… We might explain that this sacrifice is not offered for her [the woman’s] own sin, but rather for her matriarch [Chava], who was the “mother of all living things”… therefore the Torah obligates her to bring a sacrifice to atone for that primal sin….
Each of the three views cited above (the Midrash, Abarbanel, and Rabbeinu Bechaye) points in a different direction in tracing the sin that entails the bringing of the sin offering. Yet, a fundamental problem of perception confronts us when attempting to identify with any of these explanations. Quite simply, we do not think about childbirth in terms of “sin”; rather, we perceive it as a positive process. Is it not possible, then, that the sin offering brought by the women after childbirth is not the result of sin, but rather for some other reason?
The Sifra comments on our verse as follows:
Wherever a sin offering is brought for a sin, the sin offering is mentioned before the burnt offering. Here, since it is not brought for a sin, the burnt offering is mentioned before the sin offering.
According to the Sifra, there are instances in which a sin offering is not brought in the wake of sin,[5] and the offering of the woman after childbirth is one such instance. But if there is no sin, why is a sin offering required at all?
Ramban (commenting on 12:7) suggests that the sin offering is a ransom, of sorts, for the woman’s healing and purification:
“…and he shall offer it before God and make atonement for her, and she shall be purified from the issue of her blood” – meaning that she offers a ransom for her soul before God to be purified from the issue of her blood. For a woman during childbirth experiences a sort of soiling, corrupting issue. After she has completed the days of purification, or during the time that the infant develops as a male or female, she brings a ransom for her soul in order to recover from her issue and to be purified, for the exalted God heals all flesh and performs wonders.
Impurity of the Woman After Childbirth
If we examine the portions of Tazria and Metzora together, we note that the metzora, the zav and the zava are likewise commanded to bring a burnt offering and a sin offering in order to achieve purification.
And the kohen shall offer them – one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and the kohen shall make atonement for him before God owing to his issue. (15:15)[6]
The woman after childbirth is one of the categories of impurity discussed in the parshiyot of Tazria and Metzora, and in each such category we find a sin offering that is brought not because of sin, but rather as part of the process of ritual purification. The woman after childbirth, likewise, undergoes a process of purification, part of which involves bringing the offering.
The concept of impurity is abstract and therefore difficult to define. In the world of pure material, there is no impurity. Likewise, in the spiritual world that is completely cut off from the material world, there is no impurity. Impurity is manifest only in the connection between these two worlds. And what is common to all types of impurity is that they are brought about specifically through death.[7] Impurity comes about where there is a separation of material from spirit. It is this parting that the state of impurity signifies.
The process of childbirth is the opposite of death. During birth, a new connection is made between the material world and the spiritual world, and a new life comes into being. Why, then, does this situation cause impurity?