Toras Aish Thoughts from Across the Torah Spectrum RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN for the Tumah of a Woman's Monthly Menstrual Cycle
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Tazria 5768 Volume XV Number 30 Toras Aish Thoughts From Across the Torah Spectrum RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN for the tumah of a woman's monthly menstrual cycle. Every month the egg produced in a woman's body is Shabbat Shalom ready for fertilization, the birth of new life. If this process peak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a doesn't take place, the blood vessels that would have woman gives birth to a male child, then she nurtured the fetus burst, resulting in the monthly flow. “Sshall be unclean seven days...." (Lev. 12:2). Had she become pregnant, her blood would be Not surprisingly, the occasion of childbirth is so nurturing the new life growing inside the womb. The momentous that the Torah in this week's portion of appearance of menstrual blood means that the Tazria commands sacrifices to be brought after the potential for new life was not fulfilled, an indirect birth. But what does surprise many people is that the encounter with death. Torah distinguishes, seemingly arbitrarily, between the For one to return to a state of purity after the birth of a male and a female. appearance of menstrual blood, one must completely If it's a boy, the mother brings the sacrifice after immerse oneself in a mikvah, a pool of water collected waiting 40 days, the first seven days in a state of from rainwater or a well, as opposed to a bath, water impurity (tumah), followed by 33 days of purity (tahara). being the symbol for life itself: the mikvah waters are And if it's a girl, the waiting period for bringing the Biblically called "living waters" (mayim hayim). sacrifice is eighty days, divided into fourteen days of Now our earlier question is intensified. Why impurity and sixty-six days of purity. does the Torah speak of tumah in the context of The first question to be asked is why the Torah childbirth? Why isn't it conceivable that the creation of stresses the sex of the child in regard to the mother's new life should result exclusively in tahara, purity, with state of being. Is there any record, be it scientific or no reference to tumah at all? folklore, that the process of giving birth to a male is The fact is that childbirth is the moment when different from giving birth to a female, and that the death and life come together. I would like to suggest mother feels or experiences something different that the mother's impurity comes from the fact that depending on the child's sex? Indeed, some might even every woman who gives birth has a serious brush with accuse the Torah of patriarchal prejudice in telling the death. During labor, the suffering may become so mother to wait one amount of time for the male and a intense that the mother actually believes she is about to different amount for the female. die. If something does go medically wrong, any doctor There is, however, a more fundamental will testify that all of nature converges to save the child question. Regardless as to whether the period is seven even at the expense of the mother. It wasn't all that days for a boy and fourteen days for a girl, why should long ago that the greatest cause of death among the woman be tamei -ritually impure-at all? Indeed, women was childbirth. In fact, a woman who gives birth what is tumah all about? How, and why, does tumah, is required to recite birchat hagomel (the blessing of the bibilical ritual impurity, come into existence? thanksgiving) in the presence of a quorum in the Conceptually, states of impurity treated in the synagogue, the same blessing said after successful Bible have something to do with the opposite of life - encounter with death. death. Both life and death are mysteries, but the Torah But since the act of childbirth was only a brush wants us to "choose life," and views the totality of life as with death-mother and child emerging intact- the days good (Genesis 1). Hence anything that mitigates of purity far outweigh the days of impurity, in a ratio of against life and expresses death is declared tamei, either 7 to 33 for a boy, or 14 to 66 for a girl, the days of ritually impure, the severest form of such impurity being impurity doubled for a girl because it is the female a human corpse. physiology in which the death-life drama is played out. Not only death itself, but even the unfulfilled This juxtaposition between death and life is not potential for life also creates tumah. This is the source at all rare. The two come together, for example, at the "binding of Isaac," demonstrating that only one who is Please keep willing to sacrifice his life for a higher ideal actually lives Bracha Shaindel Rochel bas Chaya Sara a meaningful life. In Israel, where we'll soon be in mind for a Refuah Shelaima celebrating the 60th year of the state's re- 2 Toras Aish Gorbachev, there were Jews who risked all to fulfill the TORAS AISH IS A WEEKLY PARSHA commandment of circumcision. NEWSLETTER DISTRIBUTED VIA EMAIL AND THE However, it bears note that the enemies of the WORLD WIDE WEB AT HTTP://AISHDAS.ORG. Jews saw in Jewish circumcision a spiritual weapon FOR MORE INFO EMAIL [email protected] The material presented in this publication was collected from that would help guarantee the Jews survival against the publicly available electronic mail, computer archives and the prevailing government, mores and culture. As is often UseNet. It is being presented with the permission of the respective the case, our enemies are more astute in recognizing authors. Toras Aish is an independent publication, and does not and identifying our true strengths than we Jews are necessarily reflect the views of any given synagogue. ourselves. TO DEDICATE THIS NEWSLETTER PLEASE CALL 973-472-0180 OR EMAIL [email protected] The commandment of circumcision is that the procedure is to take place on the eighth day of the establishment, the juxtaposition life and death is young boy's life. There are physical circumstances that demonstrated each year in the annual calendar, Yom can allow for a postponement of the actual circumcision Hazikaron, the Memorial Day for the soldiers who fell in but the obligation remains a personal responsibility Israel's battles for existence, followed immediately by upon the Jew throughout life. Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israel's Independence Day. For instance, the Talmud records that a person Emerging from the encounter with the death of who is a hemophiliac obviously should not undergo a Yom Hazikaron, Yom Haatzmaut expresses that the possible life-threatening procedure such as painful birth -and existence-of Israel is the result of the circumcision. However, even though that person has continued sacrifices of the soldiers. The virtual more than a legitimate excuse for remaining contiguous placement of Yom Hazikaron (brush with uncircumcised he is still considered to be death and destruction) and Yom Ha'azmaut (the birth of uncircumcised according to halacha and is therefore the state of Israel) parallels the Torah's understanding excluded from those rituals that the Torah explicitly of childbirth in our portion. Tazria does not only deal requires that only circumcised Jews may participate in. with the birth of a child, but it leaves us with an This is a further indication of the stress and understanding of a relationship between a brush with importance that the Torah places upon this death and the ultimate gift of life. We come to learn that commandment and how vital it is to the Jewish being just as death and life are intimately, painfully and and future. mysteriously connected, so too the states of purity and It is therefore most understandable why the impurity exist in an eternal dialogue. © 2008 Ohr Torah performance of this commandment occasions the Institutions & Rabbi S. Riskin necessity for a festive meal and a great gathering of friends and family. It is not only the circumcision of that RABBI BEREL WEIN actual child that is being celebrated as much as it is a Wein Online celebration of the ceremony itself - an affirmation of Jewish tradition and identity that is millennia old. Over rom the time of our father Avraham, circumcision the centuries, Jews have paid with their lives for being has been the cornerstone of Jewish identity. We circumcised but the ceremony itself is seen as an Facknowledge this in our prayer after meals daily affirmation of life and holy commitment. "we are grateful to You for your covenant that you have Physical health benefits have been ascribed to sealed into our flesh." the procedure and its result. But, Jews perform this The rabbis of the Talmud indicated to us that commandment out of belief, joy and conscience and the Jewish people accepted this commandment of not out of any other considerations. © 2008 Rabbi Berel circumcision willingly and happily and therefore it has Wein- Jewish historian, author and international lecturer offers persisted amongst Israel uninterruptedly for all of these a complete selection of CDs, audio tapes, video tapes, DVDs, many generations since the time of Avraham. and books on Jewish history at www.rabbiwein.com. For more Though many claims of physical health benefits information on these and other products visit have been made over time for the efficacy of this www.rabbiwein.com/jewishhistory. procedure, the Jewish people have always viewed it as RABBI DOV KRAMER being the supreme symbol of personal Jewish identity and role. Taking a Closer Look Over the ages the enemies of the Jewish nd the kohain will see it on the second people have attempted to ban Jewish circumcision.