Талмуд к Бамидбар 5:25

HALAKHAH: “He took the flour-offering,” etc. It is written⁶Num. 5:25: “The Cohen shall take the jealousy-flour-offering from the woman’s hand, weave it before the Eternal and present it to the altar.”: “The Cohen shall take the jealousy-flour-offering from the woman’s hand.” Does he perform the weave? Does not she perform the weave⁷The verse requires that the Cohen perform the weave. But in the case of an animal sacrifice it is required (Lev. 7:30) that the individual bringing the sacrifice be the actor: “His hands shall bring the Eternal’s gift, the fat on the breast he has to bring, to weave it before the Eternal.” In the Babli, 19a, the parallel expressions his hands, the woman’s hand are taken as proof that the woman has to take part in weaving her gift just as a man has to take part in the weaving of his. The formulation of the Yerushalmi may be interpreted as a question: Since the Mishnah requires the woman to participate and the verse requires the Cohen to perform the weave, how can the Mishnah be justified?? But from here [one understands that] he takes it from a profane vessel and puts it into a Temple vessel. ⁸The rest of the paragraph is also in Qiddušin 1:8 (fol. 61c).“The Cohen puts his hands under hers and performs the weave.” Does the Cohen put his hands under hers? Is that not objectionable⁹In the Babli, this would be written כעור. Is the bodily contact between the Cohen and an otherwise married woman not immoral? It is not directly forbidden since the woman has to be pure to enter the Temple but this makes the situation only worse.? He brings a kerchief¹⁰Between his and her hands, not to touch the woman.. Does that not separate¹¹It is a general principle that the Temple service has to be by the priest directly. Since the verse requires the priests to serve in the Temple, they may not wear shoes (even in winter) since then the shoes would be in the Temple, not the Cohen directly. If the Cohen has to perform the weave, his hands cannot be separated from the Temple vessel. If, as indicated in the previous Note, the participation of the woman is implicitly required by the verse, her hands do not count as separation.? He brings an elderly Cohen¹²Presumably he is past all sexual feelings.. You may even say, a young man, since bad inclinations do not happen at that hour¹³The fear of the Temple will banish all bad thoughts. The commentaries read the sentence to mean that in the short time needed for the weave, bad thoughts cannot develop. This is obviously false.. Rebbi Ḥiyya stated¹⁴In Qiddušin: R. Ḥiyya stated, it happens (that the Cohen has sinful thoughts). Maybe he implies that since the weaving can be done by two priests for the handless woman, it can be done by two priests for all women. There is no parallel to this baraita in any other known source.: If the suspected wife has no hands, two priests weave in her stead.