Study Sotah folio 20A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
קשיא דרבי עקיבא אדרבי עקיבא: התם אמר מחיקה מעכבא, והכא אמר קומץ מעכב!
The Talmud asks: The statement of R' Akiva is difficult, as it is contradicted by another statement of R' Akiva: There, in the first baraita, he said that erasure prevents the authorities from compelling the woman to drink the water if she retracted her decision to drink, and here he says that the sacrifice of the handful prevents the authorities from compelling the woman to drink the water. In other words, according to the first baraita the woman can retract her decision to drink until the scroll is erased, whereas according to the second baraita she can retract her decision until the handful is sacrificed.
תרי תנאי ואליבא דרבי עקיבא.
The Talmud responds: There is a dispute between two tanna’im, and they disagree with regard to the opinion of R' Akiva. They disagree with regard to what point in time, according to R' Akiva, is the final moment at which a woman can refuse to drink the bitter water without being forced to do so.
איבעיא להו: אמרה איני שותה מחמת בריותא, וחזרה ואמרה שותה אני, מהו? כיון דאמרה איני שותה — טמאה אני קאמרה, וכיון דאחזיק נפשה בטומאה, לא מציא הדרה בה. או דילמא כיון דאמרה שותה אני — גליא דעתה דמחמת ביעתותא הוא דאמרה. תיקו.
A dilemma was raised before the rabbis: If she initially said: I will not drink, while in a state of good health, and then she retracted her statement and said: I will drink, what is the halakha? Does one say that when she said: I will not drink, it is as if she confessed and said: I am defiled, and since she established herself as defiled she cannot retract her statement? Or perhaps when she said: I will drink, she revealed her thoughts that it was only due to fear that she said she will not drink? The Talmud concludes that the dilemma should stand unresolved.