The title of this week’s parsha (Torah portion) is called Tazria, which literally means, “You (male, singular) will cause to sow (as in sowing a seed in the earth), and it refers to a woman becoming pregnant.

I must admit, that the parsha did not excite me as I was reading it.  It starts with a discussion about the affects that birth have on a woman (from a spiritual point of view), and then veers off on the details of how to tell if a person has a physical/spiritual ailment called Tzaarat.  The parsha ends with a description of how to tell if this Tzaarat is on your wool, linen, and leather works, and what to do if it is.

Instead of trying to figure all this out, I want to give an update to an earlier blog entry relating to this parsha.  I had a question in that entry about why it is that it takes twice as long for a new mother to completely purify herself when she gives birth to a girl (as opposed to a boy).

The answer I received (and my apologies for not giving credit for this answer to whoever told me for I do not remember who it was) was that when a boy is born, the mother is only separating from him (one generation).  He does not yet have sperm to produce a new generation.

A girl, however, has all her eggs within her at birth.  In other words, a baby girl contains within herself the potential of the next generation.  Therefore, it takes twice as long for the new mother to separate her soul from her baby girl’s soul because she is not just separating from the girl’s soul (one generation), she is also separating from her potential grandchildren (ie she is separating from 2 generations with a girl and only 1 with a boy baby).  Hence it takes twice as long.

I think this is a wonderful explanation.  What do you think?

If you care to read what I wrote about this parsha last year, click here.

About the Author

Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.