Leviticus 12:1 – 13:59
Leviticus 14:1 – 15:33
Our double Torah portion takes its names from the first distinctive words at the beginning of each reading. But the portions are asymmetrical in that the bulk of both portions deals with “m’tzora” – issues of surface afflictions, and only one paragraph deals with “tazri`a” – a woman conceiving and giving birth. Though only one paragraph, this short text merits renewed examination.
The Torah tells us that childbirth, a life-giving and life-threatening experience, renders the mother ritually impure. In order to regain a state of ritual purity, the woman must undergo a process. As outlined by the Torah, this process includes waiting set periods of time, immersion in purifying waters and the bringing of sacrifices. Many readers have noticed that the waiting period for purification is different when a male baby is born than when a female baby is born. The period of impurity is twice as long when a female is born than when a male is born (80 days vs. 40 days). This discrepancy has puzzled readers for thousands of years.
Some readers have seen an anti-female bias behind this detail. I will not delve into that problem this time. Instead, I wish to point out a peculiarity about our text that strikes me as setting quite a different tone. This entire paragraph concerns itself with rules governing the ritual purity of a woman who has given birth without once mentioning the father of the baby! The obscuring of the father begins with the distinctive word used to describe the woman’s conceiving – “tazri`a.” The word includes the root “zr`” – that means “seed.” But it does not mention that the father has inseminated the mother. Nor is the verb describing the woman put into the passive form. The woman is not described as “having been inseminated.”
Instead the verb form is one usually understood as being the active form; the woman is “seeding.” This is remarkable. The Torah knows the basic biological facts of life. She usually credits the father with “begetting” a child. Yet here the father’s role is elided completely, and even somewhat appropriated by the mother alone. Moreover, the “man of the house” is absent from the rest of the process. In this text the Torah knows of male and female babies, but not of male parents. Thus, when the male baby reaches the age of 8 days, the Torah tells us that he must be circumcised. Yet the Torah makes sure to avoid stating that the father will perform this mitzvah. Instead, it is here that the Torah chooses to utilize the passive form: “And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised,” (Lev. 12:3) without saying by whom. (It appears that some Talmudic sages read this verb as an active verb. Yet, the subject of the verb – the father – is still missing.)
The Torah continues describing the mother’s period of impurity. She cannot touch holy objects and she cannot enter the sanctuary. We often focus on the negative thrust of this rule without noticing the positive inference to be drawn. Apparently the Torah sees the woman, when she is ritually pure, as a regular visitor in the sanctuary. This follows from the next provision, as well. When her time of impurity is up she brings her sacrifices. She does; not her husband, not the father. Finally, the Torah makes an allowance for a poor mother who cannot afford a large animal sacrifice. She may substitute two doves instead. Let us notice that the text does not speak about the indigent father. But, after all, whose property will be the source of the sacrifices? Won’t they come from the man’s flocks? Yet he is not mentioned here, either. It is as if the mother were completely on her own.
It turns out, I suggest, that this brief text chooses to speak about the miracle of childbirth in a very specific way. In recognition of this unique life-giving power, exclusively possessed by women, it shoos away the men, if only for a fleeting moment, or lessens the place of the male in the overall action. Even the male baby is dispensed with in half the time alloted for a girl baby. The male is given but one task – the priest must serve the mother and minister to her ritual needs. Just this once the Torah gives us a text that operates in complete reversal from Her usual way, where the male is assumed and the female is forgotten. Just this once we are given a text in which the woman takes center stage and the man is an afterthought.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi David Greenstein
Photo by Francesca Dioni *Aemaeth* 
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