When you come

possession.

(Vayikra 14:34)

…tzara'at of houses is

one of the things described in the Torah that lack any relation to actual

reality. It is precisely because lesions of houses are very strange – one might

say supernatural – that the details mentioned in connection to lesions of

houses are used as symbols. This passage invites allegorization and is

presented as something relevant to natural human – and even historical –

reality…

The midrash (Yalkut

Shimoni, Vayikra 14: 563) states: "A man says to his fellow: 'Lend me a kav

of wheat.' He answers: 'I have none.' 'A kav of barley' – he answers:

"I have none.' 'A kav of dates' – and he answers, 'I have none.'

And similarly, a woman asks her friend: 'Lend me a sieve,' and she answers: 'I

have none.' And she says, 'Lend me a sieve-basket,' and she answers: 'I have

none.'" That is to say: evil-heartedness keeps people from being kind to

their friends. And the midrash continues: "What does the Holy One, blessed

be He, do? He causes there to be lesions in his house [in the house of the

person who would not lend] and when he takes out all his things, people look

and say: 'But he said he has nothing – look how much wheat there is here, how

much barley there is here, how many dates there are here! This house is cursed

because of the accursedness of this man and the wickedness of his heart.'"

This relates to the verse: the priest shall order that they clear out the

house, before the priest comes to look at the lesion (Vayikra 14:36). The

home-owners must clear out all the content of their house and then their shame

is revealed to all.

(Y. Leibowitz: Sheva

Shanim shel Sihot al Parashat HaShavu'a, pg. 493)

The Women's

Tractate

Dalia Marx

The notion of

"marginality" usually brings to mind thoughts of exclusion and disavowal.

Marginality may, however, embody exciting possibilities and unexpected

opportunities – Sometimes, as Yankale Rotblitt's popular song tells us,

"you can see things from there that you can't see from here." I shall

now offer such a reading of one case of marginality.

Parashat Tazria opens with a

description of the purification process to be undertaken by a woman following

childbirth. The process is two-staged: first come the days of her flow (Vayikra 12:2) – seven days

when a boy is born and a fortnight for a girl, and then the stage in which the

mother must remain in the blood of purity (12:4) for

thirty-three days when a boy is born and sixty-six days for a girl. During that

latter period she is permitted to her husband but she shall not touch anything

been completed (ibid). Upon completion of the days of purification she must go to

the priest and offer a lamb as a burnt-offering and a young dove or a turtle

dove as a sin-offering (12:6). The requirement that a woman bring a sin-offering after

giving birth is itself fascinating, but it will have to be dealt with in a

separate discussion. Scripture mentions an alternative offering for women who

cannot afford a lamb: And if she cannot afford a sheep, she shall take two

become clean (12:8).

There is room to assume that

many women could not afford to sacrifice a lamb and found themselves following

"Plan B" – the offering of two birds. Birds were the smallest and

least expensive of animals that could be sacrificed; they also constituted the

offering made by marginal people: the leper (who cannot afford a lamb), the men

and women who suffer discharges, the Nazirite who was made impure by a corpse,

and, of course, of the woman who has given birth.

Tractate Kinnim of the Mishnah

deals with the fowl sacrifice, or, to put it more precisely, it deals with

special complications that can occur in connection with that sacrifice. The

tractate is marginal in many different ways:

1) It is the shortest tractate

of the order Kodashim, and therefore the last tractate found in the order. It

has no corresponding tractates in either of the two Talmuds or in the Tosefta.

2) Kinnim treats the smallest of

the sacrifices, and even so, it only deals with complications that can arise

during the sacrifice, i.e., errors that can stem from the sacrifice of young

birds as burnt-offerings when they were intended to be used in sin-offerings,

and vice-versa, and errors due to the ability of young birds to fly from one

pair of birds to the other. Kinnim can actually be seen as a kind of footnote

to the discussion of the fowl sacrifice in the seventh chapter of Tractate

Zevahim.

3) The tractate's marginality is

also reflected in the people who offer the fowl sacrifice; their status is

marginal in relation to the Temple

experience (women after birth) or their situation in life is liminal (the

leper) or they chose marginality (the Nazirite).

4) The fowl offering is brought

by the new mother and the leper only if they cannot afford to buy a lamb to

sacrifice. Even in those cases, the fowl offering is not preferred.

5) The tractate's laws are

almost always set out in terms of women bringing offerings, for example:

"Two women, this one has two pairs of birds and the other one has two

pairs of birds…" (2:2). One might say that the "Reuven" (the ubiquitous

character of Talmudic case law) of this tractate is a "Dinah." Many

have claimed this is so because the standard bringer of sacrifices in the

tractate is a woman, since most of the fowl-offerings were made by women (after

birth or because they suffered discharges). However, I will try to demonstrate

that there may be something inherently feminine about this sacrifice itself.

Given the multi-dimensional

marginality of Tractate Kinnim, R. Eliezer ben Hasima's dictum is somewhat

surprising:

Kinnim and pit'hei niddah

are the after-courses of wisdom. (Avot 3:18)

R. Eliezer marks a range of

topics for study beginning with what he calls "essential laws" – the

mainstays of learning – and ending with the "after-courses of

wisdom," which are tekufot (astronomical calculations) and gematriyot

(the Tannaitic term for mathematical calculations, not our understanding of

it). These latter are enjoyable intellectual pursuits, but they are mere

"desserts" in comparison with the "main dishes." R. Eliezer

counts Kinnim – the fowl-offerings – among the "essential

laws," together with pit'hei niddah. These two topics are closely

related to family matters, and are even more intimately connected to women and

the commandments with which women are obligated. However, while pit'hei

niddah – issues relating to the laws of family purity – were still relevant

to family life in the days of the Sages, the laws of fowl-offerings had by then

become of completely theoretical interest. Kinnim is of merely

theoretical interest not only because it has no practical application after the

destruction of the Temple,

but also because the situations it deals with are mostly hypothetical.

Consider, for instance the case of the woman who must bring a hundred offerings

(1:3); such multiple

obligations had already been made void by the decree of Rabban Shimon ben

Gamliel.

Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel (who

lived in the generation of the Temple's

destruction) made his decree in order to make life easier for women when the

price for fowl in Jerusalem

became exorbitant. Rabban Shimon, the Nasi of the Sanhedrin, swore in the name

of the Temple

to remedy the injustice: "By this abode [of the Lord], I shall not sleep

tonight until [a pair of birds is sold] for a dinar!" (Keritot 1:7). This decree

is founded upon the sensitive assumption that it is unreasonable to require a

woman to leave her home and responsibilities to visit Jerusalem each time she gives birth. It

allowed women to make a single offering upon each festival pilgrimage to Jerusalem – and prices

plunged together with demand. Prof. Hannah Safrai z"l said that the decree

demonstrates that what was good for women was thought of as good for the Temple.¹

R. Shimon's decree makes many of

the laws in Tractate Kinnim redundant and completely theoretical. Some of the

laws of Kinnim read like challenging intellectual puzzles. Prof. Moshe Koppel,

who wrote a new commentary on the tractate, called it "the mathematical

tractate."² This tractate was (and still is) studied as a

source of intellectual pleasure free of practical consequences (and, of course

without consequences for contemporary Jews). Pit'hei niddah – the other

topic listed as "essential laws" – also involves mathematical

calculations, but it still has application to contemporary life.

Can we find a real connection

between the fowl offering and women – in particular, women who have recently

given birth? I think so. When a woman gives birth, the fetus that was hidden

inside her becomes a self sustaining being in the world. In the fowl sacrifice

– and, in particular, when fledglings are being offered – the fledglings hidden

in their nest remind us of a fetus in its mother's womb.³ The mother

is asked to sacrifice other "babies"⁴ in exchange for

her own; similar practices are found in other cultures.

The Mishnah grants extensive

authority to a woman who brings a fowl-offering: she can determine which of the

fledglings will be the burnt-offering and which the sin-offering. In this connection

we must remember that these two sacrifices involved different procedures (Mishnah

Zevahim Chapter 7). Such a pair of birds is called a ken mefureshet

designated for particular sacrifices, it was called a ken stuma

fledglings would be sacrificed as a sin-offering and which as a burnt-offering.

It was easier to deal with a ken stuma: we might imagine the hectic

activity in the Temple,

with women bringing more and more pairs of birds. It must have been quite a

commotion. When undesignated fowl were brought, there was less possibility of

mix-ups and confusion. The tractate seems to be subtly making the unspoken

suggestion that women should leave the designation of the sacrifices to the

priest. Nevertheless, the Mishnah never questions the woman's right to

predetermine which bird will be used for which sacrifice.

All of this is somewhat

surprising, considering that men made no similar sacrifice upon founding a

family. Men were obligated to fulfill the commandment of seeing the Temple (and

being seen there by God) and visiting it on the pilgrimage festivals that

marked the year's seasonal events, while women's visits to the Temple marked

personal events related to the human (and especially the feminine) life-cycle.

A father is required to circumcise his son, but not to celebrate his birth in

the Temple. The

actors involved in the mother's offering are the woman and the priest – it is

she who must bring the offerings to the priest and instruct him how to

sacrifice them. The woman brings the pairs of birds and takes care of them.

Regarding the verse, And when the days of her purification have been

entrance of the tent of Meeting, to the priest (12:6), the midrash

states: "This teaches that she cares for them [the offerings] and brings

them to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, to the priest" (Sifra Tazria 3:4).

In at least one place we find

discomfort regarding this state of affairs and the possible ties between

priests and women that might arise from it. In the course of a discussion

regarding the purity of Temple vessels, R. Bon bar Hiyya relates an incident

that occurred: "I say that one of the priests there went out to speak with

a woman about the fowl offering and a bit of spittle from her mouth sprayed on

his clothing, defiling them" (J. Hagigah 3:8; 79d). The woman who

spoke with the priest about the fowl offering accidentally defiled his clothing

with her spittle; thus, the encounter between priest and woman may be dangerous

and threatening. Nevertheless, the Sages did not try to avoid it or bypass it.

This short investigation of the

fowl offering demonstrates that even if women had a marginal role in the

activities of the Temple, and even if their

participation in the Temple rites invited mixed

reactions, they did have a valid connection with it; they visited the Temple and actively

participated in its rites. Even if there were some qualms regarding women

choosing birds for sacrifice, it was the woman's choice (if she wanted to

choose) that was decisive. If the priest failed to follow her instructions, the

sacrifice was invalid. This is, in fact, the most feminine tractate in the

entire Mishnah. Other tractates (Niddah, for example) deal with topics which

are inherently feminine, while here the Sages decided to lay out the rules of

the fowl offering (which is obligatory upon both men and women – in different

circumstances) almost entirely in terms of examples involving women!

While marginal and theoretical,

Kinnim opens a door for the empowerment of women, brings them into the public

space and makes their voices heard.

1. Hannah

Safrai, Parashat Tazriya on the Kolech website. I thank R. Shlomo Fox and Prof.

Moshe Koppel fro their important comments on this article.

2. Moshe

Koppel, Biur hadash LeMassekhet Kinnim al pi Torat HaHeshbon, Jerusalem 1998. It is

interesting to note that although Kinnim has no parallel tractates in the

Tosefta or Talmud, many exegetes throughout the generations chose it as the

subject for special commentaries, including those of the RaAVaD, ROSh, and R.

Zarhiya HaLevi.

3. Prof. Zohar

Amar believes that most of the fowl offerings involved dove fledglings. See his

Masoret Ha'Of Tel-Aviv 5764, pp. 191-213.

4. The

formulation of the commandment to send away the mother bird makes explicit

reference to her motherhood, see Devarim 22:6-7.

Dalia Marx is currently involved in feminist exegesis of

Tractate Kinnim, and welcomes relevant comments and communications. Her book, B'eit

Ishan Ve'a'ira: Hatefilot Ha'otfot et Halayla [When I Sleep and When I

Awake: the Prayers that Envelope the Night] will soon be published.

Holocaust and Independence

In the past,

grave things were said in connection with the Holocaust: There were those who

claimed that the Holocaust was a preparation, a kind of price that the Jewish

People had to pay in exchange for the creation of the State of Israel. There

were those who clamed that the State of Israel serves as a kind of compensation

for the Holocaust. They also claimed that this was the only way to cause the

Jews, or rather to force them, to immigrate to the Land of Israel.

These are very grave words, which are difficult to hear.

(From Harav

Yehudah Amital's "Af al Pi shemeitzar umeimar li",

quoted in M.

Miyah's Olam Banuy, Hareiv, Uvanuy, pg. 64)

There is no

accomplishment or blessing in this world that can compensate for the burning of

those sinless multitudes of people. All of these words about the creation of

the State in the wake of the Holocaust – they are hollow words. Neither the

actual State of Israel, which occasionally must bleed to survive, nor the ideal

State of Israel described in the prophecy of each man beneath his vine and

beneath his fig-tree can begin to justify what the Jewish People went

through during the years of the Holocaust.

(HaRav Amital's

lecture on the Yom Kaddish HaKlali – Ot Ve'Eid,

Perek Iyyun

Ve'Meida,

quoted in Miyah op cit pg. 64)

Certainly we

view the State of Israel as a healing process. I cannot imagine what would have

happened to the Jewish People if the state had not arisen. It was so necessary

for the rehabilitation of the survivors! When I think of the refugees from

destruction, if they had to continue wandering from shore to shore, not finding

a safe-haven in the Land of Israel, what would have happened to the Jewish

People? In this sense, of course there is a connection…

The first

expression of independence was "bringing home the individuals." There

is nothing greater than a home… not only individuals who came and found a

home after years spent in concentration camps and death camps.

(HaRav Amital,

as quoted in M. Miyah, Olam Banuy, Hareiv, U'Vanuy, pg. 68)

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