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By Rabbi Shimmy Sternfield
איש או אשה כי יפליא לנדר נדר נזיר להזיר לד’ (פרק ו’, פסוק ב’)
“A man or woman who will take a Nazirite vow of abstinence for the sake of Hashem.”
In this week’s Parsha, the Torah describes the process used to determine the innocence or guilt of a סוטה, a woman suspected of being unfaithful to her husband. Immediately following this process, the Torah discusses the נזיר, one who wishes to elevate himself by undertaking a special set of laws, which includes a prohibition against drinking wine. Noting the juxtaposition of these two sets of laws, חז”ל state, “Anyone who sees a סוטה in her state of degradation should accept upon himself to be a נזיר and abstain from wine.” When one witnesses the horrible fate of the סוטה, one must establish new boundaries which will ensure that he remains distant from sin. Since wine can lead to illicit relations, one who sees the punishment of a סוטה should abstain from wine. Reb Simcha Zissel Ziv, known as the Alter (“Elder”) of Slabodka, points out, that חז”ל say anyone who sees a סוטה, including a righteous person who is completely distant from even considering such inappropriate actions. Although a צדיק may be distant from these sins right now, he is still in danger of eventually stumbling if he does not remove the root of these behaviors. Therefore, even a צדיק must take precautions against sinning when he sees a סוטה. A group of men once told the Alter about a very strange thing they had just seen: There was a drunkard laying in the street, yet from his mouth flowed scholarly words of Torah! The Alter did some investigations and discovered that the man had been a תלמיד חכם, but he had started drinking alcohol. A L’chaim here and there developed into a serious drinking habit, until the man’s respectable past was almost unknown. Quoting the aforementioned חז”ל, the Alter decided that, from that point on, he would no longer allow any alcohol at his table.
איש איש כי תשטה אשתו (פרק ה’, פסוק י”ב)
“Any man whose wife will go astray…”
The word תשטה- to go astray- in this פסוק is interpreted by the גמרא as being related to the word שטות (foolishness). The גמרא comments, “A person does not commit a sin unless possessed by a spirit of foolishness.” Typically, this is understood to mean that a sinner must be overtaken by foolishness, for how else could he/she be unaware of the obvious gravity of doing something against Hashem’s will? Reb Chaim Shmulevitz, זצ”ל, offers an additional interpretation: When one sins, it is impossible for one to maintain one’s spiritual status, and one is inevitably no longer in the same place spiritually where one stood before sinning. Yet, even though one would never willingly trade in one’s elevated status for that of a much lowlier person, people do exactly that all the time when they sin! Reb Chaim writes, that when people sin, it’s not because they don’t think about the damage to their spiritual standing. Rather, they sin because they don’t believe that they will truly be affected. One may think, “Even if I sin, I’ll still be the same person I am now.” The truth, however, is, that every sin pulls a person down. There can be nothing more foolish than to believe otherwise.
