Бамидбар 5:25 Комментарий: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Rashi, Siftei Chakhamim & Rav Hirsch

“Elevate the meal offering” [5:25]. The priest lifted up the meal offering with the hand of the woman. That is to say, the woman had the meal offering in her hand. The priest put his hand under the hand of the woman, and they lifted it up together.¹⁸Rashi, Numbers, 5:25.

Imre Noam asks a question here. How appropriate is it that the priest should place his hands and touch the hands of a woman? Perhaps he might have an evil thought about the woman. The explanation is that the priest could have been an old man, and the evil inclination had left him. Even for a young priest, the evil inclination might not come for a short time.¹⁹Imre Noam, Numbers, 5:25.

Rashi writes. “The woman shall say, amen, amen” [5:22]. The woman should say amen about the curses. If it is true that I have had illicit sex with this man that I am suspected of, and even with the man that I am not suspected of, since I have not slept with any strange man in my life.²⁰Rashi, Numbers, 5:22.

והניף THEN [THE PRIEST] SHALL WAVE [THE MEAL-OFFERING] — He moves it about horizontally and vertically, and she, too, waves it together with him, because her hand has to be above the hand of the priest (Sotah 19a).

והקריב אתה — This refers to what is known as the הגשה — bringing it to the south-west corner of the altar before the קמיצה, “the taking off of the handful of flour”, just as is the case with all other meal-offerings (cf. Rashi on Leviticus 7:7 and Sotah 14b).