Rabbi Gustavo Kraselnik
Kol Shearith Israel Congregation
Panama City, Panama.
The beginning of Parashat Tazria brings us the law of the woman in labor (Lev. 12). Commenting on this passage, Professor Nechamah Leibovitch affirms: “The laws of purity and impurity are disconcerting; we will never know what they mean and we will never understand them…”
Acknowledging beforehand our limited expectations, we dwell on the text, composed of only 8 verses, which establishes the purification process for women following a birth: 40 days, when delivering a son (7 days of impurity plus 33 for blood purification), and twice that much (14 plus 66), when delivering a daughter. In this same passage (verse 3), a reminder of the Brit Milah (circumcision) precept appears, which must be performed on the eighth day.
After the established purification period, the Torah says that the woman must bring two offerings: a one-year-old lamb as Olah (burnt-offering), and what is more surprising, a pigeon as Chatat (sin-offering), to make atonement for her.
This last offering immediately fires our curiosity. If human beings received, in several opportunities, the order to reproduce (“Be fruitful, and multiply…” - Gen. 1:28 and 9:1), how is it that by fulfilling it, there is an offense that demands the offering of a Chatat? What exactly is the sin?
I confess that I couldn’t find too many different explanations. The best known appears in the Talmud (Niddah 31b): Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai believes that the sacrifice comes to atone for the insults or blasphemies that may have been uttered by the woman during labor (according to studies, one of the most painful experiences that a woman can suffer), or even for the promise of not ever having intercourse with her husband (so that she will never have to suffer such pain). This opinion is refuted by Rabbi Josef.
An interesting interpretation appears on the book “Da’at Zekenim”, written in the 13th century by Rashi’s disciples: the key to understanding this passage is to interpret Lechaper as a sort of “spiritual cleanse” instead of atonement, since the woman has not committed any sin. Such reading would give us an interesting approach concerning the way in which we should see Yom Kippur (day of “spiritual cleanse” and not of “atonement”).
We can find a new dimension by reading these passages with modern eyes. Our generation, so boastful of the achievements of human beings, could find a more valuable meaning to this law, which invites us to acknowledge God’s presence in our lives.
From this perspective, perhaps we could say that the Torah considers that a woman who has just given birth, feeling proud for what she just did, may credit herself exclusively for the new life, forgetting God’s role in the miracle of reproduction. Her lack of humility could be her sin.
Therefore, it is precisely to us – who know so much detail about the reproductive system of human beings, who know how the fetus evolves since its gestation, who witness the great “miracles” performed by science in the field of fertilization – to whom the Torah summons to discover divine intervention, manifested as well in the creation of a new life. Thus it was taught by our sages in the Talmud (Kiddushin 30b): “There are three partners in the formation of man: the Holy One blessed be He, the father and the mother.”
To be aware of God’s presence in our lives. That’s what it’s all about.
Shabbat Shalom,
Gustavo
Acknowledging beforehand our limited expectations, we dwell on the text, composed of only 8 verses, which establishes the purification process for women following a birth: 40 days, when delivering a son (7 days of impurity plus 33 for blood purification), and twice that much (14 plus 66), when delivering a daughter. In this same passage (verse 3), a reminder of the Brit Milah (circumcision) precept appears, which must be performed on the eighth day.
After the established purification period, the Torah says that the woman must bring two offerings: a one-year-old lamb as Olah (burnt-offering), and what is more surprising, a pigeon as Chatat (sin-offering), to make atonement for her.
This last offering immediately fires our curiosity. If human beings received, in several opportunities, the order to reproduce (“Be fruitful, and multiply…” - Gen. 1:28 and 9:1), how is it that by fulfilling it, there is an offense that demands the offering of a Chatat? What exactly is the sin?
I confess that I couldn’t find too many different explanations. The best known appears in the Talmud (Niddah 31b): Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai believes that the sacrifice comes to atone for the insults or blasphemies that may have been uttered by the woman during labor (according to studies, one of the most painful experiences that a woman can suffer), or even for the promise of not ever having intercourse with her husband (so that she will never have to suffer such pain). This opinion is refuted by Rabbi Josef.
An interesting interpretation appears on the book “Da’at Zekenim”, written in the 13th century by Rashi’s disciples: the key to understanding this passage is to interpret Lechaper as a sort of “spiritual cleanse” instead of atonement, since the woman has not committed any sin. Such reading would give us an interesting approach concerning the way in which we should see Yom Kippur (day of “spiritual cleanse” and not of “atonement”).
We can find a new dimension by reading these passages with modern eyes. Our generation, so boastful of the achievements of human beings, could find a more valuable meaning to this law, which invites us to acknowledge God’s presence in our lives.
From this perspective, perhaps we could say that the Torah considers that a woman who has just given birth, feeling proud for what she just did, may credit herself exclusively for the new life, forgetting God’s role in the miracle of reproduction. Her lack of humility could be her sin.
Therefore, it is precisely to us – who know so much detail about the reproductive system of human beings, who know how the fetus evolves since its gestation, who witness the great “miracles” performed by science in the field of fertilization – to whom the Torah summons to discover divine intervention, manifested as well in the creation of a new life. Thus it was taught by our sages in the Talmud (Kiddushin 30b): “There are three partners in the formation of man: the Holy One blessed be He, the father and the mother.”
To be aware of God’s presence in our lives. That’s what it’s all about.
Shabbat Shalom,
Gustavo
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