Parashat Naso
The Sota and the Nazir
We read in Parashat Naso the laws regarding a Sota, a woman whose husband had suspicions about her and warned her not to seclude herself with a certain man. If two witnesses testified that she violated her husband's warning and secluded herself with that person, then the husband would take her to the Bet Ha'mikdash, where she was given special waters to drink. If she had committed an adulterous act, then the waters would kill her, by causing her body to burst.
Immediately following this section, the Torah proceeds to discuss the laws of a Nazir, a person who makes a vow to abstain from wine. The Gemara asks why the Torah chose to present these two topics in juxtaposition with one another, and explains, "A person who sees a Sota in her disgrace will distance himself from wine." The Torah speaks about the Nazir immediately following its discussion of the Sota because a man who witnesses the spectacle of a Sota in the Bet Ha'mikdash will respond by taking upon himself the status of Nazir.
Why is becoming a Nazir the appropriate reaction to seeing the Sota ritual?
People are, by nature, very impressionable. Everything a person sees and hears has a strong impact on his mind and character. When a person sees the frightening consequences of the Sota's adulterous act, he is, on the one hand, inspired to abstain from sinful conduct. But at the same time, seeing a person who had committed such a grievous sin dulls one's sensitivity to the severity of this kind of sin. If until now one could never have even imagined committing such a terrible crime, when he sees somebody who indeed perpetrated this crime it moves closer to the realm of possibility. The sin does not appear too distant or taboo anymore; it is already within the range of consideration.
Appropriately, then, such a person will want to take upon himself the restrictions of Nezirut. The Sota's deterioration very likely began with "social drinking," a casual encounter over a glass of wine. Wine clouds a person's intellect and causes him to say and do things that he would never had considered saying or doing before drinking. A person who has seen a Sota, an experience which, as mentioned, causes his revulsion towards such sinful conduct to fade, should therefore take precautions to avoid the same dangerous trap into which the adulteress had fallen, and should declare himself a Nazir.
If seeing the Sota ritual has such an effect upon a person, if he is likely to become desensitized to the gravity of sin after seeing an adulteress humiliated and then punished for her offense, then we can only imagine the desensitizing effect caused by seeing sin legitimized and even glorified. Today, so many television programs and movies portray adultery as a legitimate mode of conduct, as a perfectly valid option for married men and women. At times, it is even presented as something to emulate. Exposure to such material has a profound effect upon a person's mind; behavior that would otherwise seem abhorrent and unthinkable now becomes something to consider. Even if it does not lead to the actual sin, it nevertheless changes a person's outlook, particularly towards the institution of marriage. One certainly would not want such messages to enter his mind. We must therefore avoid exposing ourselves and our children to this material, and maintain our sensitivity towards the grievous nature of immoral and unethical conduct.
