“In an earthenware vessel” – Rabbi Meir said: She gave him to drink fine wine in fine goblets; therefore, the priest gives her the bitter water in an earthenware vessel. “And from the dirt” – why does the Torah say: Bring dirt [afar] to the sota? If she merits, a son will emerge from her like Abraham our patriarch, in whose regard it is written: “And I am dust [afar] and ashes” (Genesis 18:27). If he does not merit, she will return to her dust.
Our Rabbis said: In reward for Abraham our patriarch saying: “And I am dust and ashes,” his descendants merited two mitzvot: The ashes of the heifer and the dirt of the sota. But they did not enumerate the dust of covering,61See Leviticus 17:13. because it is a facilitator of a mitzva, and one derives no benefit from it. Why would he examine her with water and dirt? It is because man was created from dirt and shaped with water.
That is why she is examined with water and dirt to determine whether she is pure as when she was created. “And from the dirt that is” – can one, perhaps, prepare it outside and take it in? The verse states: “On the floor of the Tabernacle.” If “on the floor of the Tabernacle,” can one, perhaps, dig with a spade?
The verse states: “That is.” How so? If there is some there, bring it; if there is none there, place there. “The priest shall take…and he shall place it into the water” – it is taught: Three must be seen: the dirt of the sota, the ashes of the heifer, and the spittle62See Deuteronomy 25:9. of the yevama.63This is a widow whose husband was childless and who is tied by a levirate bond to his brother. In the name of Rabbi Yishmael they said: The blood of the leper’s bird.64See Leviticus 14:5–6.