Sotah 22b (כב:) — the Talmud in English

And to what extent

must he wait before issuing a halakhic ruling?

Until

he reaches the age of

forty years.

And the Gemara is astonished:

Is that so?!

But Rabba,

who died young, at the age of forty,

[unclear: the source appears to contain an extraneous word],

issued halakhic rulings?!

And it answers: It is permitted to issue rulings even before that age,

when they are equal,

if he and the leading scholar of the city are equal in wisdom, or when there is no one older than he who is capable of issuing rulings in the city.

We learned in the Mishna:

“And the blows of the perushim, etc.”

to me.

The Sages taught: There are seven types of perushim—

the Shechem perush, the knock-footed perush, the bloodletting perush, the pestle perush, the “what is my obligation and I shall fulfill it” perush, the perush motivated by love, and the perush motivated by fear.

And the Gemara explains what the seven types of perushim are:

1.

The Shechem perush—

this is one who performs the deed of Shechem,

just as the people of Shechem circumcised themselves not for the sake of Heaven, so too the conduct of this perush’s asceticism is solely for his own benefit, so that people will honor him.

2.

The knock-footed perush—

this is one who knocks his feet,

who walks in such a manner that he does not lift his feet but drags them, heel after toe, and his toes strike against the stones along the way.

3.

The bloodletting perush—

Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said: This is one who lets blood onto the walls.

He walks about pretending to be someone who closes his eyes so as not to look at women, and his head strikes the walls, causing blood to flow from him.

4.

The pestle perush—

Rabba bar Sheila said: He bends and slopes like a pestle.

He walks bent over and inclined like a bent pestle, which is shaped like a hammer.

5.

The perush

who constantly proclaims and asks,

“What is my obligation, and I shall fulfill it?”

And we raise a difficulty concerning this:

This

—is such asceticism not

superior

and excellent

indeed,

since he is asking to learn what he does not yet know?!

And we answer:

Rather, the reference is to a perush

who

says: “What further obligation do I have, and I shall fulfill it!”

He presents himself as one who has already fulfilled everything, and proclaims and says: What else am I required to do!? And

the perush motivated by love,

whose service of God is motivated by love of the reward for the mitzvot, and not by love of fulfilling God’s mitzvot.

7.

The perush motivated by fear

of punishment.

For the mitzvot must be fulfilled for the sake of fulfilling the mitzvot commanded to us by the Holy One, blessed be He, and not in order to receive reward [which will ultimately come], or because of fear of punishment.

[And Meiri wrote: The general principle is: Anyone who separates himself from the ways of the world because of his attachment to the ways of the world, and not for the sake of Heaven, is like one who flees from the world, while in practice he pursues it!]

Abaye and Rava said to the tanna: Do not teach “the perush motivated by love” or “the perush motivated by fear”!

Because

Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: A person should always engage in Torah and mitzvot, even שלא לשמה—not for their own sake—for from שלא לשמה he comes to לשמה, their fulfillment for their own sake.

Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said: That which is concealed is concealed,

what is hidden from human beings is hidden only from them,

and that which is revealed is revealed,

what is revealed to them is revealed.

But

in the great court,

before the great court of the Holy One, blessed be He, everything is revealed,

to exact punishment from those who wrap themselves in cloaks,

to exact retribution from those who cover themselves in tallitot but secretly do not conduct themselves properly.

King Yannai said to the members of his household,

to his wife, before his death:

Do not fear the perushim,

the Sages against whom I fought, for they will not take revenge on you and your sons on my account; rather, they will leave you and your sons the royal throne.

Nor those who are not perushim,

the Sadducees, who wished [that Yannai become a Sadducee].

Rather,

fear

the hypocrites, who resemble perushim, whose deeds are like the deed of Zimri, yet seek a reward like Phinehas.

Mishna:

Rabbi Shimon says: Merit does not suspend the effect of the water that causes the curse!

And if [

that is, if ]

you say:

Merit suspends the effect of the bitter water,

it follows—

a.

You weaken the power of the water in the presence of the women who drink it,

so that they will not fear it and confess that they are impure, and the sacred Name will be erased upon the water.

b.

You bring an evil name upon the pure women who drank,

because

people say

about them,

“They are impure, but

the water did not examine them because

merit suspended its effect for them”!

Rabbi says: Merit suspends the effect of the water that causes the curse, but she neither gives birth nor thrives,

rather,

she wastes away progressively [

becoming increasingly emaciated ]. And

in the end,

when

she dies by that same death,

with her abdomen swelling and her thigh falling away.

If

her meal offering becomes impure,

the meal offering of the sota, its law differs:

If it became impure

before it was sanctified with “sanctity of the body”

in the

vessel

of service,

it is like all meal offerings

that became impure before they were sanctified in a vessel,

and it is redeemed,

and another offering is brought with its proceeds. For only a vessel of service sanctifies it with sanctity of the body, whereas verbal sanctification in the case of meal offerings effects only “sanctity of value.”

And if

her meal offering became impure

after it was sanctified

with sanctity of the body

in a vessel

of service,

it is like all meal offerings

that became impure after they were sanctified in a vessel,

and it is burned,

for it was sanctified with sanctity of the body, and it can no longer be redeemed and thereby become non-sacred.

And these sotot

whose meal offerings

are burned:

a. The meal offerings are burned only if the following events occurred after they were sanctified in a vessel of service; ;