For the New Mom (Tazria)

Have you ever thought, lahavdeel, that, in some ways, Sefer Vayikra is like Moby Dick. There’s a narrative that connects it all, but there are also large chunks of descriptive information. In Melville’s case, every detail about a whale you probably never really wanted to know, and in Sefer Vayikra, the extremely specific laws of the Mishkan, the service, and the laws of tumeh and tahara (impure and pure, although that translation creates drastic misinterpretations). So much of Torah is left to be fleshed out in the Oral law that one is almost forced to wonder why these detailed descriptions are included in the Written Law.

The vast majority of this week’s parsha concerns the spiritually wrought skin afflictions, tzaraas that is often translated as leprosy. However the first chapter has nothing to do with tzaraas, but rather with childbirth. (Side note: If anyone knows the connection between zayin-reish-ayin and  tzadi-reish-ayin, I would be fascinated to hear it. Zera - as in tazria, the name of the parsha, which means to conceive from the root for seed and Tzara – as in tzaraas, the name of the skin affliction).

Perek 12, which is only 8 verses long, is actually a particular favorite of those who like to wonder about gender roles in the Torah. In summary, when a woman conceives and brings forth a male child, she must stay separate from her husband for 7 days and then remains in a state by which she may not enter the sanctuary or touch any holy items for 33 more days. With a girl, the days of separation are 14, and she remains in a distinct state for 66 days. After these days, she brings certain offerings and life returns to normal.

There is a concept that it is a longer time because it is the separation of the double potential for creation. Also, with a boy, the mother is finished her separation in time for the bris on the eighth day. Oh, and rather interesting, the length of days was the fact that 7 + 33 = 40, is just about 6 weeks and, as all moms know, that’s just about when the doctor wants to see you again after delivery.

But let us look at the wording  of 12:4 and 5, that after the days of separation, the new mother shall “dwell in the blood of purification,” which, it is agreed by all, is a statement that she herself has no ritual impurity to her, but is actually in a unique state of being. Rashi describes the period of 33/66 days as being one long day, as if the day on which she was purified is not fully completed until the end of the time.

What an interesting term damei tahara is. If there is one constant in Torah life it is the Divine service, but post birth this is an activity that the new mother is not allowed to engage in. We can’t really relate because we don’t have the Temple or the Mishkan today; we don’t participate in the Divine Service. But, we do have our own version of the avodah, which is tefilla. In some ways, perhaps right here Hashem is instructing the women of Bnei Yisrael that it is OK to take it easy after childbirth, not to push one’s self and jump straight back into all of the rigorous demands of living according to a schedule. It is a subtle message that is overlooked by many, and really it is nearly impossible to fulfill in the modern era when we don’t live in large extended families or communities where everyone acts like one family. This is a beautiful message that I wish far more people would see when they read Vayikra 12 then that the Torah renders a different status for the birth of a male than for the birth of a female.