DEUT1028 (Continued from [[DEUT703]] Deuteronomy 15:2 remission LEHRMAN 181-3). When R. Johanan b. Zakkai abolished the laws governing the Sotah (The unfaithful woman whose Ordeal by the Bitter Waters is described in Numbers v.), on account of the spread of immorality in his day (Sotah 47a), he followed a natural process of growth and expansion whereby Judaism developed into a living religion that aimed to regulate all the details of daily life. When this renowned Rabbi saw that murder was raising its head among the dissident groups (sicarii) embittered by the fall of the Second Jewish State, he abolished the laws of the Red Heifer (Deuteronomy xxi. 1-9). His aim was to show that Jewish law is elastic and pliable; but he made one important caveat. This was: provided such changes were undertaken by a trusted Rabbinical Court ever mindful of the original purpose of the Torah and eager to adapt the divine principles to the fluctuating circumstances of the age.