Celebrating New Life Lev 12:6-8
There are times in life when whether we know it or not, we touch the fabric of eternity: Births, weddings, and deaths. This passage is about births. It is a tender moment in the life of a mother when she is welcomed back into the fullness of life after childbirth. Some have said the Torah is archaic. And I will agree that many interpretations of it are more about the temporal ideas of the interpreter than about God’s intentions. But the Torah was cutting edge in its time. To my knowledge, it is the first written civil and spiritual code in history that does not treat women as property. On the contrary, it encouraged women to own property and to engage in business. Read about such an eshet chayal , a woman of valor, in Prov 31. The Old Testament is very sensitive about blood, so many laws involve it. Because, a few chapters after this one, God explains to Moses that “the ...