Pt1 Arrogance, Adultery, and the Primacy of Humility (Sotah 4b-5a)

This is the first part of a three-part series. The outline of the series is below.

Intro

Part 1

This sugya opens with a set of teachings about washing hands before eating bread. Rav Avira, sometimes citing R’ Ami and sometimes R’ Asi, interprets Proverbs 6:26, “For on account of a prostitute, until a loaf of bread,” as an allusion to eating bread without washing hands. One who eats bread without netilat yadayim is treated as if he had relations with a prostitute. Rava challenges the wording of the verse: if the point were that bread leads to sexual sin, the order should have been reversed, “on account of a loaf of bread, until a prostitute.” He therefore rereads the verse as describing the reverse process: one who has relations with a prostitute will ultimately be reduced to poverty and beg for bread.

The sugya then continues with practical and severe statements about handwashing. R’ Zerika in the name of R’ Elazar says that anyone who treats handwashing with contempt is “uprooted from the world.” Rav Ḥiyya bar Ashi in the name of Rav distinguishes between the “first water” and the “last water”. For the water before the meal, one must raise the hands upward, so that water that passed beyond the required joint does not flow back and render the washed area impure. For the water after the meal, one must lower the hands. A baraita supports the first rule: after washing before bread, the hands must be raised, lest impure water beyond the joint return and re-contaminate the hands. R’ Abbahu adds that one who eats bread without drying his hands is considered as if he ate impure bread, based on Ezekiel 4:13: “Thus shall the children of Israel eat their bread impure.”

From here the sugya moves back to Proverbs 6:26 and its continuation: “But the adulteress hunts for the precious life.” R’ Ḥiyya bar Abba in the name of R’ Yoḥanan interprets this as a warning about arrogance: anyone who has gassut ha-ruaḥ, arrogance or haughtiness of spirit, will ultimately stumble with a married woman. The phrase “precious life” refers to one who considers himself precious. Rava again challenges the reading. If the verse meant arrogance, it should have said “a high life,” not “a precious life”; and the grammar should have indicated that the precious life hunts her, not that she hunts the precious life. Rava therefore interprets the verse differently: one who has relations with a married woman, even if he has studied Torah, which is called “more precious than pearls,” and even if that Torah places him above the High Priest who enters the Holy of Holies, the sin will still trap him for the judgment of Gehenna.

Part 2

The sugya then develops a long series of teachings against arrogance. R’ Yoḥanan in the name of R’ Shimon bar Yoḥai says that arrogance is comparable to idolatry. The proof is a verbal link: Proverbs 16:5 calls the proud of heart a “to’eva,” an abomination, and Deuteronomy 7:26 uses the same term for idolatry. R’ Yoḥanan himself says that arrogance is like denying the basic principle of faith, since Deuteronomy warns, “Your heart will be lifted up, and you will forget YHWH your God.” R’ Ḥama bar Ḥanina says arrogance is like committing all forbidden sexual relations, again based on the shared term “abominations” in Leviticus 18. Ulla says it is like building a private altar (which is prohibited), reading Isaiah 2:22 through wordplay: not “ba-meh,” “how little,” but “bama,” a private altar.

The continuation of Proverbs 16:5, “Hand to hand, he shall not be unpunished,” is then interpreted in several ways. Rav says that one who has relations with a married woman will not be spared from Gehenna even if he declares God’s ownership of heaven and earth like Abraham, who says in Genesis 14:22, “I have lifted my hand to YHWH, God Most High, Maker of heaven and earth.” The school of R’ Sheila objects that the verse should then have said “my hand.” They instead connect “hand to hand” with Moses receiving the Torah from God’s hand, based on Deuteronomy 33:2, “From His right hand, a fiery law for them.” Even one who received Torah like Moses would not be spared after adultery. R’ Yoḥanan objects that this should have been phrased “hand from hand,” and instead explains the verse as referring to secret charity, given from hand to hand. Even if the sinner gives charity secretly, and even though Proverbs 21:14 says that a secret gift pacifies wrath, he will not be spared from Gehenna.

The sugya then asks for the biblical prohibition against arrogance. Rava in the name of Ze’eiri cites Jeremiah 13:15: “Hear and give ear; do not be proud.” Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak cites Deuteronomy 8, where “your heart will be lifted up and you will forget YHWH your God” is linked with “Beware lest you forget YHWH your God.” This fits the principle of R’ Avin in the name of R’ Ile’a: every biblical phrase of “beware,” “lest,” or “do not” indicates a negative commandment. Arrogance is therefore not merely a bad trait; it is framed as a violation of a biblical warning.

Rav Avira, again sometimes citing Rav Asi and sometimes Rav Ami, interprets Job 24:24 as describing the fate of the arrogant. “They are exalted for a little” means that the arrogant may rise temporarily but will ultimately be diminished. “And they are gone” teaches that they may die before their time. If they repent, they are gathered at their proper time like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all of whom are associated with the word “all” (כל - kol): Abraham was blessed “in all,” Isaac says he ate “of all,” and Jacob says “I have all.” If they do not repent, the verse continues, “they wither like the top of the stalk.” Rav Huna and Rav Ḥisda dispute whether this refers to the awn at the top of the stalk or to the stalk itself. Rav Asi, supported by the school of R’ Yishmael, explains the image through the practice of harvesting: a person entering his field cuts the tallest stalks first. The arrogant stand highest and are therefore removed first.

The sugya then turns from arrogance to humility. Isaiah 57:15 says that God dwells “with the contrite and lowly of spirit.” Rav Huna and Rav Ḥisda dispute how to read the verse. One says the humble person is brought up to be with God; the other says God descends to be with the humble person. The sugya prefers the second reading: God did not raise Mount Sinai upward, but rested His Shekhina upon it. Rav Yosef generalizes this into an ethical rule: a person should learn from the wisdom of his Creator. God ignored the high mountains and placed His presence on Sinai; He ignored the impressive trees and appeared to Moses in the bush.

Part 3

R’ Elazar adds three further statements. First, an arrogant person deserves to be cut down like an asheira, an idolatrous tree, based on the shared root for “cutting down” in Isaiah 10:33 and Deuteronomy 7:5. Second, the dust of an arrogant person will not stir at the resurrection. Isaiah 26:19 says, “Awake and sing, dwellers of the dust,” not “those who lie in the dust.” Only one who made himself a neighbor to dust during life, through humility, will rise. Third, the Shekhina wails over the arrogant, based on Psalms 138:6, which contrasts God’s regard for the lowly with His distance from the haughty.

Several teachings deepen this contrast between divine greatness and human arrogance. Rav Avira, or according to another version R’ Elazar, says that God’s measure differs from human measure. A human of high status sees others of high status and ignores the lowly; God is high and sees the lowly. Rav Ḥisda, or Mar Ukva, says that God says of the arrogant person: “I and he cannot dwell together in the world.” This is derived from Psalms 101:5 through a rereading of “oto lo ukhal,” “him I cannot endure,” as “itto lo ukhal,” “with him I cannot endure.” Another version applies this statement to speakers of slander, based on the beginning of the same verse.

R’ Alexandri describes the fragility of the arrogant. The wicked are compared to the troubled sea in Isaiah 57:20. If the sea, with its enormous amount of water, is disturbed by a slight wind, then a human being, whose life depends on only a small amount of blood, is certainly vulnerable to the slightest disturbance. The proud person presents himself as large and stable, but is in fact easily unsettled.

The sugya then records a limited defense of measured self-regard for Torah scholars. Rav Ḥiyya bar Ashi in the name of Rav says that a Torah scholar needs one-eighth of one-eighth of arrogance. Rav Huna son of Rav Yehoshua says that this small amount crowns him like the awn atop the stalk. Rava states sharply that a scholar who has arrogance should be excommunicated, but a scholar who has none at all should also be excommunicated. Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak rejects even this limited allowance: “not from it and not from part of it.” Since Proverbs 16:5 calls every proud heart an abomination to God, even the smallest measure is too much.

The final section continues the praise of humility through images of flesh, dust, prayer, and sacrifice. Ḥizkiyya says that a person’s prayer is heard only if he makes his heart like flesh, based on Isaiah 66:23, where “all flesh” comes to worship before God. R’ Zeira notes that “flesh” can be healed, while “person” in the verses of tzara’at is not described as healed. R’ Yoḥanan turns the words adam (“human”) and basar (“flesh”) into acronyms of human lowliness: adam is dust, blood, and bile; basar is shame, putridness, and worm, or according to another version, shame, Sheol, and worm.¹ Rav Ashi interprets the terms for tzara’at, se’et and sappaḥat, as a moral sequence: one who raises himself up as se’et will ultimately become sappaḥat, an appendage or dependent.

R’ Yehoshua ben Levi closes the main homiletical unit by comparing humility to sacrifice. In the Temple, one who brought a burnt offering received the merit of that offering, and one who brought a meal offering received the merit of that offering. But one of lowly spirit is treated as if he offered all sacrifices, based on Psalms 51:19: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.” Moreover, such a person’s prayer is not despised, as the verse continues: “A broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” He then adds that one who evaluates his ways in this world merits seeing God’s salvation, rereading Psalms 50:23: not only “one who orders his way,” but one who “appraises” his way.

The sugya as a whole moves across a number of linked themes. It begins with the bodily discipline of handwashing before bread, using Proverbs to connect eating practices with sexual and moral disorder. It then develops a wide-ranging attack on arrogance, associating it with idolatry, sexual transgression, denial of God, social instability, premature downfall, and exclusion from divine presence. It contrasts this with humility, which is linked to Sinai, the burning bush, answered prayer, resurrection, and the value of all sacrifices. The unit therefore combines halakhic precision with a sustained moral account of bodily conduct, sexual restraint, humility, and divine judgment.

Outline

Intro

The Passage

1. Rav Avira, sometimes citing R’ Ami, sometimes R’ Asi - Eating bread without washing hands is like consorting with a prostitute - Proverbs 6:26

2. Rava - The verse means that one who consorts with a prostitute will end up begging for bread - Proverbs 6:26

3. R’ Zerika citing R’ Elazar - One who treats handwashing lightly is uprooted from the world

4. Rav Ḥiyya bar Ashi citing Rav - For first waters, raise hands upward; for last waters, lower hands downward

5. Baraita - After washing before a meal, one must raise hands so impure water past the joint does not flow back

6. R’ Abbahu - Eating bread without drying hands is like eating impure bread - Ezekiel 4:13

7. R’ Ḥiyya bar Abba citing R’ Yoḥanan - Arrogance leads a person to stumble with a married woman - Proverbs 6:26

8. Rava - One who commits adultery is trapped in Gehenna even if he learned Torah, which is more precious than the High Priest entering the Holy of Holies - Proverbs 6:26, 3:15

Part 2

1. R’ Yoḥanan citing R’ Shimon b. Yoḥai - Arrogance is equivalent to idolatry - Proverbs 16:5; Deuteronomy 7:26

2. R’ Yoḥanan - Arrogance is like denying God - Deuteronomy 8:14

3. R’ Ḥama bar Ḥanina - Arrogance is like committing all forbidden sexual unions - Proverbs 16:5; Leviticus 18:27

4. Ulla - Arrogance is like building an idolatrous altar - Isaiah 2:22

5. Rav - One who commits adultery will not escape Gehenna even if he acknowledges God as owner of heaven and earth like Abraham - Proverbs 16:5; Genesis 14:22

6. R’ Sheila’s School - One who commits adultery will not escape Gehenna even if he received Torah like Moses - Proverbs 16:5; Deuteronomy 33:2

7. R’ Yoḥanan - One who commits adultery will not escape Gehenna even if he gives charity secretly - Proverbs 16:5, 21:14

8. Rava citing Ze’eiri - The warning against arrogance derives from “do not be proud” - Jeremiah 13:15

9. Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak - The warning against arrogance derives from “your heart be lifted up” combined with “beware lest you forget” - Deuteronomy 8:14; Deuteronomy 8:11

10. R’ Avin citing R’ Ile’a - “Beware,” “lest,” and “not” mark a prohibition

11. Rav Avira, sometimes citing Rav Asi, sometimes Rav Ami - The arrogant are diminished - Job 24:24

    1. if they repent, they die in proper time like the Patriarchs - Genesis 24:1, 27:33, 33:11

    2. if not, they wither like grain-tops

12. Rav Huna and Rav Ḥisda - “Like the tops of the husks” means either the awn of the husk or the husk itself - Job 24:24

13. Rav Asi; school of R’ Yishmael - God cuts down the tallest first, like a person harvesting the highest stalks in his field - Job 24:24

14. Rav Huna and Rav Ḥisda - “With the contrite and lowly” means either the humble person is with God, or God descends to be with the humble - Isaiah 57:15

    1. The second reading is preferable: God descended to Sinai rather than raising Sinai upward - Isaiah 57:15

15. Rav Yosef - One should learn humility from God, who chose Sinai over higher mountains and the bush over finer trees - Exodus 3:2

Part 3

1. R’ Elazar - The arrogant deserve to be cut down like an asheira

   1. Prooftext - Isaiah 10:33; Deuteronomy 7:5

2. R’ Elazar - The arrogant will not rise at resurrection

   1. Prooftext - only those who “dwell in dust,” meaning humble people, will rise - Isaiah 26:19

3. R’ Elazar - The Shekhina laments over the arrogant - Psalms 138:6

4. Rav Avira, or R’ Elazar - Unlike humans, God is high yet sees the lowly - Psalms 138:6

5. Rav Ḥisda, or Mar Ukva - God says of the arrogant: “I and he cannot dwell together”

   1. Prooftext - Psalms 101:5

6. Some apply this to slanderers

7. R’ Alexandri - The arrogant are easily disturbed, like the sea disturbed by a slight wind

8. Prooftext - Isaiah 57:20

9. Rav Ḥiyya bar Ashi citing Rav - A Torah scholar needs a tiny measure of pride, “one-eighth of one-eighth”

10. Rav Huna b. Yehoshua - This tiny pride crowns him like the awn atop a stalk

11. Rava - A scholar with arrogance deserves excommunication, but so does one with none at all

12. Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak - Even a scholar should have no arrogance whatsoever - Proverbs 16:5

13. Ḥizkiyya - Prayer is heard only when one makes his heart “soft like flesh” (=humble)

    1. Prooftext - Isaiah 66:23

14. R’ Zeira - “Flesh” is associated with healing, but “person” is not, teaching that humility brings healing - Leviticus 13:18; Leviticus 13:2; Leviticus 13:9

15. R’ Yoḥanan - “adam” alludes to dust, blood, and bile; “basar” alludes to shame, putridness, and worm, or Sheol

16. Rav Ashi - The arrogant are eventually reduced

    1. Prooftexts - from “elevated” to “appendage” - Leviticus 14:56; Isaiah 2:14; I Samuel 2:36

17. R’ Yehoshua b. Levi - Humility is greater than individual sacrifices

    1. a broken spirit counts as all offerings, and its prayer is accepted - Psalms 51:19

18. R’ Yehoshua b. Levi - One who appraises his conduct merits seeing God’s salvation

    1. Prooftext - Psalms 50:23

Appendix - Summary of the verse-based homilies, arranged by biblical order of verses

The Passage

Sotah.4b.4-5b.3

Rav Avira, sometimes citing R’ Ami, sometimes R’ Asi - Eating bread without washing hands is like consorting with a prostitute - Proverbs 6:26

דרש רב עוירא,

זמנין אמר לה משמיה דרבי אמי,

וזמנין אמר לה משמיה דרבי אסי:

כל האוכל לחם בלא נטילת ידים —

כאילו בא על אשה זונה.

שנאמר:

״כי בעד אשה זונה --

עד ככר לחם״.

§ Having quoted an allusion from the verse: “For on account of a prostitute a man is brought to a loaf of bread” (Proverbs 6:26), the Talmud offers another interpretation of that verse.

Rav Avira interpreted a verse homiletically;

there were times he said this interpretation in the name of R’ Ami

and there were times he said it in the name of R’ Asi:

Concerning anyone who eats bread without washing his hands --

it is as if he had sex with a prostitute,

as it is stated:

“For on account of a prostitute --

a man is brought to a loaf of bread.”

Rava - The verse means that one who consorts with a prostitute will end up begging for bread - Proverbs 6:26

אמר רבא:

האי ״בעד אשה זונה עד ככר לחם״ —

״בעד ככר לחם עד אשה זונה״ מיבעי ליה!

אלא אמר רבא:

כל הבא על אשה זונה --

לסוף מבקש ככר לחם.

Rava said:

This phrase: “For on account of a prostitute a man is brought to a loaf of bread,” is not how the verse would present this idea.

It should have stated: “On account of a loaf a man is brought to a prostitute.”

Rather, Rava says the verse should be interpreted as follows:

Anyone who has sex with a prostitute --

will eventually be reduced to poverty and beg people for a loaf of bread.

R’ Zerika citing R’ Elazar - One who treats handwashing lightly is uprooted from the world

אמר רבי זריקא, אמר רבי אלעזר:

כל המזלזל בנטילת ידים --

נעקר מן העולם.

The Talmud continues its discussion of washing hands.

R’ Zerika says that R’ Elazar says:

Anyone who treats the ritual of washing hands (נטילת ידים) with contempt --

is uprooted from the world.

Rav Ḥiyya bar Ashi citing Rav - For first waters, raise hands upward; for last waters, lower hands downward

אמר רב חייא בר אשי, אמר רב:

• מים ראשונים —

  • צריך שיגביה ידיו למעלה,

• מים אחרונים —

  • צריך שישפיל ידיו למטה.

Rav Ḥiyya bar Ashi says that Rav says:

• With regard to the first water, i.e., the water used when washing one’s hands before a meal,

  • one must raise his hands upward after washing.

• With regard to the last water, i.e., the water used when washing one’s hands at the conclusion of the meal before reciting Grace after Meals,

  • one must lower his hands downward.

Baraita - After washing before a meal, one must raise hands so impure water past the joint does not flow back

תניא נמי הכי:

הנוטל ידיו —

צריך שיגביה ידיו למעלה,

שמא יצאו המים חוץ לפרק,

ויחזרו ויטמאו את הידים.

This distinction is also taught in a baraita (Tosefta, Yadayim 2:2):

One who washes his hands before a meal --

must raise his hands upward after washing,

lest the water advance past the joint onto the part of the hands that he was not required to wash, becoming impure,

and then return to the area he had washed, rendering his hands ritually impure.

R’ Abbahu - Eating bread without drying hands is like eating impure bread - Ezekiel 4:13

אמר רבי אבהו:

כל האוכל פת בלא ניגוב ידים —

כאילו אוכל לחם טמא,

R’ Abbahu says:

Anyone who eats bread without drying (ניגוב) his hands after washing them --

causes the bread to become repulsive and is considered as if he were eating impure bread,

since the verse refers to repulsive bread as impure bread,

שנאמר:

״ויאמר ה׳:

ככה יאכלו בני ישראל את לחמם טמא וגו׳״.

as it is stated:

“And YHWH said:

Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their bread unclean among the nations where I will drive them” (Ezekiel 4:13).

Eating bread with wet hands causes the bread to become repulsive. The verse deems eating in an uncouth manner, as did the non-Jews among whom the Jewish people were exiled, as akin to eating ritually impure bread.

R’ Ḥiyya bar Abba citing R’ Yoḥanan - Arrogance leads a person to stumble with a married woman - Proverbs 6:26

ומאי ״ואשת איש נפש יקרה תצוד״?

אמר רבי חייא בר אבא, אמר רבי יוחנן:

כל אדם שיש בו גסות הרוח —

לבסוף נכשל באשת איש,

שנאמר:

״ואשת איש נפש יקרה תצוד״.

§ The Talmud now continues the interpretation of the above quoted verse: “For on account of a prostitute a man is brought to a loaf of bread” (Proverbs 6:26).

The Talmud asks: And what is the meaning of the continuation of the verse: “But the adulteress hunts for the precious life”?

R’ Ḥiyya bar Abba says that R’ Yoḥanan says:

Any person who has arrogance within him --

will eventually stumble by sinning with a married woman (אשת איש),

as it is stated:

“But the married woman hunts (תצוד) for the precious (יקרה) life,”

i.e., she sins with one who considers himself precious.

Rava - One who commits adultery is trapped in Gehenna even if he learned Torah, which is more precious than the High Priest entering the Holy of Holies - Proverbs 6:26, 3:15

אמר רבא:

האי ״נפש יקרה״ —

״נפש גבוהה״ מיבעי ליה.

ועוד: ״היא תצוד״ מיבעי ליה!

Rava said:

This phrase: “The precious (יקרה) life,” is not how the verse would present this idea.

It should have stated: “An arrogant (גבוהה) life.”

And further, it should have stated: “A precious life, she hunts for the adulteress,” indicating that the precious soul will entrap the adulteress, and not vice versa, as the verse indicates as written.

אלא אמר רבא:

כל הבא על אשת איש --

אפילו למד תורה

דכתיב בה ״יקרה היא מפנינים״,

מכהן גדול שנכנס לפני ולפנים,

״היא תצודנו״ — לדינה של גיהנם.

Rather, Rava says that the verse should be interpreted as follows: Anyone who has sex with a married woman --

even if that man studied Torah,

about which it is written: “She is more precious than rubies [peninim]” (Proverbs 3:15), than a High Priest, who enters the innermost sanctum,²

still, this transgression of adultery will entrap him into the judgment of Gehenna,

and the Torah he studied will not be able to save him.

1. "Worm” (=maggots) is the common Talmudic metonym for putrefaction of the corpse. See my previous note on this in “Pt2 Thief-Catching, Corpulence, and Virility: Stories of R’ Elazar ben Shimon and R’ Yishmael ben Yosei (Bava Metzia 83b-84a)“.

2. לפני ולפנים.

Steinsaltz explains:

“She is more precious than rubies [peninim]” (Proverbs 3:15), which, based on its etymological connection (EB more accurately: wordplay) with the Hebrew term for the Holy of Holies, lifnai ve-lifnim, is interpreted by the rabbis to mean that one who studies Torah is more precious “than a High Priest, who enters the innermost sanctum”

For another instance of the usage of this idiom, see my “Rome’s Hands, Jacob’s Voice: A Talmudic Lament Over the Destruction (Gittin 57b-58a)“, section “Story of Tzafenat bat Peniel, the enslaved daughter of the High Priest“, sub-section “Reish Lakish - Etymology of her name“:

״בת פניאל״ –

בתו של כהן גדול

ששימש לפני ולפנים

and she (=Tzafenat bat Peniel - צפנת בת פניאל) was called “bat Peniel”

because she was the daughter [bat] of the High Priest

who served in the innermost sanctum [lifnai ve-lefnim] of the Temple.

And see my note there on the name “Peniel”.