Komentarz do Kapłańska 12:2

“When a woman produces children,” etc. Rashi’s language is: Rabbi Simlai said: as the creation of man was after all domestic and wild animals and birds were created in the six days of creation, so his laws were explained after the laws of domestic and wild animals and birds.

*The women who will conceive and give birth to a male:* why doesn't it mention the seed? It says in the Torah "just like the land produces its produce and like the garden produces its produce so does G-d cause righteousness to sprout." If you plant something in the ground, the ground accepts the seed and, if it doesn't get ruined, it will certainly grow without a doubt. In a similar way, we pray for the sprouting of the Redemption, the coming of Moshiach speedily in our days. As it says in davening: "Moshiach should come." We also say in our prayer "Let the glory of Dovid your servant sprout." It also says "there's a man who's named is Tzemach" that's a reference to Moshiach. Why is Moshiach associated with growth and sprouting? The name of Moshiach existed before the world. So, too, G-d created Heaven and Earth and then there was Light and that light is the light of Moshiach. The original light that Hashem is planted and from that time it came to the world, from before, to grow and sprout our Moshiach, he come speedily in our days. Because of the generous rain and prayer and tears, asking for Moshiach, causes the light to continually grow. All of the prophets who prophesized about Moshiach use the present and past tense. This is because the growth of Moshiach happens every day, which is why the Tanach uses present and past tense. As it says "the first one to Zion, behold, behold them, and for Jerusalem I will give a herald" Yeshaya 41:27 [https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/15972/jewish/Chapter-41.htm]. We are asking to speedily see the growth and greatness of Moshiach when he is revealed, may it happen speedily. That's why we say in our prayers "let our salvation quickly sprout and may agony and sighing depart from us." Even in our time, when Moshiach hasn't come, there should be growth in the light of Moshiach to feel some of the effects of Redemption. This is the meaning of the posuk "just like the earth produces it produce so will G-d cause righteousness to sprout." The similarity is that when seed is in the ground and not ruined, the growth is guaranteed; so too, with the light of Moshiach, it is certain it will sprout. This is the meaning of the posuk "the woman who gave seed gives birth to a boy." What this means "when a women seeds, and she receives the seed in a proper way" that when the Jewish people put in effort to become closer to G-d then the offspring is male. Male is associated with mercy and through this the good deeds of the Jewish people cause the elevation of the female waters properly and they draw down kindness and mercy upon the Jewish people in this world.

אשה כי תזריע IF A WOMAN HAVE CONCEIVED SEED — R. Simlai said: Even as the formation of man took place after that of every cattle, beast and fowl when the world was created, so, too, the law regarding him is set forth after the law regarding cattle, beast and fowl (contained in the previous chapter) (Leviticus Rabbah 14:1).

Rashi commented: “If a woman have conceived seed, and born [a male]. This includes a case where she gave birth to [the male child as] a fleshy mass which had dissolved, so that it became liquefied and like seed, in which case his mother becomes impure because of the birth” [as if it were a normal child]. The explanation of this matter¹Ramban is clarifying Rashi’s words and saying that Rashi did not refer to a case where the abortion was a foetus filled with water, for in that event the mother does not become impure for the days prescribed for a male or for a female child. Rather, Rashi referred to a case where the child had been formed already etc. is that we know that the child has been formed already in human form, and then became liquefied, for anything that does not have a human form is not considered a child, and similarly, whatever is not fit to become a creature with a soul, is not considered a child. But even if it is a fleshy dissolved mass at the time of birth, it makes the mother impure [for the prescribed number of days] provided we recognize its form, such as a foetus with its human parts fashioned, in which case the mother is certainly impure, and if not [i.e., the matter is in doubt] she is impure because of a doubt. This is what this verse comes to include according to the words of our Rabbis.²Niddah 27b.
Now with regard to the implication of the verse the Rabbis have said:³Ibid., 31a. “Ishah ki thazria —⁴Literally: “if the woman has [an emission of] seed” first. — Then, as the verse continues, she will bear a male-child. if the woman emits seed first, she will bear a son.”⁵“And when the male is the first to emit semen, then she will bear a female-child.” The intent of the Rabbis was not that the child is formed from the woman’s seed, for although the woman has generative organs [i.e., ovaries] like those of the man, yet seed is not formed by them at all, or [if it is formed], that seed is not thick and does not contribute anything to the embryo. Rather, the Rabbis used the term “she emits seed” with reference to the blood of the womb, which gathers in the mother at the time of the consummation of coition, and attaches itself to the seed of the male. For in the opinion of the Rabbis the child is formed from the blood of the female and the white [semen] of the man, and both of them are called “seed.” Thus the Rabbis have said:³Ibid., 31a. “There are three partners in [the formation of] man: The male emits the white [semen], from which are formed the sinews, the bones, and the white substance in the eye. The female emits a red secretion from which are formed the skin, the flesh, the blood, the hair, and the black substance in the eye.”⁶“And the Holy One, blessed be He [i.e., the third partner in the formation of the child] gives him spirit and soul, beauty of features, power of sight, power of hearing, speech and walk, and understanding and rational faculty” (Niddah 31 a). The opinion of doctors as to the formation [of the embryo of the child] is also the same. In the opinion of the Greek philosophers,⁷See Vol. I, p. 76 (in Verse 18) where Ramban alludes to this controversy. however, the whole body of the child is formed from [the substance of] the blood of the mother, the father only contributing that generative force which is known in their language as hyly, which gives form to matter.⁸See ibid., p. 23. For there is no difference at all between the egg of a chicken which is laid because it was fructified by a male, and that laid as a result of the mother rolling herself in the dust, except that the egg [that had been fructified by a male] germinates into a young bird, while the other is not sown, nor beareth,⁹Deuteronomy 29:22. The thought here suggested is: “because the seed of the male was lacking, therefore it does not bear.” because it is deprived of the elemental heat which is its hyly. And if so, the word tazria [in ishah ki thazria] will be like u’cheganah zeiru’eha thatzmiach (as the garden causeth the seeds that are sown in it to spring forth).¹⁰Isaiah 61:11. — Ramban’s meaning is as follows: According to the view of the Rabbis [and the doctors] that the child is formed both by the seed of man and the secretion of woman, the expression ishah ki thazria can be understood in its simple meaning: “when the female emits her secretion” first etc. But according to the philosophers who say that the child is formed entirely from the body of the mother, and the male semen is merely a generative force which gives form to matter, then the word tazria can no longer mean “emitting,” but is like thatzmiach — “causes to spring up.” And so did Onkelos render it: “If a woman conceives.”

אשה כי תזריע וילדה זכר, the sages in Niddah 31 explain the term תזריע in our verse as “when a woman experiences her orgasm before her male partner the child born from such a union will be a male. The perception underlying this is that the woman’s “seed” is the moisture which she excretes from time to time at the time she engages in physical union with her partner does not enter into the formation of a male embryo. Her “semen” is active in suppressing the effect of the man’s semen. But her blood enters the semen of the male it moistens and provides addition impetus to the man’s semen,

דבר …לאמור. "Speak…to say." Why does the word לאמור have to be repeated here, seeing verse 1 ended with the word לאמור, "to say?" Perhaps the reason is that this commandment is addressed primarily to women. The word לאמור after "the children of Israel," is a warning to the women to pay special attention to this legislation. We may also explain this extra word לאמור in accordance with Torat Kohanim on this verse which explains the words בני ישראל as excluding Gentiles. The word לאמור stresses that it is a privilege for Jewish women to be given this legislation. Had they not been on a spiritually higher level than their non-Jewish counterparts they would not have been considered as having suffered impurity through such a natural process as giving birth. [seeing that their spiritual level had been temporarily eclipsed by the need to focus on purely bodily functions, the mothers need to purify their bodies to make it fit again for their spiritual functions. Ed.]

אשה כי תזריע, who becomes pregnant whether with a male fetus or a female fetus. When the time comes for her to give birth, the sex of the baby determines her status as to the impurity known as טומאת לידה. All the details are spelled out in the verses following.

אשה כי תזריע, “when a woman conceives, etc.” At the end of the last portion the Torah instructed the Jewish people to sanctify themselves (verse 44). The fact that the subject following deals with conception, marital intercourse, etc, is proof that the specific sanctification the Torah had in mind at the end of the last portion was that the sex life of the Jewish people should not become one of mere physical indulgence, but should be guided by more lofty considerations, should aim at conceiving and bearing children in a spiritual environment commensurate with the people that are unique in their relationship to their Creator. [In Leviticus chapter 19 the need to sanctify themselves is a dictate based on this relationship with our Creator. I have deliberately pontificated a little at this point. Ed.] It is the duty of the Jewish people to be at all times aware of the fact that there are things in this universe that are pure, and others that are impure in a ritual sense. The destiny of the Jewish people to be a “kingdom of Priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19,6)” cannot be achieved without our constant awareness of this fact. Such considerations are at the root of our sages counseling or demanding that prior to a woman having her monthly period, assuming she is regular, the husband should already refrain from having relations with her for a period of 12 hours to ensure that he would not become ritually defiled by being in contact with her menstrual blood. The sages also decreed that a widowed woman must not remarry for a period of three months to ensure that when she becomes pregnant from her new husband, there is no chance that the child born might have been fathered by her deceased husband. If, by chance, this decree is ignored, children born in ritual impurity of the most severe type might result. Rashi explains on our verse that the wording תזריע, suggests that even if the mother gave “birth” to an afterbirth which was so lacking in substances that it was more like sperm, she is still considered as impure due to birthing. This should not be understood as meaning that if a woman involuntarily aborts an amnion, a sac of the fetus full with water, that she becomes ritually impure like woman that has given birth, seeing that we have a rule that any such sac aborted which did not contain something resembling a human fetus does not confer the impurity of new motherhood on the woman concerned. Only what is called שפיר מרוקם, a sac containing clearly defined human features does that. When the Talmud (Niddah 28) says that when a woman conceives first she will give birth to a male child, the reason for this is that it is a fact in nature that anything that appears later is liable to neutralize phenomena that have appeared earlier. If a woman therefore conceives, or has an orgasm first, this feminine part of the process of conception will be weakened once the subsequent male orgasm and ejaculation occurs and contributes male sperm. The same is true in reverse, of course; when the male ejaculates before the female partner has achieved orgasm, the result will be a child of the feminine gender. Nachmanides writes that the statement in the Talmud about a woman “contributing seed first,” does not mean to imply that women in common with men each contribute sperm to the fetus to emerge. It could not mean that, as it is common knowledge that women do not have sperm. Woman contributes from the blood in her womb to the formation of the eventual fetus, and upon completion of her pregnancy a child is born. The term זרע used by the Talmud refers to the combination of the sperm contributed by the male and the blood contributed by the woman, his partner. Following this approach, the Talmud perceives three partners who between them are active in creating a new life. They are: father, mother, and G’d, the father contributing the sperm which eventually will produce tendons, bones, etc., the mother the blood which will develop into flesh, skin and blood and blood vessels; as well as hair and the black (pupil) of the eye. G’d, of course, contributes the נפש-נשמה the intangible life force known as “soul.” This is the opinion of the medical men of the author’s time. The ancient Greeks believed that the entire body of the baby is produced by the mother, the father’s contribution being limited to determining the shape and form of the raw material man is made of. This had to be so, they believed, as man does not have ovaries, as does woman. The fact is that the chick which was produced after its mother hen had copulated with a rooster is different from the chick whose mother hen had not been mated with a male of the species only in the length of time the mother hen has spent sitting on her egg until it was ready to burst its prison walls and emerge as a new living organism.

In the Work of Creation. You might ask: Why did the creation of animals and beasts precede the creation of man? The Sages already answered in Sanhedrin (38a): “Why was man created on Erev Shabbos? So that they [i.e., the heretics] would not say Hashem had a partner in the Work of Creation. Another explanation: Because if man would be haughty they can say to him: The mosquito preceded you. Another explanation: So that he would immediately become obligated in a mitzvah [Shabbos]. Another explanation: So that he would find everything immediately prepared for his meal. This can be compared to a king...” You might ask: If the Torah explains according to the order of creation, then Parshas Metzoro should come before Parshas Ki Tazria, because Metzoro speaks of a man and Tazria speaks of a woman, and Adam was created before Chavah! The answer is: It is more common for a woman gives birth than for a man to become afflicted with tzora’as. Furthermore, we can say: The reason Tazria comes before Metzoro is because the main reason a person is afflicted with tzora’as is because he has relations with his wife when she is a menstruant, as the Gemara says (Erachin 16a, and Tanchuma Tazria 11). Another answer: The woman is compared to the earth’s soil, which causes what is planted (שזורעים) in it to grow. Man, as well, was created from the earth’s soil. Therefore, it is written regarding a woman: “When [a woman] conceives (תזריע) and gives birth to a male child,” i.e., the male is created from the female who is likened to the earth’s soil. This raises a difficulty: What practical difference does this comparison make? Furthermore, Re’m raised the difficulty that the Gemora says in Sanhedrin (38a) that the reason Adam was created last was so that if he would be haughty it can be said to him: The mosquito preceded you in the work of creation, and so that he would find everything prepared for his meal, [and more reasons,] all of which are not applicable here! He also asks: Why does it mention the law [of tzora’as]: “When a man will have in the skin of his flesh” after the law pertaining to a woman: “When [a woman] conceives”? The woman was created last! It appears to me the answer is: All this is what R. Simlai [who is cited in Rashi] means to say: Just as there is a good reason why Adam was created last — so that he would come and find everything ready for his meal — so too, regarding the law of man: It was explained after the laws of animals, beasts and birds, i.e., with regard to what is forbidden and permitted [among them]. This follows what it says in the Midrash (Vayikro Rabboh 13:3) on the verse (11:2): “These are the living things” — “Every word of Hashem is refined” (Mishlei 30:5), “The mitzvos were given to Israel” — i.e., what is forbidden to be eaten — “only for the sake of refining the people with them.” In this way Hashem demonstrates his love for us, as it says in the Midrash that someone who loves his servant cautions him from eating harmful food. Therefore, R. Simlai said that just as Adam was created last at the time of Creation for his advantage, so that he find his provisions prepared, so too, regarding Torah and mitzvos, Hashem gave them to Israel for their benefit, to refine them. Therefore, mankind was mentioned last so that they would have the refinement of mitzvos by means of the laws pertaining to animals, beasts and birds. Therefore, there is no difficulty posed from: “When a man will have, in the skin of his flesh” [the law of tzora’as of a man is mentioned after the section dealing with a woman], for there [the concept of] refinement is not relevant (Divrei Dovid).

אשה כי תזריע, “when a woman conceives, etc.” what is meant here is that if the woman reaches orgasm in her marital relations with her husband before he does, she will give birth to a male child.

אשה כי תזריע וילדה, “when a woman has fructification of seed and has given birth as a result;” the regulations about to be discussed apply only when she gives birth naturally from the womb, not by caesarean invasive procedure. Rabbi Shimon holds that a baby born by caesarean section is considered as having been “born,” and that its mother is obligated to offer the same sacrifices that the mother of a baby born from the womb has to offer. The only difference between such a baby and the one born from the mother’s womb, is that if it is firstborn male, its father does not have to redeem it by paying a priest five shekel. (Sifra)

כי תזריע — These words are superfluous, כי ילדה would suffice — they mean literally, ”if she bringeth forth seed” and are employed to include the case that if she gave birth to him (the male child) as a pulpy mass which had dissolved, having become liquified like seed, even then its mother becomes unclean as though it were a normal birth (Niddah 27b).

כימי נדבת דותה, for during the first seven days after her giving birth she is like a menstruating woman regarding her ritual status.

שבעת ימים; even if it was a “dry birth,” no blood emerging from her vagina.

Mushy. [Rashi knows this] because it should only say: “When a woman gives birth to a male child.” [Why does it add “conceives”?] Rather, this comes to include even [when the embryo] is born mushy. One should not object: [The Rabbis taught (Berachos 60a)]: This teaches that if a woman emits seed first [the child will be a male, thus,] it is needed for that! [The answer is:] If so, it should say: “כי תזריע האשה וילדה זכר.” Rather, it juxtaposes “conception” to “giving birth” and writes וילדה זכר with a ו, which indicates certainty, and does not write “if,” the way it does (v. 5): “If she gives birth to a female.” Perforce you have both [explanations]. [You might ask:] Rashi explains above in Parshas Vayigash (Bereishis 46:15): “These are the sons of Leah... along with his daughter Deenah.” — “The males are attributed to Leah while the females are attributed to Yaakov, to teach you that if the woman emits seed first then she will give birth to a male [and if the man emits seed first then she will give birth to a female].” Why is this needed? It is derived from here! The answer is: From here we can only derive that a woman who emits seed [first] gives birth [to a male], however, [it is inconclusive in the event] the man emits seed first or they both emit simultaneously, that she will give birth to a female. Therefore, Scripture lets us know: “along with his daughter Deenah,” that if they [both] emit seed simultaneously they each cancel the other [and she will give birth to a male or female]. And from there alone, however, it cannot be derived, because we can say Scripture attributes the males to Leah because it cannot attribute them to Yaakov, who had other male children, [and if it said “these are the sons of Yaakov” I might think that these alone are the sons of Yaakov]. The female [Deenah] was attributed to him, though, since he had no other daughter besides her. [Thus,] from both [verses] it is derived well. Re’m dwelt at length on this but I shortened it (Minchas Yehudah).

אשה כי תזריע וילדה זכר, a woman who brings forth seed by giving birth to a male child, etc. Why did the Torah not simply write: אשה כי תלד זכר, "when a woman gives birth to a male child, etc.?" The words כי תזריע appear superfluous. Our sages disagree about the reason. Torat Kohanim on our verse writes that these words tell us that contrary to expectations a woman who was already pregnant before this legislation was revealed to the people is also subject to it, whereas she does not contract impurity if she gave birth just before this legislation was revealed. Anonymous sages state that when the baby is delivered by caesarean incision the mother does not contract impurity. The fetus has to exit from the same place where the seed entered. Rabbi Shimon holds that even if an indeterminate mass is delivered, i.e. some fetus clearly unable to live, the mother does contract impurity and has to bring the required offerings. He does not accept the view that if a woman gives "birth" by caesarean incision that she is not subject to the legislation in our chapter. Why did the Torah use the future tense in the words כי תזריע, and switch to the past tense writing וילדה instead of ותלד? We find that the Torah does use the word ותלד when describing the birth of a female child in verse 5! Although there are numerous instances when a form of the past tense of the verb is used by the Torah to describe something in the future, the Torah does not switch tenses unnecessarily without trying to draw our attention to some additional meaning. Furthermore, why does the Torah write וילדה, "she gave birth," instead of אם ילדה זכר, "if she gave birth to a male child as a result," seeing there is no certainty that she will indeed give birth to a male child rather than to a girl? One could answer the last question by saying that the word כי in כי תזריע is equivalent to the word אם, "if," and that this word belongs to the latter half of the verse. This is a forced explanation, however.

D’VOTHAH.’ “This is an expression for anything which flows from her body, derived from the wording¹¹In our text of Rashi: “Another interpretation.” for malady [madveh] and sickness, for no woman sees an issue of blood without becoming unwell, and her head and her limbs feeling heavy on her.” This is Rashi’s language. But I do not know on the basis of which root the word d’vothah can be an expression in the Sacred Language for “anything which flows.” But it is possible that it is an expression of malady, on the basis of what the Rabbis have said,¹²Niddah 9 a. “and her head and limbs are heavy on her.” So also is the opinion of Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra, who writes: “D’vothah is a noun and means sickness, for the blood which issues indicates a sickness in the woman.” Now it is true that the flow constitutes a cleansing of surpluses [of blood], and due to the fact that her head and her limbs feel heavy upon her, the flow is perhaps termed “a sickness.” The correct interpretation, however, is that d’vothah is an expression derived from the word madveh [which does not mean “sickness,” i.e., an unnatural occurrence in the body, since a woman’s menses are natural; and d’vothah is therefore like the terms] plague and pain, just as in the expressions: My heart is ‘davoi’ (faint) within me;¹³Jeremiah 8:18. for this our heart is ‘daveh’ (faint),¹⁴Lamentations 5:17. and like: the plague of his heart.¹⁵I Kings 8:38. Thus menstruation is an affliction upon the woman even though it is in her nature [to experience it regularly]. A similar expression is upon the bed of ‘d’voi’ (illness].¹⁶Psalms 41:4.

וילדה, even if the mother gave birth after only between five up to eight months pregnancy, she has to do so, and the restrictive nature of this word means that she has become ritually unclean by giving “birth” to a fetus after five or more months of pregnancy. (Sifra)

כימי נדת דותה תטמא AS IN THE DAYS OF THE SEPARATION FOR HER IMPURITY SHALL SHE BECOME UNCLEAN — According to the regulation of every uncleanness which is mentioned in the case of a נדה does she become unclean in respect to the uncleanness resulting from child-birth — even though the womb opened without any issue of blood (cf. Niddah 21a).

כימי נדת דותה, just as the red colour of the blood determines if a menstruating woman is still evacuating blood, so the same criteria apply to a woman giving birth. The whitish fluid that is characteristic a of woman in a state of flux, זובה, another source of ritual impurity originating within her body, is irrelevant to the subject under discussion in our verses.

As semen. Rashi’s explanation implies that first, before it was born, it was somewhat formed as a fetus, but afterwards it became crushed. [He knows this] from what is written, “when [a woman] conceives,” which implies even if she only gave birth to something resembling semen. But it is written, “and gives birth to a male child,” implying that it was a fully formed embryo. How [can this be resolved]? Perforce, we must say that originally it was a fully formed fetus, but afterwards it was crushed and became as semen.

Our sages in Niddah 31 as well as in Berachot 60 are of the opinion that if the woman achieves orgasm first during marital intercourse the baby born from such a union will be male, and that the Torah here informs us of this biological fact. This is why the Torah wrote וילדה זכר as something that is definite. While it is true that Rabbi Tzadok arrived at this conclusion exegetically from Genesis 46,15 ואת דינה בתו, the fact is that the Torah made the birth of a male child dependent on an experience of the mother, and the birth of a female child on the experience of the father during their union. The verse in Genesis does not provide a reason for this linkage to the respective experience of father and mother during their union. [The author of Torah Temimah comments on that verse that the scientific aspect of the matter was an established fact for our sages; they knew that when two factors have to combine to create something it is the last factor which determines the nature of the product. Hence, if the male has spent his reproductive effort before the woman, the result will be a female child corresponding to the reproductive power of the woman. We do not "learn" this from that verse; the verse only alludes to something already known. Ed.] In our verse the Torah explains the reason for this fact of life, namely that the crucial factor is who spends his reproductive power first. The Torah did not need to add the word "first" in our verse for even if the mother were not to expend her reproductive power first she does have to spend it in order to produce a child of either gender. This is why the Torah also had to write the verse in Genesis 46,15 so that from the two verses combined we would know what factors determine the sex of a baby. [The word ואת, "and in addition," in that verse in Genesis indicates that Leah was last in spending her reproductive power during the union that led to the birth of Dinah. Hence the child was a female. Ed.].

זכר, “a male;” including if it was stillborn.

דותה — This is an expression for anything which flows from her body (‎‎‏זב = דו, “flowing”), and the translation is: “as in the days of separation due to her flux”. Another explanation is: it has the same meaning as .מדוה (root דוה), malady and sickness, and this is termed דותה, “her sickness”, because no woman sees an issue of blood from herself except that, as a result of it, she becomes unwell and her head and limbs feel heavy (cf. Niddah 9a).

נדה, the expression denotes a type of isolation, distance from her husband.

Mentioned in regard to a menstruant woman. She causes impurity due to lying down or sitting, as does a menstruant woman, and all the laws of impurity apply to her. You might ask: How does Rashi know this? Perhaps the verse means: “as the days of her menstrual flow” — which is seven days — so too, the amount of impurity for childbirth is seven days. The answer is: This would not require a verse, for it clearly says: “she will be ritually unclean for seven days.” If so, why does it say: “as the days of her menstrual flow”? Rather, it comes to teach about other [laws of menstrual] impurity. You might ask: This is obvious! She is a menstruant woman, for at the time of her difficulty [in birth] she saw blood. Therefore, Rashi explains: “even if the womb opens without blood.”

The Torah managed to include still more information in these few words. In Psalms 139,5 David says: "you have created me both last and first." This line is explained by Bereshit Rabbah 8,1 as referring to two separate creations of man. His body was created at the very end of the six days of creation whereas his spirit had been created already in the first verse of the Torah prior to the creation of the light, when the Torah described the spirit of the Lord as hovering over the deep. We are told by the Zohar Kedoshim page 80 that the nature of the soul or personality of a baby is determined by the thoughts of the father and mother during marital union. If the parents entertain unworthy thoughts during such a union the personality of the baby will tend to be attracted to spiritually negative forces, whereas if the thoughts of the parents during their physical union are worthy this will be reflected in the children of such unions. Consider carefully what we are told in Berachot 10 and the Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 10,2 about what happened to the children of the pious king Chizkiyah who had married the daughter of the prophet Isaiah. [the regular text of the Talmud does not have this; parts are found in Eyn Yaakov Ed.) According to the Talmud there the reason that Menashe and Ravshoke, the sons of that union, became such heretics was some unworthy thoughts entertained by Chiskiyah's wife at the time the child was conceived. (supposedly she fantasized about the servants of Merodach Baladon king of Babylon) If we accept this, the most important part of the "birth," i.e. the fusion of soul and body takes place already at the time of conception. Not only that, but the thought which precedes ejaculation of the semen has a determining influence on the tendency of the baby's character development. This would be the mystical aspect of the words כי תזריע וילדה, the nature of what will be born is determined at the time of conception. After that period it is already too late to reverse what occurred at the time of the union between father and mother. The term לידה, birth, is therefore applicable to a process which is a long way from becoming visible. Once we have appreciated this we will have a better understanding of Genesis 12,5 where the Torah speaks of personalities נפש which Abram and Sarai made in Charan, i.e. due to their union as man and wife. Although Sarai had not given birth to a physical child in those years, the thoughts that she and her husband entertained while they tried to conceive children produced the kinds of souls which became G'd fearing individuals in other bodies. This does not contradict the truth of the statement that the sex of the child is determined at the time of conception. The Torah wrote the word זכר, male, as a hint that already during the moments when the bodies of the parents join in marital union they have it within their power to determine the sex of the child which will be the result of such a union by dint of the thoughts which they entertain at that time. These will enable them to draw down from heaven a male soul. (or "a soul from the part of heaven inhabited by male souls").

וילדה זכר, “and she gave birth to a male;” According to our author (quoting ספר התולדות), a woman’s body contains seven openings, three on her left side, three on her right side, and one in the center. If her husband’s semen enters via the openings on her right side it will produce a male child. If it enters through the openings on her left side, she will produce a female child. If it enters through the opening in her center she will produce either a hermaphrodite possessing both fully developed masculine and feminine organs, or neither of such organs that are fully developed. Her position in bed shortly after her husband’s ejaculating semen into her determines through which of these openings the semen travels. If she lies on her right side the degree of ritual contamination “evaporates” faster than if she had been lying on her left side; this is why she cannot resume marital relations with have husband or offer her respective sacrifices until this process has run its natural cause. Lying on her left side at that critical juncture slows down the ritual contamination which was the result of the mother having been impregnated with her partners’ semen. This is why the Torah decreed different length of 33 or 66 days before the mother can purify herself. (verses 47) The above is hinted at by Solomon in Song of Songs 2,6: שמאלו תחת לראשי, “with his left hand under my head.” The maid’s lover did this in order to help his partner to give birth to males. [The fact that Solomon who had so many wives and concubines produced only a single male heir is proof that G-d’s active providence overrides nature. Ed.]

דותה, an expression denoting a kind of sickness. Compare Jeremiah 8,18 לבי דווי, “my heart is sick within me.”

Which flows. [Rashi knows this] because the ז is interchangeable with the ד, as [we see from the fact that] the Aramaic translation of זב (discharge flow) is דב (15:2) [and the ו and the ב are interchangeable since they have the same source of pronunciation]. If so, it is as if Scripture had written זבותה (her flow).

The verse contains an allusion to other psychological factors which are part of the process of conception, i.e. the physical union between man and wife. A woman is neither obligated to have children, nor does she as a rule volunteer to beconme pregnant, an experience she finds often painful, fraught with many discomforts and danger to her health culminating in the excruciatingly painful experience of giving birth. In fact, there are women who avoid getting married in order to avoid the experience of pregnancy and birth. If the woman does get married, the feelings she entertains during marital intercourse are frequently limited to gratifying her physical pleasure during such intercourse. According to Gittin 49 a woman's desire in this respect is greater than that of her husband. [according to the author this is the meaning of the statement in the Talmud that "her urge to get married is greater than that of her husband." Ed.] In our verse the Torah hints that if a woman enters marriage although she is not commanded to do so, this will be accounted for her as a meritorious deed, as if she were a male and had fulfilled the commandment to procreate incumbent upon the male. The Torah writes: אשה כי תזריע, that when a woman is active in joining in an activity which will result in the birth of a baby, i.e. she engages in intercourse in order to have children, and not in order to satisfy her biological urge, she may have a son. If the Torah had merely written אשה כי תלד זכר," when a woman gives birth to a male child, etc," we would have understood that the process described above occurs as a result of any mating between husband and wife irrespective of their thoughts at the time. As it is, the Torah teaches how a woman can acquire the stature of a זכר, male. The reason the Torah has to add the word וילדה is to tell us that she attains that level only if the thoughts she entertained during intercourse also result in the actual birth of a child. Perhaps this is also part of the meaning of the word לאמור in verse 2, the need for which we had questioned earlier. The sequence of לאמור אשה, suggests that Moses was to tell the women how a woman may attain a spiritually superior niveau; she will do so by volunteering to have children and by entertaining lofty thoughts during the process of conception. Perhaps this is the mystical dimension of Proverbs 10,1; בן כסיל תוגת אמו; "a foolish son is his mother's sorrow." A son who is not up to the expectations of his mother may well be the outcome of the kind of thoughts the mother did not entertain when she conceived him.

וטמאה, “she will be ritually unclean;” the emphasis here is on the suffix ה meaning only the mother, not her child will become ritually unclean as a result of that birth. (Sifra)

The verse also contains an allusion to the כנסת ישראל, the Jewish people as a conceptual entity. We find that this term is applied to women in such verses as Isaiah 54,5: כי בעליך עושיך, "for He who has made you will espouse you;" the prophet also continues: ואשת נעורים, "and the wife of your youth;" the prophet Hoseah describes the relationship of G'd and כנסת ישראל in Hoseah 2,21: וארשתיך לי לעולם, (G'd speaking to His bride) "I will betroth Myself to you forever, etc." Isaiah 50,1: "where is the bill of divorce I have given you?" There are more such verses to be found scattered throughout the Books of the Prophets. וילדה זכר, "and she gives birth to a male child, etc." when viewed from a moral-ethical vantage-point, the Torah reveals that when the מזריע the initiative for the husband-wife relationship with G'd originates with the Jewish people, the כנסת ישראל, then the product of such an initiative will be a male child, זכר, the entire nation will attain the highest spiritual level. The word זכר, male, is hyperbole for the highest moral-ethical achievenment. In Sanhedrin 98 and Shemot Rabbah 15 the superiority of the ultimate redemption to the redemption at the time of the Exodus from Egypt is described. The ultimate redemption is perceived there as the corollary of Israel distinguishing itself by the performance of good deeds, etc. The prophet described the Exodus in terms of Israel being "naked and nude" (Ezekiel 16,7). Clothing is perceived as a layer of מצות and good deeds covering our bodies. The inadequacy of the Jewish people at the time of the Exodus is underlined in Deut. 4,34 where G'd describes the Exodus as wrenching one people from the midst of the same people, something that made it legally difficult for G'd to justify taking the Israelites out of Egypt when He did. That redemption has been described only in female terms and that is why it did not endure in the end and the Temple was destroyed. Not so the redemption of the future which will occur as a direct result of Israel's merits. First and foremost among those merits is Israel's preoccupation with Torah as described in Deut. 31,21 something that will never be forgotten even during a protracted period of exile. The Torah continues: וטמאה, the mother contracts ritual impurity as a result of giving birth. Here the Torah alludes to the way G'd initiates a process which culminates in the rehabilitation of Israel so that it will attain a spiritual level that qualifies for the description זכר. The "days" mentioned here are to be understood as seven years similar to Genesis 24,55 where Laban and his mother wanted Rebeccah to delay her departure by ימים, i.e. a year. The years which are viewed as the חבלי משיח, the birth-pangs of the Messiah, last for seven years during which Israel will be refined spiritually in preparation of his arrival. He will make his appearance during the eighth year. On the eighth day, at the beginning of the eighth day (year), the baby is to have its foreskin removed, i.e. the concept of a foreskin which acts as a barrier between man and G'd will be removed from the universe. We read in Zachariah 13,2 that G'd will destroy the spirit of impurity from the earth. This will occur during the eighth year. It is well known that conceptually the foreskin is identical with the forces of the קליפה, the spiritually negative emanations. When the Torah wrote the word וטמאה, describing the state of the mother, this is a simile for the afflictions experienced during the birth-pangs of the Messiah.

שבעת ימים, “for seven days;” in the event that she gave birth to twins or more babies, the count starts at the end of the last birth. When the students of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai asked him why the Torah decreed different lengths of ritual contamination depending on the sex of the baby, he answered them that the birth of a male baby results in an even greater degree of joy than the birth of a female baby. As a result, the baby’s mother retracts her oath made at the time of enduring the pains during her delivery sooner than after the birth of a daughter, (who is after all also destined to undergo such pain in due course.)

נדת, this word is a variant for distance, temporary disassociation, as for instance in Job 18,18: ומתבל ינדוהו, “and chased out of the world.” In our verse the separation is from her husband.

כימי נדת דותה, “just as she separates from him during the days when she has her menses. A Baraitha (Niddah, folio 31) relates that Rabbi Meir explained the reason why generally speaking the period of a woman’s menses lasts seven days, is because if her husband had to abstain from marital relations with her during that period, she will be as desirable for him at the end of that period as she was when he stood with her under the wedding canopy. The woman who just gave birth is familiar with the seven day period during her menses and it is a period she abhors. By reminding her of this comparison, she may look forward to having marital relations with her husband again as when pregnant she does not experience the discomfort of her menses. By the same token, this separation also awakens desire in her for her husband.

וטמאה שבעת ימים, “as a result she will remain in a state of ritual impurity for seven days.” It is G’d’s decree that just as the state of impurity lasts for seven days, the purification rites require seven days. The number “seven” applies equally to days of impurity, days of purification, days of joy (after a wedding or the duration of certain festivals) and days of mourning.

כימי נדת דותה תטמא, “her impurity is as long as her impurity due to menstruation.” The expression דותה is derived from מדוה, a description of a “natural” sickness, i.e. the menstruation period a woman experiences at regular intervals. Our sages (Niddah 9) have also explained that during such a period a woman’s heads and limbs feel very heavy. Although the excretion of blood by the woman every month is the excretion of superfluous material, it is still considered a disease. The word נדה means to “be distant;” similarly the word מנודה is a term for people who have been ostracised, banished and banned from society. The term is used in Nedarim 4 in connection with someone vowing to not benefit from certain people’s belongings or eating a meal at their place, or not to come within 4 cubits of the property of such a person.
The reason a menstruous woman is referred to as נדה is that other people shun her, keep their distance from her while she is in the throes of that disease. Even her women friends keep their distance from her. She usually spends that period in isolation. Throughout ancient history all the nations considered that period in a woman’s monthly cycle as one requiring her to be isolated, even considering the earth a woman in such circumstances walked on as contaminated. One did not speak to such a woman for fear of being contaminated. When Lavan wanted to search Rachel’s tent and she apologized for not rising in his honour (she was sitting on the teraphim her father was searching for) we note that Lavan did not speak a single word to her. This was because it was considered unhealthy to engage in conversation with a menstruating woman. Clearly, Rachel was sitting isolated in her tent, presumably without any maidservant at her side. The exhalations of such a woman and the odors coming from her were all considered potentially contaminating (compare Genesis 31,34-35). [Halachah, of course, does not recognize such superstitions and in the main a woman’s state of being נדה affects her husband’s relations with her and her inability to touch sacred objects including food for sacred purposes which she would contaminate by her touch. Ed.] According to Nachmanides even what such a woman looked at was considered as harmful, similarly to the evil eye. (Nachmanides on Leviticus 18,19 reports that when a menstruous woman in the very beginning of her period looks at a gleaming sword or mirror, drops of blood can be seen on that sword or mirror according to the eye witness reports of some “scientists.”) It is clear that if even some of all this is true cohabiting with a woman while she is in that state is a health hazard to her partner.

That is that He commanded us that a woman after childbirth be impure. And this commandment includes all of the regulations of a woman after childbirth. (See Parashat Metzora; Mishneh Torah, Those Who Defile Bed or Seat 5.)

That is that He commanded us that the purification from tsaraat be according to the process written in Scripture (Leviticus 14). And that is [with] cedar wood, hyssop, crimson dyed cloth, two living birds and living waters and that he do everything stated, with those things. And through this exact process, the person becomes pure - as Scripture explains. Behold it has already been made clear to you that there are three types of things that purify from impurity - one of them is general and two of them are specific to two types of impurity. Indeed, the general one is purification in water; the second type is the [sprinkling of] purification water, and that is something specific for the impurity of a corpse; and the third type is cedar wood, hyssop, scarlet dyed cloth, two living birds and living waters - and that is something specific for tsaraat. And the regulations of this commandment - meaning the purification of someone with tsaraat - have all already been explained in the first [chapter] of Tractate Negaim. (See Parashat Metzora; Mishneh Torah, Defilement by Leprosy 11.)