Conundrum: The difference in purification time between male and female births
‘Why are the periods of impurity - and then purity - of the mother who gives birth to a girl, double the periods where she gives birth to a male?’
We read in Parashat Tazria - the first of the two parshiot that we read this Shabbat - (12:1-5): Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying:..'When a woman conceives and gives birth to a male, she shall be contaminated for a seven day period, as during the days of her separation infirmity shall she be contaminated..For thirty-three years days shall she remain in blood of purity; she may not touch anything sacred and she may not enter the Sanctuary, until the completion of her days of purity.'
‘If she gives birth to a female, she shall be contaminated for two weeks, as during her separation; and for sixty-six days she shall remain in blood of purity.’
The Abarbanel asks: ‘Why are the periods of impurity - and then purity - of the mother who gives birth to a girl, double the periods where she gives birth to a male?’
The Abarbanel answers his query: During the period of the creation of the child, blood and moisture pour into the womb of the mother, from which the child is created, the Divine Wisdom saw that this required a number of days equivalent to the days of creation, to cleanse the womb of that which had been poured into it.
Therefore, in the case of the baby being a boy, the period is forty days, in the first seven of which the womb returns to its original state, and the mother to her nature - for just as it absorbs, so too, it emits - as for forty days into the womb poured blood and moisture, so too, after the birth, the mother shall sit, being cleansed and purified, from them.
This, though, thirty-three of this period, though she sees blood, it is not contaminated blood - but pure blood - which flows after the seven days from the birth.
However, these first seven days, she was a niddah - impure- alluding to her being distanced: מנודה, from all people - but in the ensuing thirty-three day period, she sits in her home, and her husband is not forbidden to her, as the Ramban expounded.
The Kli Yakar proffers a different basis for the different periods.
Expounds the sage:’This ensues from the original transgression - of Adam and Eve -from which the impurity flowed to the male born. Therefore, the mother, there, has a period of impurity of seven days.
‘In the case of the birth of a girl, it is only right that the period of seventy days should apply - double that for a boy - as against the two females - the mother, and the girl born - as each of them, in their own right, has the seven day impurity from the transgression of the first woman, which was decreed to apply to all women - therefore, it is only right that the period of impurity, from the birth of a girl, should be fourteen days: seven on account of the mother herself, and a further seven for the girl born, because the mother has added to the world, impurity on her own impurity.
Rav Zalman Sorotzkin expounds:’The periods of purity, and impurity, from the birth of a girl, are double those, when the baby is a male: the periods for both the impure blood, and the pure blood, depend upon the increase of blood.
Man was created from the earth - in which there is no blood - by Hashem infusing the spirit of life into him.
The water - with which Hashem kneaded the earth - turned into blood, because ‘the blood is the soul’, and the earth - to flesh.
A remembrance of the first creation of man, when there was no blood on man, only from the side of the soul - but not from the material (the earth from which he was created), there is, in the birth of a male, much blood.
However, the first woman was created from the flesh of man - from Adam Harishon - and therefore had, in her creation, a double portion of blood: from the material and from the soul.
This is why the period of blood - both the impure and that of purity - is double, than in the case of the birth of a male.
Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsh proffers a different insight, to answer our query: ‘We already learned, in the parsha of the first milah - that every woman in Israel, is ta ‘daughter’ of Sarah Immenu, and to her is entrusted the nature of Sarah - and her as a role model.
Man, on the other hand, from his very first mitzvah - the milah - is entrusted with educating his sons, ‘to walk before Hashem, and to be tamim with the Giver of the Torah’.
He, too, is to illuminate the path before his son, and to be a role model to him; the mother, upon the birth of a daughter, has a double task that leads to purity - and the enormity of her role is instilled in her, as she is to be both a role model, and to mold the one who is destined to be ‘a woman in Israel'.
‘Indeed, the influence of the mother on the spiritual growth of her daughter is double her influence on her son.
‘There, the burden of educating the son falls on the father - as the sons see their fathers as role models to their manly role in life.
The mother, on the other hand, both shapes the nature of the daughter, as well as being her role model.
Therefore, already at the time of their birth, she has to get doubly ready - for her own sake, and for the sake of her daughter, to go in the way of purity and mussar, to the loftiest level.
Rav Hillel Merzbach comments:’There is a difference between boys and girls, even at the time of their birth - in the respective periods of purity and impurity, prescribed by the Torah.’
He expounds:’Three introductions are needed, to explain this: First, the woman is created from a higher place - we know that there are four levels of creation, as, at creation, first the inert - including the earth - was created, in the first two days; then, on the third day, הצומח: the vegetation was created, on the earth; on the fifth day, the living was created, and finally, the peak of creation: man, was created.
‘Man was created from the earth; woman, on the other hand, was created from man.
‘It follows that woman is at a higher level than man, as she was created at a later - and more elevated - stage.
‘Second: in the laws of impurity and purity, the loftier the subject, so too, its capacity for impurity.
‘Thus, ‘the father of all impurity’, is man who has died - all that is at a higher level when alive, so too, his impurity is greater, when life is taken from him.
‘Third, the number forty alludes to the completion of a process of preparation to something new.
‘We see this in the period of the flood being forty day, in Moshe Rabbeinu dwelling for forty days on Har Sinai, and then receiving the Torah, Bnei Israel traversing the desert for forty years, to prepare themselves to enter the land, and - finally - forty days before the creation of the child, a heavenly voice declares: the daughter of this, to this.
‘So too, in the birth of a child, its mother has a path of return to life, of forty days, when the child is a boy - whilst, in the case of the birth of a girl, the period is double, because its power then is greater, as the woman is - as we have brought - at a higher level of closeness to Hashem, from her creation.
‘When a girl is born, there is created something more complete, than when a male is born, and therefore - again, for the reason we have brought - the potential for impurity, is at a higher level - explaining the double periods of impurity and of purity.
‘We might add, that the birth of a girl, is ‘greater’ than the birth of a male, as, through her birth, a new life force comes into existence, as she, one day, has the potential to create new life, by giving birth.
‘In this way, we can also understand, the bracha:’Who has created me, as His Wished’, that women pronounce daily, as Rav Chaim Vital expounds: Hashem indeed created woman closer to His Will, and that - for this reason - she is exempt from time-based positive Mitzvot, as her closeness to Hashem is innate, and purer.
‘The Torah does not apologize from stating that when a girl is born, there is a greater potential for life - the process is doubled, the impurity and the purity, likewise, thereby alluding that the lvel of women is double that, of men.
‘A great pity, that in our generation, there are women who are not satisfied in their lofty status, but want to take the place of men - though it has aspects that are lower than the level of women.’
A parting original answer to our enquiry - as to the double periods of purity and impurity , between that of the birth of a girl, and where the birth is of a boy - from Rav Shmuel Eliyahu.
Expounds the Rav: ’The answer - to the double periods, in the case of the birth being of a girl - can be found in the nature of the original creation of woman
‘Initially male and female were created as one, connected by their backs
Later, Hashem separated them, and built woman from the rib that He took from man.
‘Thus, woman was created twice - once together with man, and a second time, when Hashem separated then, and built woman, and brought her to man, for a wife.
‘This double creation caused double impurity (fourteen days) as well as double purity (sixty-six days).
‘Hashem created ‘this against this’ in all things - thus, a Jew who is commanded to greater sanctity - by performing the Mitzvot - on his death, has a greater level of impurity, than a non-Jew.
‘This, too, is why holy tomes have a greater level of sanctity than mundane writings.
‘So, too, in their creation, women, in the level of her purity, and impurity.
‘The greater ability of women in regard to purity and impurity, can be seen in the actions of the early women - they were the first to accept the Torah, as it says: ’So shall you say to the house of Yaakov, and tell to Bnei Israel’ - first to the women; so too, the redemption from Egypt was in the merit of the righteous women.
‘On the other hand, at the same time, they were also the first to bring impurity to the world - the original sin, due to Chava.
‘Therefore, they require additional guarding in modesty, beyond that of men.’
With compliments from https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/407756
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