Women After Childbirth
12: 1-8
Women after childbirth DIG: How can childbirth be linked to Eve’s punishment in the garden? How are women kept safe through (the) childbirth? Why do you think it took twice as long to become ritually clean after giving birth to a girl than for a boy? Why did God have the male baby wait until the eighth day to be circumcised? Why the purification offering?
REFLECT: How do these purification mitzvot make you feel? How does modern culture affect worship and ritual practices where you worship? Is this necessarily bad? Why or why not? How should believers today relate to these mitzvot of purification given to the ancient Jewish community? Why don’t believers keep all these mitzvot of the Torah?
Parashah 27: Tazria (She Conceived) 12:1 to 13:59
(See my commentary on Deuteronomy, to see link click Af – Parashah)
The Key People are Moshe, Aaron, Nadab, and Aaron’s sons.
The Scene is the Tabernacle in the wilderness of Sinai.
The Main Events include ADONAI speaking to Moshe concerning women in childbirth; purification; various skin diseases; the role of the priest as hygiene inspector; in clean people dwelling outside the camp; and procedures to follow in examining fabric with mildew.
This parashah is a double portion. In regular years it is read with the next portion M’tzora (to see link click Ch – The Initial Procedure for Cleansing Tsara’at), in leap years it is read separately. But, because they are divided most of the time, we will be studying parashah Tazria separately. Before we proceed any further into the Torah, it will be useful to remind ourselves of the story we are reading. It is easy to become lost in the maze of mitzvot and rituals in Leviticus. It is all too easy to forget why we entered here in the first place. The Torah is telling us about these mitzvot at this particular time because this is where they fit into the narrative. To best understand the mitzvot, then, a brief review is in order.190
You will recall that after ADONAI brought Isra’el out of Egypt, He entered into a covenant with them at Mount Sinai. There at the mountain, He announced His desire for a holy place so that He could dwell among His people and draw near to Him. In response, Isra’el built the Tabernacle. Once it was completed, the Sh’khinah glory moved from upon Mount Sinai and descended onto the Tabernacle. YHVH took up residence therein. But there was a problem. The Sh’khinah glory was so intense that even Moshe could not enter. So, even though Ha’Shem could dwell among His people, that didn’t mean that the Israelites could have any communion or relationship with God. ADONAI was still holy; mankind was still unholy. How could unholy mankind come near to the holy God? That’s how Exodus ended.
Leviticus began with an answer to that question. The LORD called Moses from within the Tabernacle and gave him the instructions for the sacrifices: the first seven chapters of Leviticus. An Israelite wanting to draw near to God in His Holy Place was to bring a korban, literally something brought near. Through the sacrifice, the worshiper was brought near to YHVH, and the gap between God and mankind was momentarily bridged.
Dear Heavenly Father, Praise your great wisdom, love and power! Thank you that Messiah Yeshua bridged the gap between mankind and God with a one-time permanent sacrifice. But now in Messiah Yeshua, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah. For He is our shalom, the One who made the two into one and broke down the middle wall of separation. Within His flesh He made powerless the hostility – the law code of mitzvot contained in regulations. He did this in order to create within Himself one new man from the two groups, making shalom, and to reconcile both to God in one body through the cross – by which He put the hostility to death. And He came and proclaimed shalom to you who were far away and shalom to those who were near – for through Him we both have access to the Father by the same Ruach. (Ephesians 2:13-18).
What joy it is to know that Messiah’s sacrifice, because He is both holy and eternal, is a forever sacrifice! Therefore He is also able to save completely save those who draw near to God through Him, always living to make intercession for them. . . But when Messiah appeared as Kohen Gadol of the good things that have now come, passing through the greater and more perfect Tent not made with hands (that is to say not of this creation), He entered into the Holies once for all – not by the blood of goats and calves but by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 7:25, 9:11-12). Though I need to repent with a heart-felt confession each time I sin, like David in Psalms 51, I praise You for being a gracious God who forgives. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (First John 1:9). We praise and worship You for permanently bridging the gap and bringing the worshiper close to ADONAI through Your eternal sacrifice. In Yeshua’s holy name and power of His resurrection. Amen
But in order to facilitate the sacrificial service, a sanctified priesthood was needed. Leviticus Chapters 8 and 9 describe the initiation of the priesthood. OK, all seemed well. The sacrifices from the people were received, and the Sh’khinah glory appeared before all Isra’el. But then tragedy struck. The death of Nadab and Abihu made it clear that there was real danger involved in approaching Ha’Shem. Sobriety was needed, and so was ritual purity. Entering into the presence of God in His holy Tabernacle/Temple while in a state of ritual impurity was dangerous, even potentially deadly.
Therefore, the Torah departs from the narrative for several chapters to describe to us the mitzvot of ritual purity. Leviticus 11 related the mitzvot of ritually clean and unclean animals (see Bk – Ritually Clean and Unclean Animals). Leviticus 12 through 15 will relate the mitzvot of ritually clean and unclean humans.
Remember, Levitical impurity is the biblical concept that a person can be in a state which, according to the Torah, prevents a person from having any contact with the Tabernacle or Temple and its sacrifices. This ritual state of being unclean could be transferred from one person to another in a variety of ways, primarily through direct contact with a source of uncleanness. Clean and unclean have nothing to do with the actual physical condition of the person. Additionally, the mitzvot of ritual impurity or purity have no relevant consequences except in regard to the things of the Tabernacle or the Temple and its priesthood.
These mitzvot are being discussed now because they are immediately relevant to the Tabernacle/Temple. In that regard, the majority of the purity mitzvot have no practical relevance in today’s world. As of the writing of this commentary, the Holy Temple in Jerusalem has not been rebuilt. Until it is, it really makes no practical difference whether one is ritually clean or unclean. Generally speaking, these passages are maligned as irrelevant and even repulsive. The mitzvot of clean and unclean, of leprosy and impurity, of mildew and discharges appear to have nothing at all to do with believers or our modern world. In fact, the whole concept of being ritually clean and unclean seems to have come from another universe. But the observance of the purity mitzvot raised the consciousness of the presence of ADONAI to the common Israelite in the days of Moses to a new level. Those observing the purity mitzvot had a heightened awareness of the holy and the common, the intersection of Divine and secular. Therefore, the disconnect between their own mortality and the immortality of YHVH was constantly before them.
Contaminating vs unclean: An Israelite woman who gave birth to a baby boy was rendered ritually unclean for seven days. If she gave birth to a baby girl, she was rendered ritually unclean for fourteen days (see below). Subsequent to her initial uncleanness, the mother of a baby boy would remain in a state of lesser ritual uncleanness for another 33 days, while the mother of a baby girl would remain in a state of lesser ritual uncleanness for 66 days. During the first 7 (or 14 days) she would be ritually unclean in the days of her niddah separation (menstruation separation), because a menstruating woman was herself regarded as both ritually unclean and contaminating.
The Sages offer complex distinctions between different levels of ritual impurity. For the sake of simplicity, we will refer to them as contaminating and unclean. One who is contaminating was ritually unclean and transmitted ritual uncleanness to other people and surfaces with which he/she came into contact. This was a tradition of the Pharisees, but it was not Torah from Sinai. So, for the first seven days (for a boy) or fourteen days (for a girl) after childbirth the new mother was contaminated. Everyone and everything she touched was rendered ritually unclean. And anything she sat on or reclined on became contaminated. After the first seven days (or fourteen), she would immerse herself in a mikvah and her status would change from contaminating to unclean (see Cn – Female Menstrual Uncleanness). The Torah refers to it as the time of her purification (12:4). During that time she was unable to worship at the Tabernacle or offer sacrifices; however, she was no longer contaminating to anyone.
Why, then, is the new mother rendered unclean? Simply because she had come into contact with the realm of sin and death. In this case, at childbirth, she bled. The Torah declares that the life of the soul is in the blood, which was meant to carry the life throughout the body. Hence, what was meant for life, the blood, was drained out of the body. The main point that the Holy One is stressing, is that in reality there are only two spiritual kingdoms: the Kingdom of God, wherein is life and righteousness and the kingdom of Satan, wherein is sin and death. The shedding of life-giving blood at childbirth was an occasion in which YHVH chose to illustrate the difference between the two kingdoms. Hence, the new mother was declared ritually unclean when she gave birth.
All the attention is usually placed upon the woman. After all, she was the one who whas to become ritually unclean. But her husband who comforts her, the midwife who assisted her, and the baby who nurses from her were also rendered ritually unclean. In practical terms, that meant that the husband and the midwife would be required to be immersed in the mikvah before worshipping at the Tabernacle/Temple, eating of sacrificial foods or handling priestly portions. But the lesson of ritual uncleanness at childbirth runs far deeper.
I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth (Genesis 3:16): At the start of life, we are all steeped in uncleanness. It is part of being human. From the cradle to the grave we are either unclean, producing uncleanness, or becoming unclean. It is simply the fallen nature we inherit at birth, or the condition called total depravity (see the commentary on Romans Ae – My Position on TULIP or Calvinism). Childbirth can be linked to Eve’s punishment in the garden. After falling into sin, Eve was told: I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth; in pain you will bring forth children (Genesis 3:16). It was part of the judgment that fell upon all humanity. Ritual impurity is that which excludes mankind from the presence of God on earth. It is that which kept the Israelites out of the Tabernacle/Temple. In a similar way, Adam and Eve were driven from the garden. They were expelled from the presence of God on earth. Part of that expulsion was the judgment of pain in childbearing. Although childbirth is certainly not a sin, it is tainted with the original sin of Adam and Eve. This is an important clue to the deeper meaning of ritual impurity.191
The woman will be preserved (First Timothy 2:13-15): From Rabbi Sha’ul’s perspective, the pain of childbirth brings with it an atoning value for women. He states: But women will be kept safe through (the) childbirth, if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety (Second Timothy 2:15). I believe the meaning of being kept safe, literally pulled from danger, here means spiritual salvation. There are four reasons for this. First, because the context of this verse has to do with Eve; she must be the subject of will be kept safe. Consequently, it is relevant to consult Genesis, and Genesis 3:15 tells us that the ancient Serpent’s victory will not be final. The Seed of the woman will crush Satan’s head. This points specifically to Messiah’s birth, not to childbirth in general.
Secondly, a spiritual catastrophe is the subject of Second Timothy 2:14, and spiritual deliverance is to be expected as a part of the discussion. Eve’s salvation was secured because God promised deliverance through His Seed, Yeshua Messiah. By the great childbirth, by that which has produced the Savior, the childbearing of Mary has undone the sin of Eve.
Thirdly, the definite article that appears before childbirth indicates a definite and particular event, rather than childbearing in general. There is certainly a more obvious inference to be drawn from the presence of the article. The Greek language had a very simple way to indicate childbearing in general. All that was necessary was to omit the article. This would throw emphasis upon the quality or idea in the noun, rather than individualizing it. The presence of the article makes the birth of Messiah the more credible. It was not just any childbirth, it was THE (emphasis mine) childbirth.
Fourthly, the preposition dia, meaning through, is very important. It comes from the Greek word duo, meaning two, and directs our attention to a connection or channel between the two points. The two points are the fallen Eve and her salvation. This channel is the childbearing. It was through the Seed of the woman that salvation was possible for her and for all women (see the commentary on Genesis Lv – Women and Spiritual Gifts).
Ritual purification of the mother: The theme of this chapter is not personal holiness, but ritual purification of the mother, without which she could not return to normal life in her home and community. Therefore, nothing in Leviticus 12 should be interpreted to teach that human sex is “dirty,” that pregnancy is defiling, or that babies are impure. YHVH created humans male and female (Genesis 1:27), and when God declared His creation very good (Genesis 1:31), that declaration included sex. He commanded our first parents to be fruitful, and multiply (Genesis 1:28). In spite of the current climate of abortion and the negative attitude towards babies by many today, Scripture presents children as a blessing from ADONAI (Psalm 113:9, 127:3-5, 128:3; Proverbs 17:6; Matthew 19:14). And if, for some reason a pregnancy was unwanted, the Jews would never have considered aborting the baby.192
The birth of a son (12:1-4): ADONAI said to Moshe, “Tell the people of Isra’el: ‘If a woman conceives and gives birth to a boy, she will be unclean for seven days with the same uncleanness as in niddah (see Cn – Female Menstrual Uncleanness), when she is having her menstrual infirmity’ (12:1-2).” The Hebrew devotah, translated her infirmity, derives from the root davah, meaning to be ill or weak. In 15:33, the menstruating woman is called davah, meaning infirm.193 She is to wait an additional thirty-three days (bringing the total days to forty) to be purified from her blood; she is not to touch any holy thing or come into the sanctuary until the time of her purification is over (12:3-4).
Because we are so far removed from the world of the Tabernacle/Temple, some have misunderstood this passage to mean that a new mother could not enter the assembly (synagogue, congregation, or church) until after her time of purification was completed. Suffice to say that “one’s place in the assembly” is certainly not the Holy Temple, and the mitzvot of purity do not apply. If a new, ritually unclean mother were to be barred admission to the assembly, then the entire congregation would also be barred on the basis that everyone carries some degree of ritual uncleanness.
“On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin is to be circumcised” (12:3). In the life of the Master, we note how zealous Miriam was to follow the mitzvot of the Torah (see the commentary on The Life of Christ At – On the Eighth Day He was Circumcised and Named Yeshua). The faith of each individual believer rests upon the bedrock foundation of the Bible’s inspiration. If the Bible is of human origin, then it logically follows that the facts and doctrines found there are only as reliable as human knowledge can be. However, if the biblical records were provided by the Ruach Ha’Kodesh (Second Peter 1:20-21), then we have every reason to believe that the facts and doctrines recorded there are free of those imperfections and blemishes that characterize all purely human efforts.
The Greek word used in the New Testament to express the concept of inspiration is theopneustos, and itself derives from two roots –theos, God, and pneustos, breathed (from pneo, to blow or breathe). Theopneustos, therefore, would mean God-breathed. The word implies an influence from without producing effects that are beyond natural powers. The proper view of inspiration often is referred to as being verbal (word-for-word) and plenary (complete). This concept suggests that men wrote what God directed, without errors or mistakes, yet with their own personalities reflected in their writings.
A close examination of the Bible reveals startling proof of its inspiration. Sometimes that proof comes in the form of prophecy (always minutely foretold and completely fulfilled). Sometimes the proof comes in the form of scientific facts that were placed in the divine record hundreds or thousands of years before they were known to the modern scientific mind. This brief article deals with the latter – an important piece of scientific foreknowledge found with the biblical text that was completely unknown to man until fairly recently.
In Genesis 17:12, God specifically directed Abraham to circumcise newborn males on the eighth day. Why the eighth day? In 1935, professor H. Dam proposed the name “vitamin K” for the factor in foods that helped prevent hemorrhaging in baby chicks. We now know vitamin K is responsible for the production (by the liver) of the element known as prothrombin. If vitamin K is deficient, there will be a prothrombin deficiency and hemorrhaging may occur. Oddly, it is only on the fifth through the seventh days of the newborn male’s life that vitamin K (produced by bacteria in the intestinal tract) is present in adequate quantities. Vitamin K, coupled with prothrombin, causes blood coagulation, which is important in any surgical procedure. Holt and McIntosh, in their classic work, Holt Pediatrics (1953), observed that a newborn infant has “peculiar susceptibility to bleeding between the second and fifth days of life. Hemorrhages at this time, though often inconsequential, are sometimes extensive; they may produce serious damage to internal organs, especially to the brain, and cause death from shock and exsanguination” (Holt Pediatrics, pages 125-126). Obviously, then, if vitamin K is not produced in sufficient quantities until days five through seven, it would be wise to postpone any surgery until sometime after that. But why did ADONAI specify day eight?
On the eighth day, the amount of prothrombin present actually is elevated to above one-hundred percent of normal – and is the only day in the male baby’s entire life in which this will be the case under normal conditions. If surgery is to be performed, the eighth day is the perfect day to do it, when vitamin K and prothrombin levels are at their peak.194
We should commend the many hundreds of workers who labored at great expense over a number of years to discover that the safest day to perform circumcision is the eighth. Yet, as we congratulate medical science for this recent finding, we can almost hear the pages of the Bible rustling. They would like to remind us that four thousand years ago, when YHVH initiated circumcision with Abraham, he didn’t pick the eighth day after many centuries of trial-and-error experiments. Neither he nor any of his company from the ancient city of Ur in the Chaldees had ever been circumcised. It was a day picked by the Creator of vitamin K. Moshe’s information recorded in Genesis 17:12 (see Genesis En – For Generations to come Every Male Who Is Eight Days Old Must be Circumcised), was not only accurate, but was centuries ahead of its time. How did Abraham have access to such information? The answer, of course, is provided by Paul: All Scripture is inspired by God (Second Timothy 3:16).195
The birth of a daughter (12:5): But if she gives birth to a girl, she will be unclean for fourteen days, as in her niddah; and she is to wait another sixty-six days (bringing the total days to eighty) to be purified from her blood. If the baby was a daughter, then the time of the mother’s purification was extended. Many suggestions have been made for the doubling of the time for a baby girl, but convincing evidence is lacking.196
There is no mention that the girl is to be circumcised. So restricting circumcision to males does lead to a natural question: Since circumcision is the covenant sign (see the commentary on Genesis El – God’s Covenant of Circumcision with Abraham), and only males receive it, does this mean that only males are considered covenant members? No way! In Israelite society, the father was considered the head of the family, and thus the family representative. If he received the sign of the covenant, then all who were members of the family – including all the females – were considered to be covenant members as well (Genesis 6:18).197
The purification offering (12:6-8): For the purification ritual, the correct sacrifice had to be made. Our parashah teaches that when the days of her purification were over, whether for a son or for a daughter, she was to bring a lamb in its first year for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or dove for a purification offering to the entrance of Tabernacle/Temple, to the priest to mark her re-entry into the worship community of Isra’el. The priest then offered it before ADONAI and made atonement for her; thus she was purified from her discharge of blood. That ritual of atonement was followed simply so that the woman would be ritually clean and allowed access to the Tabernacle/Temple, but not that she be forgiven. No forgiveness was necessary because there was no sin. Such is the mitzvah for a woman who gives birth, whether to a boy or to a girl. If she can’t afford a lamb, she is to take two doves or two young pigeons, the one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering; the priest will make atonement for her, and she will be ritually clean. The special mitzvah for the offering of the very poor shows that God was more interested in the offeror than the offering. The option of two doves or two pigeons was necessary because doves were migratory and not available year-around. According to Luke’s Gospel (see The Life of Christ Au – Jesus Presented in the Temple), Joseph and Mary brought birds: they were very poor.198
Leave A Comment