Sotah סוטה

The Torah describes a rite for the case where a husband suspects his wife and there are no witnesses: she is brought to the Temple, words containing the Divine Name are written on a scroll, dissolved in water and given her to drink. The tractate works through the rite step by step—and along with it everything said in the holy tongue and everything that may be said in any language: the priest's address to the army, the high priest's words, the priestly blessing.

The last chapter is a list of what "ceased": Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai abolished the bitter water when adulterers grew too many; such a one died—and such a measure of piety ceased. The tractate ends with a description of the generation before the Messiah, in which "insolence will increase" and "the face of the generation is as the face of a dog".

Order: Nashim. There is Gemara in both the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmud.