INTRODUCTION TO PARASHAT HASHAVUA

PARASHAT TAZRIA-METZORA

Connecting Childbirth and Circumcision

By Rabbi Yaakov Beasley

With the Mishkan finally standing firmly in the camp of Bnei Yisrael, the Torah turns its attention to discussing the laws of who can enter it, and who, for whatever reason, must wait outside.  The outlining of the guidelines of tuma and tahara (colloquially called “purity” and “impurity”) began last week, when the Torah describes the effects of contact with carcasses of various animals.  Our two parshiot discuss the following categories of impurity: the birthing mother (ch. 12), tzara'at (chs. 13-14), zav (a man who experiences an emission; ch. 15:1-15), and the zava and nidda (menstrual and irregular bleeding; ch. 15:19 and on).  This week, we will study the first section and the questions that arise when laws of impurity intersect with the most natural of human experiences – childbirth.

Our parasha begins as follows:

Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying: Speak to Bnei Yisrael, saying: A woman who conceives seed and gives birth to a male shall be impure for seven days; like the days of her menstrual sickness shall she be impure.

And on the eighth day, the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.

And she shall retain the blood of her purification for thirty-three days; she shall touch nothing that is sanctified, nor shall she come into the Sanctuary, until the days of her purification are completed.

And if she bears a female, she shall be impure for two weeks as in her menstruation, and for sixty-six days she shall retain the blood of her purification.

And when the days of her purification for a son or for a daughter are completed, she shall bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering and a pigeon or a turtledove as a sin offering to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, to the kohen.

And he shall offer it before Hashem and make atonement for her, and she shall be purified from the issue of her blood; this is the teaching for a woman who bears a male or female child.

And if she is unable to obtain a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons – one as a burnt offering and the other as a sin offering, and the kohen shall make atonement for her, and she shall be purified.  (Vayikra 12:1-8)

One of the first perplexities that arises is the requirement to circumcise the male child on the eighth day.  When discussing the mitzva of brit mila, the Rambam writes:

The Torah commands us to circumcise our sons, as the Lord said to Avraham: “Every male child along you shall be circumcised” (Bereishit 17:10).  The Torah states that those who transgress this commandment incur the punishment of karet.  (Sefer Ha-Mitzvot, mitzva 215)

The Rambam states that the source of the commandment of brit mila stems from Hashem’s original command to Avraham Avinu, not the verses here.  Similarly, the Sefer Ha-Chinukh records this mitzva in Parashat Lekh Lekha, and not here in Parashat Tazria.  He adds that this commandment was not confined to Avraham; rather, “This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your seed after you… and he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every male child in your generations” (Bereishit 17:10-12).

The Sefer Ha-Chinukh asks why the Torah repeated this commandment in Parashat Tazria and offers the following comprehensive answer:

This commandment is repeated in Parashat Tazria… even as many other commandments are recapitulated several times in the Torah, each time for a specific purpose, as explained by our Sages.  (Parashat Lekh Lekha, mitzva 2)

However, the Sefer Ha-Chinukh does not explain the “purpose” of repeating the commandment in Parashat Tazria.  According to the Or Ha-Chaim, the repetition serves a halakhic purpose.  In our parasha, the Torah teaches us that the law of circumcision overrides the Shabbat because it must be performed “on the eighth day.” Since this did not apply to Avraham, it was not mentioned in Bereishit!

Avraham was commanded to circumcise; he was not require to observe the Sabbath.  Had he failed to perform the circumcision on the Sabbath, he would have acted improperly, God forbid.  It was, therefore, pointless of God to command Avraham to circumcise even on the Sabbath.  Indeed, had such a command been issued there, rivers of ink would have to be spilled to explain it!

The Toledot Yitzhak (R. Yitzchak Karo) views the incorporation of circumcision in the text dealing with uncleanness differently.  He asks:

If the Torah deems it necessary to repeat the law of the circumcision (having recorded it in the Lord’s commandment to Avraham in Bereishit 17:9-10…), this is not the right place! Surely, the Covenant of the Circumcision (brit mila) is holy and pure — why then associate it with uncleanness, as if placing a kohen into a graveyard?!

Man has been created for the sole purpose of serving his Creator.  Thus having created man, “Hashem took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden… And Hashem commanded the man…” (Bereishit 2:15-16).  Likewise here, after stating, “…and born a man child,” the Torah states, “on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised,” for he was born to fulfill God’s commandments – and the brit mila is the first and foremost mitzva, without which he is not a Jew.  Through circumcision, he accepts the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven, having been marked to serve the Lord and fulfill all His commandments.  Hence, the mitzva of mila appears in conjunction with the birth of a male child.

The Torah did not want to forgo the opportunity to engage in didactics.  Every time a birth is mentioned, even within the context of purity or lack thereof of the mother, the Torah wished to emphasize the ultimate purpose of this birth – the performance of Hashem’s mitzvot.

On the opening word “And” in “And on the eighth day he shall be circumcised” (12:3), the Malbim makes the following comment:

The conjunction “and” has the function of connecting themes and phrases: it provides the nexus between commandments, events, etc.  The Torah does not use it otherwise.  (For example, "On the eighth day you shall have a solemn assembly' (Bamidbar 29:35), having been preceded by, “and on the second day,” “and on the third day,” “and on the fourth day” (ibid., 17, 20, 23), which are connected.)

[However] there appears to be no connection between “and on the eighth day he shall be circumcised” and the preceding subject of the seven unclean and thirty-three clean days of a woman after confinement.  The latter refers to the mother, and the former to the new-born child.  [Apparently], the conjunction is, therefore, out of place. 

The Malbim gives the following answer.  The “and” in the parenthetical phrase is connected both to the preceding phrases and to the following phrases.  The three time periods - the seven impure days, the eighth day (which also serves as the first day of the thirty-three day “pure” period), and the “pure” period itself - are all interconnected.  Therefore, the conjunction “and” precedes both the reference to the eighth day and the reference to the counting of the thirty-three days. 

Additionally, if the “and” would be missing from the parenthetical phrase, we might misread the verse and think that the counting of the eight days for circumcision begins not from birth, but from after the conclusion of the 7 impure days, thus requiring the circumcision on the fifteenth day after birth!

The Talmud brings a homiletical interpretation of why the two laws, the status of the mother regarding the laws of purity and the requirement to circumcise the child, are connected:

The students of R. Shimon b. Yochai asked him: Why did the Torah command that circumcision should take place on the eighth day? [He answered:] So that it should not happen that everyone is happy while the father and mother are grieved (Rashi: for they are still forbidden to have sexual relations).  (Nidda 31b)

For those who would suggest that the Torah would even contemplate that the act of childbirth (and the relations that preceded it) should be considered somehow sinful, this quote from the Talmud should certainly erase any misunderstanding.  Instead, the Torah chose to link the child’s entry into the covenant, a joyful event, with the parent’s ability to be intimate.  No hint of impurity taints the child born into this world, nor the parents who bore him.