Parashat Tazria, Leviticus 12:1-13:59; Shabbat HaChodesh, Ex. 12:1-20

Ritual impurity is not a value judgment.

Things ain't what they used to be: How often we employ this lament! Life was simpler and better when we were young. The world is more complex, and somehow more dangerous. In many regards, though it really is a good thing that "things ain't what they used to be." I know; I too miss the candy bars that were cheaper and bigger, the films that were creative and original, and time that moved at a more leisurely pace. On the other hand, I am rather partial to the fact that housing has improved, transportation is better, and there really is much to be said for indoor plumbing and running water. Given a choice between much that existed in the "good old days" and what we have today, I'm happy to be living in our day and age.

For one thing, back in the "good old days" a lot of people I know would not have made it to whatever age they are now. We are able to treat an astounding array of complex physical problems that were beyond our ability and imagination way back when. We also view many things as routine which at one time were not. Like the fact that most women who give birth get to hold their babies and watch them grow. In the golden days of yore up to 25% of women only reached the threshold of motherhood, succumbing to what was known as "childbed fever."

Thing changed slowly but significantly. In 1843, an overachieving New Englander named Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. published a report entitled The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever, in which he argued that the source of this deadly disease among new mothers was actually being carried from patient to patient by their caregivers. Among his recommendations were that physicians clean their instruments and burn their clothes after a fatal delivery. He actually termed this a moral obligation on the part of the doctor.

Four years later and half a world away, Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis of Vienna, concerned with the same obstetrical problem, reached a similar conclusion and mandated that doctors in his wards wash their hands in a chlorinated lime solution before treating each patient. Both men were largely ignored at that time, despite the results of their innovations. Holmes, in fact, was taken to task by a well-known obstetrician of his day who remarked that "Doctors are gentlemen, and gentlemen's hands are clean." It was only thanks to Louis Pasteur's germ theory of disease that the practice of antiseptic cleanliness developed by Semmelweis began to be practiced.

Until these pathfinders came along, there was a strong possibility that the joy of bringing a new life into the world would be followed by its opposite: the death of either infant or mother. Is it any wonder then, that the ideas of birth and death were often intertwined?

This congruence is evident in this week's parasha, Tazria, which deals with a woman after childbirth and the offerings she is to bring as part of the purification ritual. Subsequently, it goes on to detail a number of skin ailments that are to be brought to the attention of the kohen (priest), as well as the actions the priest must take at this point. The kohen is not a healer but a purifier. Not surprisingly, purification is the focus of Tazria, and it is also the focus of next week's portion, Metsora.

What is the problem with impurity? It represents the opposite of holiness. There is a balance between the holiness of life and the impurity of death.

Biblical religion regarded the dead as impure in the extreme and forbade priests from participating in funerary rites. In the commentary it is maintained that this prohibition was aimed at preventing a cult of the dead from becoming part of Israelite worship. To the extent that a higher form of religious expression is served by avoiding the cult of the dead, the devotion of kohanim [priests] to the ancient purity restrictions has contributed significantly to this goal.

Baruch Levine, Leviticus, Jewish Publication Society Commentary, p. 221

But what does all this have to do with mothers and newborn infants? Isn't the birth process perceived as the opposite of death?

…in the Israelite mind, blood was the archsymbol of life. Its oozing from the body was no longer the work of demons [a worldwide view], but it was certainly the sign of death. In particular, the loss of seed in vaginal blood was associated with the loss of life. Thus it was that Israel - alone among the peoples - restricted impurity solely to those physical conditions involving the loss of vaginal blood and semen, the forces of life, and to scale disease, which visually manifested the approach of death.

Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus, Anchor Bible p. 767

So to summarize this rather graphic parashah: Impurity results from contact with the dead. Skin afflictions, translated misleadingly into English as "leprosy" in Leviticus, make one look dead. Genital fluids are generative matter and represent the loss of potential life.

Now let's get back to mother and child. Even in the good old days, commentaries made a symbolic connection between birth and death: "The Torah states that a woman is in a state of impurity for seven days after birth. Similarly, there is a seven-day period of mourning for the dead. All is counted by the number seven." (Yaakov ben Yitzchak Ashkenazi, Tzenah Urenah 2:589)

This Shabbat is also designated as Shabbat HaChodesh (Sabbath of the New Month), which is the first Shabbat of the month of Nisan, when we observe Pesach. The additional Torah reading is Exodus 12:1-20, dealing with the Paschal sacrifice. Here too, in a different context, we see the importance of blood and its association with both life and death. When the paschal lamb was sacrificed, its blood was placed on the doorposts and lintels of the houses of the Israelites. (Exodus 12:7) This was a sign to protect their inhabitants from Divine wrath: And the blood on the houses where you are staying shall be a sign for you: when I see the blood I will pass over you, so that no plague will destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12:13)

Nonetheless, our modern sensibility is generally uncomfortable with the idea that a new mother is somehow "impure." In answer, we need to remind ourselves that ritual impurity is not a value judgment.

Just as ritual "holiness" may be transmitted by contact (6:11) so too defilement. Both the tamei [ritually impure] and the kadosh [holy] emit a sort of energy. As with modern asepsis, so with ancient ritual: positive measures are needed to overcome defilement. In contrast, ritual purity is a neutral state and is not transmissible. A bandage is no longer sterile if it falls on the floor, yet it does not transmit its former sterility to the spot on which it falls.

W. Gunther Plaut, The Torah: A Modern Commentary, revised edition, p. 723

As was pointed out last week, the book of Leviticus is focused on order and having everything in its proper place. Even things that are natural can be considered to be outside the ideal order: blood in the body is fine, outside the body it’s problematic. Skin diseases and certain bodily discharges are not so good either. We are somewhat sensitive to this as well. Gruesome films depend on blood, ooze, guts and what-not to bring about a reaction in us. Judging from the amount of money they make, it works.

The levitical mindset is concerned with bringing about the proper reaction, which just can't happen when certain factors are not in their proper places. The sanctity and holiness of the mishkan, God's abode, must be protected; and proper precautions are necessary to do so. Just as bad things can happen if an operation takes place in an unsterile environment, bad things can happen if God's abode is not ritually pure. Tazria instructs the reader on the protocols for situations that are out of the ordinary; among the protocols are ways of correcting things that are out of place. The time of blood purification for the new mother is an example of this. Blood plays a role in the purification of priests and of those with skin afflictions as well, although in the latter case the blood has a different source.

Tazria encourages us to contemplate blood and its deep connection to life. Here, and in numerous other parts of Leviticus, the connection is deeply symbolic. We may struggle with the symbolism, but surely we understand the basic physical connection. Having said that, consider the importance of blood and how a simple blood donation on your part can be pivotal in pikuach nefesh (saving a life). Once Shabbat is over, how about doing your part to turn symbolism into reality?

Shabbat shalom,
MS