The infant that is born, representing the new connection between material and spirit, is not impure. It is the mother who is rendered impure – not because of the newborn infant, but because of a “death” in a different sense. Firstly, while the infant has begun a new life, the mother has lost a life which, until now, has been contained inside her. Secondly, at the start of the embryo’s development, some of the embryonic cells become the placenta, which takes root in the womb and nourishes the fetus during the pregnancy. At birth, the infant – emerging into new life – parts from the placenta. The placenta, which had started off as some of the embryonic cells, and later nourished the developing embryo and fetus and allowed it to grow, leaves the body, and in a certain sense one may say that it is dead.[8]
Thus, the birth of the living infant is accompanied by a certain sort of “death,” and this is the source of the birthing mother’s impurity.
Nevertheless, the impurity of a birthing mother is different from the other categories of impurity. All of the others are caused by a pathological state, while the impurity of this woman is brought about in a positive and desirable way, through the creation of new life – which itself is the opposite of impurity.
It is perhaps for this reason that the Torah chooses to address the woman after childbirth first, before the other categories of impurity, as Rabbi Elchanan Samet explains:[9]
… Had the unit on the birthing mother appeared in between the impurity of tzara’at and the impurity of the zav, or after these categories, this would imply that birth, too, is an unhealthy or abnormal situation. Not wishing to create such an impression, the Torah discusses the birthing mother first, before we hear about the other forms of impurity that arise from abnormal situations affecting a person’s body. From the fact that the birthing mother is mentioned first we learn that a situation of impurity is not necessarily negative….
Thus, a sin offering is brought not only for sin, but also as part of a process of purification. The woman after childbirth brings a sin offering as part of her process of purification.
Submission to the Powers of the Body
A different explanation for the sin offering brought by the birthing mother is offered by Seforno, commenting on verse 8:
“And he shall make atonement for her” – for so long as her impurity flows, her thoughts will all be directed to matters of the vessels of seed and their action, and she will not be worthy of [entry into] the Sanctuary and its sanctified things, until she brings her atonement and directs herself towards the Sanctuary.
Rabbi Shimon Raphael Hirsch develops this idea further:
“Tazria” – [derived from the word] zera (seed) – the primary meaning refers to the seed of a plant… The term tazria is to be found, aside from here, only in Bereishit 1:11-12. There it denotes the plant’s activity to maintain its species, while here it indicates the activity of the mother to form human seed. Hence, this activity is perceived in the purely bodily sense, as a physiological process. Thus, this very expression expresses the significance of the impurity that is involved here. The lofty and noble deed, upon which the future of humankind depends, and in which all the creativity of femininity finds is purpose, is the mother’s act for the sake of the human being that is coming into existence. But this is nothing but a purely bodily act. A person is formed, grows, and comes into existence in the same way as a plant… with a lack of freedom… now, the mother at this point [the birth] submits, with passivity and suffering, to the physical power of the laws of nature, and this – in the midst of the lofty process that is the essence of her entire purpose in the world. For this reason, she must now refresh the consciousness of her moral destiny. Only when this sensory impression is over will she return to the Sanctuary with the vow of an offering. With moral freedom she will fulfill her destiny as a woman and as a mother – with all of its difficult moments, with all the suffering.