“The priest shall bring her near and have her stand before the Lord” (Numbers 5:16). “The priest shall bring her near” – from here they said: One does not give two sotot to drink simultaneously. “And have her stand before the Lord” – he shall evacuate the Courtyard on her account.139This is so there will be nothing interposing between her and the Sanctuary. “The priest shall take sacred water in an earthenware vessel, and from the dirt that is on the floor of the Tabernacle the priest shall take, and he shall place it into the water” (Numbers 5:17).
“The priest shall take sacred water” – sanctified from the basin; “in an earthenware vessel” – but not in other vessels, and not in an earthenware shard. “And from the dirt that is on the floor of the Tabernacle the priest shall take” – but not a non-priest. “And he shall place it into the water” – dirt on the surface of the water. From here they said: He would bring an earthenware goblet and place in it half a log of water from the basin.
Rabbi Yehuda says: A quarter-log; just as he minimizes the script,140Rabbi Yehuda’s opinion calls for less to be written on the scroll of the sota. so he minimizes the water. He would enter the Sanctuary and turn to his right. There was a place there, one cubit by one cubit, with a marble tablet with a ring affixed to it. He would lift it and take dirt from beneath it, and he would place it so it could be seen on the water’s surface, as it is stated: “And from the dirt that is on the floor of the Tabernacle the priest shall take, and he shall place it into the water.”
It is taught: “On the floor of the Tabernacle”141Instead of simply saying: “In the Tabernacle.” – to include the floor of the eternal Temple.