Looking for a Rosh Chodesh text? (San 45a)

There's so much great stuff going on here, I don't even know where to begin.

Yesterday's daf starts with a fascinating machloket about whether the rule that a man should be stoned naked also applies to a woman. Yehudah holds that it does and the sages hold that it does not.

One of the reasons the sages give is in case people who are present at the execution become aroused at seeing her body naked.

So what's up with Yehudah? Why isn't he concerned about this? Actually he is, just not when it comes to execution. When it comes to a sotah (a woman suspected of adultery), he supposedly agrees that she should not be exposed. In dealing with a sotah, we learn that a kohen should take hold of her, which might result in ripping her garments and undoing her braids. If this occurs, Yehudah says:

היה לבה נאה, לא היה מגלהו ואם היה שערה נאה, לא היה סותרו

haya liba na'eh, lo haya m'galehu v'im hayah s'ara na'eh, lo hayah sotro. (45a1)

I think this needs a couple translations:

Schottenstein: "If her bosom was comely he does not uncover it; and if her hair was comely he does not unbraid it."

Jill 1: "If she has nice boobs, don't expose them; if her hair is attractive, don't let it down."

Jill 2: "If her heart is pure, don't banish her, if her head is sound, don't destroy her."

My first translation upholds Schottenstein's message, I just felt like the language needed a bit of an update to modern times. The second one is what one might call "modern/feminist midrash." Let's examine Schottenstein/Jill 1 first:

Yehudah is concerned about men having lewd thoughts, so why is the case of a sotah different than an execution? If the sotah is innocent, and everyone just saw her naked, there is a chance that the younger kohanim might pursue her afterwards. If a woman is being executed, you don't have to worry about anyone pursuing and committing a transgression (45a2). Yes, this is really the argument given. It gets better. Some object saying that even though men can't pursue the hot chic who just got executed, they might become aroused by her and pursue other women. Rabbah disagrees, saying that the evil inclination only prevails over something a person sees with their own eyes! Wow. Good stuff. It has nothing to do with degrading the woman accused of adultery or being sent to her death, but rather whether or not the aroused men will transgress.

We also get a special bonus: a talmudic definition of what turns men on -- boobs and hair. Great. Presumably, according to Yehudah, if the sotah does not have nice hair or boobs there is nothing wrong with stripping her down. On this note, lets examine my alternative translation:

היה לבה נאה, לא היה מגלהו ואם היה שערה נאה, לא היה סותרו

haya liba na'eh, lo haya m'galehu v'im hayah s'ara na'eh, lo hayah sotro.

Jill 2: If her heart is pure, don't banish her, if her head is sound, don't destroy her.

Let me start by saying I know this translation is in many ways a misreading of the text. But, I'm giving it to you anyway.

• Libah can mean "bosom" but it is more often used to mean her heart, or innermost thoughts or inclination.
• m'galehu comes from the word galah, which can mean to banish or exile a person in the hifiel.
• s'arah means hair. So it is a bit of a stretch to define it as head, but I think hair could represent a person's head, or their mind or intellect. This would be a nice parallel to liba, suggesting that first we are talking about the woman's heart, and next her mind.
• sotro, from the root sater, can also mean to tear down or destroy.

This translation totally changes everything about the text. Remember, we are talking about a sotah, who is about to be tested and banished as a ritual that is intended to determine whether or not she committed adultery. Maybe, instead of Yehudah talking about what to do if the kohen rips her clothes before sending her off, he is suggesting not to banish an innocent women at all and destroy her reputation! I know it is a bit of an idealistic reading, but I think it works. Why are we banishing a woman at all and making her drink some weird liquid, especially if we think she might be of a pure heart and a sound mind? (Wouldn't it also be nice to think that men are attracted to a woman's heart and mind, not her chest and hair?)

If translated this way, our own Sanhedrin text wouldn't have found it useful to digress with this prooftext. Instead, it could have just moved on with the other, in my opinion, more compelling arguments for why a woman might be executed with her clothes while a man is not.

Chag Sameach!