Saturday morning, Jewish congregants around the world will hear it read in their synagogues, as part of the Torah Portion titled 'Naso' (total of 176 verses). ~ gw
A Jewish woman, accused of being an adulteress
The determination: a gruesome, stressful test
Yet something somehow seems awfully wrong
A verdict of guilty cannot possibly belong
in a case where an adulteress is seen to be insane
where a 'spirit of folly' has invaded her brain...
And how is adultery even conceivable for a holy Jewish soul
Which knows that acts of outright evil trigger a Halakhic* boil ~
Only the Devil himself, the Evil Inclination, could cause such a tragedy
Fight him with the holy Torah, the antidote for all iniquity
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*'Halakhic' references 'Torah Law'
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Just in case (JIC) you were wondering, the gruesome test of the adulter-
ess, as well as its verdict, were discontinued with the destruction of the
Jerusalem Temple by the Romans in 70 C.E... However, the law against
adultery remains part and parcel of the Decalogue: 'Thou shalt not com-
mit adultery.' This law is applicable to Jews and non-Jews alike, punish-
able by the 'Heavenly Court.' (cc to FDR, JFK, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump,
Jeffrey Epstein, Eliot Spitzer, Sheldon Silverman, ... et al.)
Copyright © Gershon Wolf | Year Posted 2023
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