The Adulterous Woman; The Adulterous Soul

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Good morning. Good morning and welcome to Worldwide Wisdom. Today we're going to take on a very very foundational and fundamental topic in Jewish spirituality. In fact, in human spirituality.

[00:00:13]The question is why we sin.

[00:00:16]>> Why we sin? Because essentially a human being is a piece of God.

[00:00:24]A Jew is a piece of God. Yeah. Is a piece of God. their soul is literally a piece of God and you cannot actually violate your your core. You're not actually capable of doing that. This is what what spirituality teaches us. We're not capable of biting the hand that feeds us.

[00:00:48]We're not capable of biting the hand that feeds us because, >> you know, when when you're drawing your power from a certain power source, you can't cannibalize that that power source, right? I mean, think about it.

[00:01:02]If you're getting paid by a certain client, if you're getting paid by a certain investment, if you're getting paid by a certain boss or a company, then you try to play nice.

[00:01:13]But to openly shamelessly rebel against that source of nourishment, nurture, vitality, energy, money, source, life is not something which a sane person would do. Right?

[00:01:30]So why then if we are in fact a piece of God, if our soul is literally a piece of God, then why do we sin?

[00:01:39]So here here we're introduced to to the idea which comes out of this week's Torah portion. It's the adulterous woman.

[00:01:48]The adulterous woman is called the sot s o ta. A sot is a woman who's deviated.

[00:01:56]The word sot means to deviate. She's deviated from the path of normaly. And instead of being alone with her husband, she's alone with another man. Now what happened was in the biblical account is this is a woman whose husband is jealous of her being with another man. So he warns her before witnesses not to be alone with another man. Then she ignores his his warning and she's alone with this other man in private with testimony of witnesses that say that she was alone. Then she has to be taken to the temple where where they erase the name of God into a cup of water. We never erase the name of God. This is the only time ever in in existence that we erase the name of God. If the name of God gets destroyed, we have to sativa. If a Torah scroll gets erased with the name of God, you have to siv like like it like like somebody died. So we do this and she drinks the water. If she was in fact not adulterous, then she will get extraordinary blessings. If she was adulterous, then she and her paramore will both die a miserable death.

[00:02:55]>> You like that part?

[00:02:56]>> Yeah.

[00:02:57]>> But it's never happened, >> right? Never happened.

[00:03:00]>> Is there a similar punishment for >> Yeah. The paramore. The paramore is the guy who did it with her.

[00:03:07]>> Exact same punishment.

[00:03:08]>> She does it >> takes two to tango my friend.

[00:03:11]>> So you know the tom actually says the tom actually says Marty and I want to stand I want to correct myself. Somebody pointed out to me rec that says that there's two opinions in the tom. One says that it never happened. The other one says that it did happen and I stood on her grave.

[00:03:25]>> Uh never heard that.

[00:03:26]>> I thought I said that in front of you once. So where I stand corrected is that >> her grave >> and I stood in her grave which is a weird thing to say. Right.

[00:03:34]>> Right.

[00:03:35]>> So somebody pointed out to me that the rabbi in the Talmud who said and I stood in her grave was a cohen >> and a cohane would never enter a cemetery.

[00:03:44]>> Right. So you know it's >> so when he says and I stood in her grave he was making a like a what's the term in English? Is it a is it satire? Is it sarcasm? What is he hyperbole? What is exactly? I'm not sure exactly, but he's saying, "Yeah, I was there and I stood in a grave." As if to say, "I would never enter a cemetery. Never happened."

[00:04:01]And and such a thing could never be. So, he was he was stating the opposite. How do you say that in what's the expression in English? I'm going to >> There's got to be a word for this. If crew was here, he'd be able to tell us.

[00:04:11]Okay, fine. We tell him, please tell him he was missed today. Okay. So, >> so let's get back to the story. So, what is it that causes a way a woman to go wayward?

[00:04:20]>> Now, that's that's going to take more than one class.

[00:04:22]>> There's a lot of reason. That's there's a lot of reasons, but explains that what causes a woman to or a woman what causes a person >> to cheat on their spouse is fog. F O G fog, confusion.

[00:04:46]What calls a veil, V E I L. A veil. In other words, you don't realize the real consequence of it. You think of the short-term gain instead of the long-term pain. That's the bottom line. Short-term gain versus long-term pain. We as human beings tend to see the trees. We ignore the forest.

[00:05:05]Now, why is that?

[00:05:08]The reason is I mean people cheat every day. This happens all the time. But then when they get caught, they feel bad about it. Like what? You didn't realize in the beginning that that you you were destroying your marriage and you're never going to see your kids again and your assets and your business and your life and your love and your credibility and your reputation and your commitment and your word is all in right is all down the drain because we think about short-term gain far quicker than we even perceive long-term g-term pain right the reason is because and this is a foundational idea in to me it's like gamechanging it's the founding chapter of Tanya at the beginning of Tanya which is the founding text of Kabad philosophy. Remember Kabad is not a denomination. Kabad is a is a way of living. It's a worldview. In the first chapter of Tanya, it says that our souls originates in Khalipa. Khalipa is a superficial layers of godly energy. We come from the external components of God's energy. At least our animal soul does. Our animal soul comes from the external components of God's energy. And therefore, we are very impressed by external presentations. We are deeply moved by marketing even though it makes no sense.

[00:06:17]You know, it's a good story of the um this Israeli uh sorry this um Coca-Cola decided to expand into Israel because you know in Israel they sell other Cokes. Coca-Cola is not a big Coke in Israel. There's a cola >> RC >> RC it's called which actually in Hebrew AI means poison but it's letters RC and kind of ironic right? But it says it says Kimob America like in America. This takes just like in America anyway. So, so they Coca-Cola decided to send someone to to to Israel to do marketing.

[00:06:49]So, he failed dismally in the marketing.

[00:06:51]They asked him, "What what did you do wrong?" She said, "I don't know. I made I made a cartoon like three panels."

[00:06:57]Like three panels, right? In the first image, you see a man walking through the desert. He's hot and he's parched. In the middle image, you see the man drinking Coca-Cola.

[00:07:08]And then in the third image, you see the man happy, smiling. I don't know why it failed. They said in Israel they read from right to left.

[00:07:26]So marking, why is it that if you see a young woman drinking Coca-Cola, you say, "I have to drink a Coca-Cola." You think you're going to look like her? If you drink Coca-Cola, >> no, >> you look worse. That's not even look like this is so >> right. By the Pepsi, the whole thing about Pepsi, they they have a whole marketing thing about young people, good-looking people drinking Pepsi.

[00:07:46]People associate, they think in their minds, if I drink Pepsi, I'm going to be cool like them.

[00:07:51]We say, you know what that means?

[00:07:54]A a dark day, like a night day. No such thing. Never going to happen, right?

[00:07:59]Yeah.

[00:08:00]>> It's deviating from the normal. That same thing is your animal soul taking over. Yes. Exactly right.

[00:08:06]>> Taking charge.

[00:08:07]>> Sirville, what I'm going to say to you, so beautiful you said that. Is that the adulterous woman? You think you're making fun of the adulterous woman? It's the adulterous soul. It's you. It's me.

[00:08:16]It's us. Instead of reading about the sot some woman who's like so terrible.

[00:08:22]This is us. We are a soul married to who? You know you're married to Hashem.

[00:08:28]Right? And what do we do? Instead of being loyal, devoted to our husband, we're sticking our nose into the wrong pastures. Why?

[00:08:38]Why? Because the reason that we're doing this is because we feel losing sight of the forest because of the trees. We're attracted to short-term gain and ignoring long-term pain. We don't realize the greater consequences because animal >> exactly the animal in in the language of that we're about to read inside the text the way God created us was in a very masterful design he talk if we only had a godly soul what would happen we would do the right thing all the time every time right >> if we only had a godly soul so what does God do to make life >> no sin to make life interesting God gives us a godly soul but then he gives us also >> an animal soul gives us an animal soul.

[00:09:22]Now what does the animal soul want? The godly soul wants to be one of God. The animal soul is a vay is a is an animal just wants to self-support, self-nourishing, right?

[00:09:33]Just wants to eat, drink, and and and and be jolly, right? So these two now, it's not just that they're in a tug of war. You know what he did? He enwrapped the godly soul by the animal soul.

[00:09:43]So the godly soul is literally enveloped inside the is dressed inside the body.

[00:09:49]The the physical animal body and the reptilian soul, the reptilian brain or reptilian soul is actually the godly soul can't do anything by itself. It's got to negotiate it together with the animal soul. If you want to do a mitzvah, what do you have to do? You have to have to have money to do a mitzvah. Can't buy a lulv without without money. You can't build a suka without money. You can't give sodaka without money. There's very few mitzvah you can do without money. I mean you could you could study Torah I guess but even so you got to support yourself. So so the godly soul is going to work with the animal soul on everything and every mitzah that he does. The problem is animal soul is rooted in clippa is myopic is shortsighted and he says I don't think so because I want short-term plan gain. I'm not interested in long-term gain in long-term pain right?

[00:10:32]I want I want short-term gain not interested in long-term gain because the animal soul is coming from clipper. The godly soul is coming from essence and he's only impressed by essence. The animal soul is coming from external layers and therefore is impressed by perceptions by marketing.

[00:10:48]And this is the tugofwar that rages on inside of us. That's what's so foundational about what we're learning right now. Because we're just right now being exposed to a master class in the inner workings of our soul. It's not that you have a struggle between good and evil. It's not that you have a struggle between right and wrong.

[00:11:05]Everybody wants to do the right thing.

[00:11:07]is that you have a struggle between shortterm gain versus long-term pain.

[00:11:12]You have a struggle between myopia shortsidedness versus truth.

[00:11:24]You know was a mut of the children married each other and he said once to God almighty he's like yeah God almighty it's not really fair what you did what did you do you created a world in which the pleasures of this of the indulgences and the luxuries of this world are right in front of everybody's eyes and where will you have to find if you want to find the gan the the enjoyment of heaven you got to look in the back of a book somewhere in a foreign language who's doing that if you would have done it the other way around You had to put the pleasures of this world in the back of a book somewhere in in Latin and you would have put the pleasures of a of of heaven right in front of us here. We'd have a different game. It's not fair, right?

[00:12:04]It was never meant to be fair, my friends. It was meant to be hard. Was meant to be challenging. And that's why every time we overcome and achieve, it's a big deal. So that is the map of the human of the human soul. It is the is the map of the human struggle. And I want to read this to you inside the original text. I'm in page 60 in our book Bossilani printed by Cahoot or SIE I think SIE and Kahut publishers. Both of them did a collaboration on this book bossi. Let's go. I'm on page 60.

[00:12:36]So now we're talking about why it is that a soul is able to even sin in the first place. However, with regard to other matters, i.e. other sins, heaven forbid. So when it's a sin that is hugely obvious that this sin is going to cut you off from God, even the animal soul says, "I can't do it." Like if somebody puts a gun to the head and tells you to worship an idol, even a a secular Jew won't sin with that. But when it comes to regular sin, like eating kosher or non-coosher, cheating in business, not having a kosher musa, violating the shamas, It's not existential, right? Doesn't realize the short-term pain, sorry, the short-term gain overcomes the long-term pain, right? And same thing in a marriage. You know, in a marriage, you wouldn't do things that are existential threats, obvious threats to your marriage. You wouldn't, you know, cheat in front of your spouse, behind the back, maybe, you know, maybe if it's just an internet website. Maybe if it's just a a flirtatious conversation, didn't really do anything.

[00:13:42]>> In reality, it is. It's very serious, right? Let's see. However, with regard to other matters, I other sins, heaven forbid, such a person lacks the awareness and the sensitivities to appreciate that these two separated from God's oneness. He imagines that his Jewishness is whole and intact as it was before he sinned. This delusion, the lack of awareness of the insensitivity to appreciate the consequences of sin emanate from the spirit of folly of the sitra. Remember the sotas is is the deviant. The word deviant in Hebrew and folly in Hebrew is the same word. It's confusion.

[00:14:12]The reason you deviate is because it's a spirit of folly. It's the same word, right? The same word in Hebrew and which is by the way the same word as the as the walls of the tabernacle which were acacia wood which is shitim wood. It's the same word the wood of the walls of the tabernacle. The woman who deviates and folly which causes us to sin, confusion, fog, >> myopia, it's all the same word that obscures the light and revelation of godliness to the point that they are not felt to explain.

[00:14:43]The spirit of folly dulls a person's spiritual sensitivity. The power and the burning urgency of the animal soul's desire cool a person's otter and numb his sensitivity to spiritual things. A person's attachment to and excitement for things that arouse and stoke his yearning and desire for material things chill his sensitivity his appreciation and feeling for spiritual matters. It's the joy of the shortterm gain that chills the need for long-term for long-term gain. Right? In other words, there's an interesting idea that comes up over here which is the physical indulgence is inversely proportionate to spiritual sensitivity.

[00:15:22]The more you're indulging in physical pleasures, the less you're capable of being sensitive to spirituality, the more you indulge or the less you indulge in physical pleasures, the more sensitive you are to spirituality.

[00:15:37]>> So you shouldn't be saying be aesthetic.

[00:15:40]You don't want to be.

[00:15:41]>> So I'm not saying to be an aesthetic.

[00:15:42]>> That's the extreme.

[00:15:43]>> The question The question, Marty, is really the question really is why am I doing it? Am I indulging in the steak because I'm a glutton?

[00:15:53]Or am I indulging in the steak because it's chabas and I want to honor God in chabas? Am I indulging in intimacy because it's a mitzvah to do so?

[00:16:04]>> Of course. Absolutely.

[00:16:07]>> Or am I doing it because I am expressing my animalistic drive? It all depends on the why. Big deal in business today is understanding your why. Do you know your why? Start with why.

[00:16:20]>> Y >> right >> why then the how.

[00:16:22]>> Exactly. So he becomes so possessed by his physical desires and material wants that his feelings for the spiritual become utterly hidden and concealed to the point of total insensitivity. He no longer feels the pleasantness, sweetness, goodness and value of fulfilling the mitzvah. Similarly, he no longer senses the loneliness brought about by his distance from God that resulted from sin and transgression. The underlying cause of this entire process is the encompassing veil of the animal soul that covers >> the godly soul. Absolutely. There's a veil going on inside of you. And the question is, are you being fooled? You know when the kids come over to you and purim and you dress up, Tati, do you know who I am? Um, I think you're Superman. No, no, no. It's me, Gandal.

[00:17:08]Right. So the question is you wouldn't be fooled by somebody coming over to you in a masquerade. Yet we're fooled all day every day by our animal soul that masquerades as physical indulgence and you're not able to see what lies inside which is your godly soul that really wants something else entirely.

[00:17:30]>> You know what it means when a woman tells you it's fine.

[00:17:33]>> It's not fine. A >> woman tells you it's not fine. When when a woman tells you >> woman is >> I'm okay. I'm okay. Don't worry about it. I'm fine.

[00:17:43]>> No.

[00:17:46]Watch your words, man. Tread with caution if you value your life. Right.

[00:17:52]So, how hath no fury as a woman's corn.

[00:17:55]So, she says she's fine, but only a fool would take those words at face value.

[00:18:03]Better watch it, my friends. And it's worse if you're married to a divorce.

[00:18:08]>> I can't even imagine. Okay. So, so you hear you hear what I'm saying? You got to be able to see what lies beneath the surface.

[00:18:14]>> You can hear it. Also, the woman said it's fine.

[00:18:17]>> It's fine.

[00:18:19]>> The way she says that, you know, >> if looks could kill >> inonation matters, >> right? So, so in the same way, you know, you got to be able to read read beyond meets the eye.

[00:18:32]In the same way, you know, um it's like kamas, you know, kamas is a humanitarian organization.

[00:18:37]If you checked with if you checked with the EU, you know, they they would market them. Yeah. This is an amazing humanitarian.

[00:18:46]>> Yeah. They love >> look that way.

[00:18:47]>> Yeah. So, you know, you got to watch. We got to peer beneath the surface. Don't judge a book by its cover, right? You put the lipstick on the pig, it doesn't mean it's a supermodel, right? You got to be able to see what what lies beneath the surface. And that is what is telling us. The reason that that that a person sins is because their godly soul is enveloped by the animal soul. And if all that you see is the external animal soul, then then you're going to fall, right? But you got to be able to appear beneath the surface. Let's go a little bit deeper now. Now, the godly soul is the vine and its essence and nature.

[00:19:22]This is especially true of the spark of God invested within it. I.e. the particular spark that relates to the body of that particular individual. That means if this godly spark this the soul appreciates all godly things, this is what you really want. You really want to be connected to God because you're a piece of God. There's nothing you can do about it, guys. There's nothing you can do about it. And it's keenly aware of anything that opposes godliness. It wants no part of anything in which godliness is not manifest. And particularly something that that actually opposes godliness. This is what lies at your essence, at your core. This is what's going to make you happy. Now, if you ignore your godly soul, you're always going to feel a hollow inside of yourself. You're always going to feel empty. You're going to try to stuff that emptiness with hobbies and with cruises and with restaurants and with vacations and with distractions and with movies and with experiences and with indulgences, but you're never going to be able to fill that hole because that hole is really a desire to be one with God. That's what you want at your core.

[00:20:18]When confronted in such a situation, the person will flee from it as one flees from danger or like a person who flees from death. For it is clear to the godly soul that spiritual death. Heaven forbid is more severe than physical death.

[00:20:30]Heaven forbid. It's soul yearning and desires for godliness. That's what your godly soul wants. That's to create channels for godliness. That's the only thing your godly soul wants. But your godly soul was dressed up inside of an animal soul. And that is what God wanted to make life interesting. Because if you only had a godly soul life, it'd be amazing. But your animal soul just wants to have more narcissistic pleasure.

[00:20:54]Your godly soul wants to have selfless altruistic connection with God.

[00:21:02]Somebody at the door open the door.

[00:21:05]>> Yeah, I just heard.

[00:21:07]>> Um, so you so these are in conflict. I think he's going there there's a >> there's a tug of war here. There's an absolute conflict. If we can at least be aware of the conflict, we've got a chance of winning it.

[00:21:21]>> So God wants us to struggle so that if we overcome the struggle, it's more meritorious.

[00:21:26]>> Exactly. Otherwise, look, >> Chuck, if not, it's not that it's more meritorious. There would be no contest if if if you didn't have a struggle.

[00:21:34]>> It' be easy.

[00:21:35]>> It would be easy. It wouldn't be a ch testing. What were you going to say? I was saying that or you direct your animal soul that you still have pleasures but do it the right way.

[00:21:52]>> Then you still have pleasures.

[00:21:54]>> Yeah. I mean nobody tells you to be a >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not saying that you have to ignore your physical needs, but I want to finish off with one analogy. The zora gives us an amazing amazing metaphor to understand life and the struggles of life. Here's what the zora tells us.

[00:22:12]The zora tells us that there was a king who wanted to test the metal of his son to be the to be the royal prince.

[00:22:27]He wanted his son to be tested. So what did he do? The king hired the most skilled seductress in the land to seduce his son.

[00:22:40]She tell he tells the this this seductress, "I need you to do everything you possibly can in order to make my son sin with you. I hope you fail, but you cannot betray that intention." Now she is a loyal subject of the king, devoted to the king, wants the the prince to succeed and not to succumb to her ws, but she can't betray that. So she goes to knock on his door and she tries every which way to seduce the prince every >> right and hopefully the prince doesn't uh succumb. Right? Now what happens now is that imagine if somebody told the prince that you're being tested and the king is watching you. You're on candid camera.

[00:23:27]>> You think the print Oh, that would be easy.

[00:23:29]>> Why would it be easy?

[00:23:31]>> Because you know judged by everyone over your father. So and he could see it. So your father in heaven can see it. So if you knew you were on camp, it wouldn't be difficult test. Well, that's what just happened today in today's Torah study.

[00:23:49]In today's Torah study, it was discovered, it was announced that you are, we are all the seductress. Sorry, the adulterers woman.

[00:23:58]>> We are.

[00:23:59]>> Who are we cheating with? We're cheating with the seductress that was sent to us by God direct, right? And the question is, are you going to fail or are you going to fly?

[00:24:10]Well, you're on candid camera.

[00:24:13]God's watching. It's a test. That's what it is. You're being tested. So when you're given the test, when somebody comes to you and says, "Listen, I need you to come out with me to a non-coosher restaurant," that is the seductress.

[00:24:23]When somebody says to you, "I need you to do violate the shabas." That is the seductress. When somebody says, "I need you to do something which is inconsistent with the values of Torah," that is the seductress. We have seductresses all around us all day, every day. But when the moment that we realize that we are being tested, like Marty says, it be becomes easy.

[00:24:45]The struggle inside of us is not between good and evil, right and wrong. It's between short-sightedness and far-sightedness.

[00:24:53]It's between short-term pleasure and long-term long-term investment.

[00:24:58]>> Yeah.

[00:24:58]>> It's a lifelong progress.

[00:25:00]>> It's a lifelong process. But once you realize the amazing words of the Zahar that we're merely being tested by God Almighty that this is how he wants to test us because otherwise it would be easy.

[00:25:10]There'd be no contest. This is the test.

[00:25:12]This is the challenge. Now we're able to take it on. And now we can understand that the seduct the the the adulterous woman of this week's Torah portion Torah portion the sa it's not just a woman who's unfaithful to her husband. It's a story of you and me. How many times have we been unfaithful to our father in heaven? Why have we been unfaithful to our father in heaven? Why have we betrayed this marriage? It's not too late. He has infinite patience. We can still rectify the situation once we realize the problem. Once we embrace the problem and own up to it and say, you know what, tomorrow is going to be different. Thank you very much, everybody. Have a great day.