According to Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch and Seforno, the sin offering atones for submission to the bodily process that is so powerful that it almost leads to forgetting one’s lofty spiritual purpose.
But can this situation truly be regarded as a sin?
Seforno and Rabbi Hirsch do not assert that it is a sin. Rather, they perceive it as a situation that is problematic, not ideal, and therefore the woman must make atonement for it, in order to be worthy of returning to the Sanctuary. Collision
Childbirth is a very powerful process, and also a complex one. On one hand, it is a process of creation, of forming new life. It is a process in which the mother is God’s partner in bringing life into the world. It represents a new connection between body and soul.
On the other hand, this process entails a powerful bodily experience, accompanied by great difficulties. The woman is subject to a mighty physical process that takes control of her, as it were, pushing aside the spirit’s control over the body.
In addition to this complexity, there is the paradox discussed above: on one hand, an infant is born, and new life is created. On the other hand, this process involves impurity.
The birth process involves a huge, mighty collision between the material world and the spiritual world. It is no coincidence, it seems, that this collision comes about specifically amidst the process of birth. The creation of man is bound up with the special combination of material body, flesh and blood, and spiritual soul – the image of God. This combination is no simple matter, and it is therefore specifically at childbirth that the two worlds collide with such force. The woman is in the middle of this collision, a partner in this clash.
Perhaps the sin offering is brought for this very collision. During childbirth, the mother is very close to God; at the same time, she is in the throes of a forceful bodily process, and even in a state of impurity. The combination between these two states is out of the woman’s control, and hence we cannot speak of any “sin” here. Still, it is a problematic situation, a lack of completion. She is “entering the Sanctuary,” as it were, in a state of impurity, and perhaps it is for this reason that she must bring her sin offering.
In light of what we have said above, let us now revisit the commentaries cited above.
“Determinedly Swears…”[10]
The woman experiences most powerfully the physical strain that her body endures, to the extent that she may sometimes become disconnected from the greatness of the process, and feel herself prepared to forego any further pregnancies.
The Midrash describing the woman swearing that she will no longer have intimate relations with her husband may be understood as describing a situation in which the woman has experienced her travail so powerfully, and the bodily process has so overtaken her experience, that it is no longer possible for her to perceive the tremendous positive side. She cuts herself off from the grandeur of creating life, and does not wish to repeat the experience. Perhaps the Midrash is teaching us that she must bring a sin offering for this situation, in which the body (and its travail) conquers and dominates the spirit.
“To Atone for the Primal Sin”[11]
The suffering in childbirth is the result of the sin of Adam and Chava:
And to the woman He said: I shall greatly multiply your pain in childbirth; in sorrow shall you bring forth children… (Bereishit 3:16)
Were it not for the sin, childbirth would have been simpler and easier.