Questions — Parshah Tazria
Leviticus 12
Why is this address on ritual impurity addressed to Moses alone and not also Aaron? The previous legal section on animals that can and cannot be eaten was addressed to Moses and Aaron. Why were they both included in that address? (Lev. 11)
Giving birth causes the mother to become impure and that impurity is compared to menstrual impurity. If the logic is that her shedding of blood is the cause of the impure state, as any unusual emission of bodily fluid causes one to become impure this follows. However, menstrual blood is a sign that the woman’s body is shedding the potential for generating a life and the blood that comes during childbirth is a sign, in the case of a live birth, that the blood has brought forth life. Why wouldn’t this place the mother in a state of kedushah?
The Etz Hayim commentary asks, “Is the normal period of impurity after giving birth one week, and is it doubled after the birth of a daughter because the new mother has given birth to a child who will herself contain the divine gift of nurturing and giving birth to a new life? Or is the normal period two weeks, only to be reduced after the birth of a son to allow the mother to attend the b’rit in a state of ritual purity, or because b’rit milah on the eighth day is a purifying rite?” These are excellent questions. How is the b’rit milah a purifying rite?
Does contact with the blood in b’rit milah transfer purity or impurity, or is a third case? What general rules are there for contact with blood outside of the case of menstruation, birth and male emissions? Is there a difference in consequence between contact with another person’s blood and one’s own (outside of the body)? How can a medical professional avoid being in a constant state of impurity? Or is the medical professional acting in an exceptional case?
What does it mean, “in a state of blood purification,” literally, “sitting in the blood of purity (cleanness)?” How does the mother life in this period? It is assumed that the normal way of mothering in biblical times would involve the mother nursing the child. How does the mother not transmit impurity to the child before b’rit milah and after b’rit milah in the 33 days or in the case of the girl in the first two weeks and in the 66 days following?
Why does the woman bring a sin offering at the end of her period of impurity? Why not a purification offering or a good will offering?
Chapter 13
Why is this address spoken to Moses and Aaron?
