Parashat Naso

The portion of the "sotah" that appears in our parashah is exceptional in its methods of examination and in the immediate punishment or reward contained within it. The bond between a couple is a truly wondrous, truly divine bond, and harming it is a real injury to the world and to the Holy One. When there is betrayal within a marriage, it is not a local, specific case. It is not merely a story of two people - it is also a story about the third partner between them: "Man and woman, if they merit, the Divine Presence dwells between them; if they do not merit, fire consumes them" (Bavli Sotah 17a). Therefore the sotah passage is not merely a magical test, or a pregnancy test - it is a consequence of the fact that the bond between a couple, in the Jewish conception, is a lofty, holy, divine bond.