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Link to Transcript here: https://madlik.com/2025/04/30/simone-debeuvoir-reads-the-torah/
(א) וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר יהוה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֥ה לֵּאמֹֽר׃ (ב) דַּבֵּ֞ר אֶל־בְּנֵ֤י יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר אִשָּׁה֙ כִּ֣י תַזְרִ֔יעַ וְיָלְדָ֖ה זָכָ֑ר וְטָֽמְאָה֙ שִׁבְעַ֣ת יָמִ֔ים כִּימֵ֛י נִדַּ֥ת דְּוֺתָ֖הּ תִּטְמָֽא׃
Speak to the Israelite people thus: When a woman at childbirth *at childbirth Heb. tazria‘, lit. “brings forth seed.” bears a male, she shall be impure seven days; she shall be impure as at the time of her condition of menstrual separation.—
אשה כי תזריע. אָ"רַ שִׂמְלַאי: כְּשֵׁם שֶׁיְּצִירָתוֹ שֶׁל אָדָם אַחַר כָּל בְּהֵמָה חַיָּה וָעוֹף בְּמַעֲשֵׂה בְרֵאשִׁית, כָּךְ תּוֹרָתוֹ נִתְפָּרְשָׁה אַחַר תּוֹרַת בְּהֵמָה חַיָּה וָעוֹף (ויקרא רבה יד):
אשה כי תזריע IF A WOMAN HAVE CONCEIVED SEED — R. Simlai said: Even as the formation of man took place after that of every cattle, beast and fowl when the world was created, so, too, the law regarding him is set forth after the law regarding cattle, beast and fowl (contained in the previous chapter) (Leviticus Rabbah 14:1).
(1) at childbirth. [Heb. tazria (which becomes the name of the parashah). The verb refers to a woman producing an offspring. In Genesis 1:11–12, it means “produce seed” or “bring forth seed” (regarding trees). The collective noun zera from the same root refers to offspring when used for persons, and to seed when used in agricultural contexts. Several texts mention a woman’s own offspring. See, for example, when an angel promises Hagar that her zera will be numerous (“descendants,” Genesis 16:10; see also the blessing of Rebekah in 24:60). More often the references are to a man’s offspring (as when God makes the covenant with Abraham in Genesis 17:7). Baruch Levine translates the clause with tazria as “when a woman is inseminated” (Leviticus, 1989, p. 72). That rendering, however, does not sufficiently highlight the active role of the woman in this parashah. —Ed.] as at the time of her condition of menstrual separation. Menstruation creates impurity and requires seven days of separation followed by a purification ritual. According to 15:19–24, those who have contact with a menstruating woman, or with any object upon which she lies or sits, become impure and must bathe, launder their garments, and wait till evening before having contact with the sanctuary or items earmarked for it.
(טז) יְהִ֤י פִסַּת־בַּ֨ר ׀ בָּאָרֶץ֮ בְּרֹ֢אשׁ הָ֫רִ֥ים יִרְעַ֣שׁ כַּלְּבָנ֣וֹן פִּרְי֑וֹ וְיָצִ֥יצוּ מֵ֝עִ֗יר כְּעֵ֣שֶׂב הָאָֽרֶץ׃
(16) Let abundant grain be in the land, to the tops of the mountains; let his crops thrive like the forest of Lebanon; and let men sprout up in towns like country grass.
(יז) בֶּן־אָדָ֗ם בֵּ֤ית יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ יֹשְׁבִ֣ים עַל־אַדְמָתָ֔ם וַיְטַמְּא֣וּ אוֹתָ֔הּ בְּדַרְכָּ֖ם וּבַעֲלִֽילוֹתָ֑ם כְּטֻמְאַת֙ הַנִּדָּ֔ה הָיְתָ֥ה דַרְכָּ֖ם לְפָנָֽי׃ (יח) וָאֶשְׁפֹּ֤ךְ חֲמָתִי֙ עֲלֵיהֶ֔ם עַל־הַדָּ֖ם אֲשֶׁר־שָׁפְכ֣וּ עַל־הָאָ֑רֶץ וּבְגִלּוּלֵיהֶ֖ם טִמְּאֽוּהָ׃ (יט) וָאָפִ֤יץ אֹתָם֙ בַּגּוֹיִ֔ם וַיִּזָּר֖וּ בָּאֲרָצ֑וֹת כְּדַרְכָּ֥ם וְכַעֲלִילוֹתָ֖ם שְׁפַטְתִּֽים׃
(17) O mortal, when the House of Israel dwelt on their own soil, they defiled it with their ways and their deeds; their ways were in My sight like the impurity of a menstruous woman. (18) So I poured out My wrath on them for the blood that they shed upon their land, and for the fetishes with which they defiled it. (19) I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries: I punished them in accordance with their ways and their deeds.
(כח) וִישַׁבְתֶּ֣ם בָּאָ֔רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר נָתַ֖תִּי לַאֲבֹֽתֵיכֶ֑ם וִהְיִ֤יתֶם לִי֙ לְעָ֔ם וְאָ֣נֹכִ֔י אֶהְיֶ֥ה לָכֶ֖ם לֵאלֹהִֽים׃ (כט) וְהוֹשַׁעְתִּ֣י אֶתְכֶ֔ם מִכֹּ֖ל טֻמְאֽוֹתֵיכֶ֑ם וְקָרָ֤אתִי אֶל־הַדָּגָן֙ וְהִרְבֵּיתִ֣י אֹת֔וֹ וְלֹא־אֶתֵּ֥ן עֲלֵיכֶ֖ם רָעָֽב׃
(28) Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your ancestors, and you shall be My people and I will be your God. (29) And when I have delivered you from all your impurity, I will summon the grain and make it abundant, and I will not bring famine upon you.
מְכַלְכֵּל חַיִּים בְּחֶֽסֶד מְחַיֵּה מֵתִים בְּרַחֲמִים רַבִּים סוֹמֵךְ נוֹפְ֒לִים וְרוֹפֵא חוֹלִים וּמַתִּיר אֲסוּרִים וּמְקַיֵּם אֱמוּנָתוֹ לִישֵׁנֵי עָפָר, מִי כָמֽוֹךָ בַּֽעַל גְּבוּרוֹת וּמִי דּֽוֹמֶה לָּךְ מֶֽלֶךְ מֵמִית וּמְחַיֵּה וּמַצְמִֽיחַ יְשׁוּעָה:
Sustainer of the living with kindliness, Resurrector of the dead with great mercy, Supporter of the fallen, and Healer of the sick, and Releaser of the imprisoned, and Fulfiller of His faithfulness to those who sleep in the dust. Who is like You, Master of mighty deeds, and who can be compared to You? King Who causes death and restores life, and causes deliverance to sprout forth.
(א) אשה כי תזריע. אחר שהשלים תורת הטהור והטמא בנאכלין הזכיר טמא אדם והחל מן האשה היולדת כי הלידה היא תחלה ורבים אמרו שהאשה מזרעת תחלה יולדת זכר על כן וילדה זכר ועל כן דעת חכמי יון שהזרע לאשה וזרע הזכר מקפיא וכל הבן מדם האשה והנה פירוש תזריע תתן זרע כי היא כמו הארץ:
(1) IF A WOMAN BE DELIVERED. After Scripture concludes the law of clean and unclean food, it deals with human uncleanliness. The Torah starts (Its regulations of human uncleanliness.)
with the woman who gives birth, because human life begins at birth. Many say that if the woman produces the seed first (Before the male.)
, then she gives birth to a male (However, when the male produces the seed first then the result is a female. See Berakhot 60a; Niddah 28a.)
. Scripture therefore states, and bear a man-child. The wise men of the Greeks similarly believed that the seed is of the woman. The seed of the male congeals. All of the child is created out of the blood of the woman. Note, the meaning of tazri’a (be delivered) means will give seed, for a woman is like the ground.
(א) וּבְמַשְׁמָעוּתוֹ אָמְרוּ (שם לא) "אִשָּׁה כִּי תַזְרִיעַ" אִשָּׁה מַזְרַעַת תְּחִלָּה - יוֹלֶדֶת זָכָר. וְאֵין כַּוָּנָתָם שֶׁיֵּעָשֶׂה הַוָּלָד מִזֶּרַע הָאִשָּׁה, כִּי הָאִשָּׁה אע"פ שֶׁיֵּשׁ לָהּ בֵּיצִים כְּבֵיצֵי זָכָר אוֹ שֶׁלֹּא יֵעָשֶׂה בָּהֶן זֶרַע כְּלָל אוֹ שֶׁאֵין הַזֶּרַע הַהוּא נִקְפָּא וְלֹא עוֹשֶׂה דָּבָר בָּעֻבָּר, אֲבָל אָמְרָם "מַזְרַעַת" עַל דַּם הָרֶחֶם שֶׁיִּתְאַסֵּף בִּשְׁעַת גְּמַר בִּיאָה בָּאֵם וּמִתְאַחֵז בְּזֶרַע הַזָּכָר, כִּי לְדַעְתָּם הַוָּלָד נוֹצַר מִדַּם הַנְּקֵבָה וּמִלֹּבֶן הָאִישׁ וְלִשְׁנֵיהֶם יִקְרְאוּ זֶרַע. וְכָךְ אָמְרוּ (שם), שְׁלֹשָׁה שֻׁתָּפִין יֵשׁ בּוֹ בָּאָדָם, אִישׁ מַזְרִיעַ בּוֹ לֹבֶן שֶׁמִּמֶּנּוּ גִּידִים וַעֲצָמוֹת וְלֹבֶן שֶׁבָּעַיִן, אִשָּׁה מַזְרַעַת אֹדֶם שֶׁמִּמֶּנּוּ עוֹר וּבָשָׂר וָדָם וְשֵׂעָר וְשָׁחוֹר שֶׁבָּעַיִן. וְגַם דַּעַת הָרוֹפְאִים בַּיְּצִירָה כָּךְ הִיא. וְעַל דַּעַת פִילוֹסוֹפֵי הַיְּוָנִים כָּל גּוּף הָעֻבָּר מִדַּם הָאִשָּׁה, אֵין בּוֹ לָאִישׁ אֶלָּא הַכֹּחַ הַיָּדוּעַ בִּלְשׁוֹנָם הִיּוּלִי, שֶׁהוּא נוֹתֵן צוּרָה בַּחֹמֶר, כִּי אֵין בֵּין בֵּיצַת הַתַּרְנְגֹלֶת הַבָּאָה מִן הַזָּכָר לְנוֹלֶדֶת מִן הַמִּתְפַּלֶּשֶׁת בֶּעָפָר שׁוּם הֶפְרֵשׁ, וְזוֹ תְּגַדֵּל אֶפְרוֹחַ וְזוֹ לֹא תִזָּרַע וְלֹא תַצְמִחַ בְּהִמָּנַע מִמֶּנָּה הַחֹם הַיְּסוֹדִי שֶׁהוּא לָהּ הִיּוּלִי. וְאִם כֵּן יִהְיֶה מִלַּת "תַּזְרִיעַ" כְּמוֹ "זֵרוּעֶיהָ תַצְמִיחַ" (ישעיהו סא יא). וְכֵן אָמַר אוּנְקְלוֹס (תרגום אונקלוס על ויקרא י"ב:ב') "אֲרֵי תְעַדֵּי":
(1) Now with regard to the implication of the verse the Rabbis have said: “Ishah ki thazria — if the woman emits seed first, she will bear a son.” The intent of the Rabbis was not that the child is formed from the woman’s seed, for although the woman has generative organs [i.e., ovaries] like those of the man, yet seed is not formed by them at all, or [if it is formed], that seed is not thick and does not contribute anything to the embryo. Rather, the Rabbis used the term “she emits seed” with reference to the blood of the womb, which gathers in the mother at the time of the consummation of coition, and attaches itself to the seed of the male. For in the opinion of the Rabbis the child is formed from the blood of the female and the white [semen] of the man, and both of them are called “seed.” Thus the Rabbis have said: “There are three partners in [the formation of] man: The male emits the white [semen], from which are formed the sinews, the bones, and the white substance in the eye. The female emits a red secretion from which are formed the skin, the flesh, the blood, the hair, and the black substance in the eye.” The opinion of doctors as to the formation [of the embryo of the child] is also the same. In the opinion of the Greek philosophers, however, the whole body of the child is formed from [the substance of] the blood of the mother, the father only contributing that generative force which is known in their language as hyly, which gives form to matter. For there is no difference at all between the egg of a chicken which is laid because it was fructified by a male, and that laid as a result of the mother rolling herself in the dust, except that the egg [that had been fructified by a male] germinates into a young bird, while the other is not sown, nor beareth, because it is deprived of the elemental heat which is its hyly. And if so, the word tazria [in ishah ki thazria] will be like u’cheganah zeiru’eha thatzmiach (as the garden causeth the seeds that are sown in it to spring forth). And so did Onkelos render it: “If a woman conceives.”
(א) לֹא טוֹב הֱיוֹת הָאָדָם לְבַדּוֹ אֵינֶנּוּ נִרְאֶה שֶׁנִּבְרָא הָאָדָם לִהְיוֹת יָחִיד בָּעוֹלָם וְלֹא יוֹלִיד, שֶׁכָּל הַנִּבְרָאִים זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה מִכָּל בָּשָׂר נִבְרְאוּ לְהָקִים זֶרַע, וְגַם הָעֵשֶׂב וְהָעֵץ זַרְעָם בָּהֶם. אֲבָל יִתָּכֵן לוֹמַר כִּי הָיָה כְּדִבְרֵי הָאוֹמֵר (ברכות סא) דּוּ פַּרְצוּפִים נִבְרְאוּ, וְנַעֲשׂוּ שֶׁיִּהְיוּ בָּהֶם טֶבַע מֵבִיא בְּאֵבְרֵי הַהוֹלָדָה מִן הַזָּכָר לַנְּקֵבָה כֹּחַ מוֹלִיד, אוֹ תֹּאמַר זֶרַע כְּפִי הַמַּחְלֹקֶת הַיָּדוּעַ בָּעִבּוּר, וְהָיָה הַפַּרְצוּף הַשֵּׁנִי עֵזֶר לָרִאשׁוֹן בְּתוֹלַדְתּוֹ, וְרָאָה הקב"ה כִּי טוֹב שֶׁיִּהְיֶה הָעֵזֶר עוֹמֵד לְנֶגְדּוֹ, וְהוּא יִרְאֶנּוּ וְיִפָּרֵד מִמֶּנּוּ וְיִתְחַבֵּר אֵלָיו כְּפִי רְצוֹנוֹ, וְזֶהוּ שֶׁאָמַר "אֶעֱשֶׂה לּוֹ עֵזֶר כְּנֶגְדּוֹ".
(1) IT IS NOT GOOD THAT THE MAN SHOULD BE ALONE. It does not appear likely that man was created to be alone in the world and not beget children since all created beings — male and female of all flesh — were created to raise seed. The herb and trees also have their seed in them. But it is possible to say that it was in accordance with the opinion of the Rabbi who says: “Adam was created with two faces [i.e., male and female persons combined],” and they were so made that there should be in them an impulse causing the organs of generation to produce a generative force from male to female, or you may say “seed,” in accordance with the known controversy concerning pregnancy, and the second face was a help to the first in the procreative process. And the Holy One, blessed be He, saw that it is good that “the help” stand facing him, and that he should see and be separated from it or joined to it at his will. This is the meaning of what He said in the verse, I will make him a helper opposite him.
וּמִי מַהֲנֵי רַחֲמֵי? וְהָאָמַר רַב יִצְחָק בְּרֵיהּ דְּרַב אַמֵּי: אִישׁ מַזְרִיעַ תְּחִלָּה — יוֹלֶדֶת נְקֵבָה, אִשָּׁה מַזְרַעַת תְּחִלָּה — יוֹלֶדֶת זָכָר. שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״אִשָּׁה כִּי תַזְרִיעַ וְיָלְדָה זָכָר״! הָכָא בְּמַאי עָסְקִינַן — כְּגוֹן שֶׁהִזְרִיעוּ שְׁנֵיהֶם בְּבַת אַחַת.
The Gemara asks: Is prayer effective for that purpose? Didn’t Rav Yitzḥak, son of Rav Ami, say: The tradition teaches that the gender of the fetus is determined at the moment of conception. If the man emits seed first, his wife gives birth to a female; if the woman emits seed first, she gives birth to a male, as it is stated: “When a woman emitted seed and bore a male” (Leviticus 12:2). The Gemara answers: With what are we dealing here? We are dealing with a case where they both emit seed simultaneously. In that case, the gender is undetermined and prayer may be effectual.
Under Jewish law a wife’s contentment is the key to sexual harmony, as sex is the most central element of marriage. The Bible, in fact, records three fundamental unqualified rights a woman possesses in marriage: food, clothing/shelter, and conjugal rights. But only if either husband or wife withholds sex from the other over a period of time are they immediately dubbed to be a mored, or moredes, a rebellious spouse. A Jewish court would grant the aggrieved party an immediate divorce. “This is because onah [the sexual rights],” the rabbis explain, “is the essence of marriage, and to withhold romance and sex from a spouse is to cause them physical pain. Food and clothing can be handled in court, but a withdrawal from onah is a functional termination of married life.”
For a man to have sex with his wife without affording her pleasure is an abuse. The rabbis wrote about sex that the “mitzvah of onah” (conjugal relations) is regarded as both a need and a pleasure especially of women (this is stated by the Ravad in his work Baalei Hanefesh, in the chapter Shaar Hakedushah). Boteach, Shmuley. Kosher Sex: A Recipe for Passion and Intimacy(p. 100). S
On the respective functions of the two sexes man has entertained a great variety of beliefs. At first they had no scientific basis, simply reflecting social myths. It was long thought – and it still is believed in certain primitive matriarchal societies – that the father plays no part in conception. Ancestral spirits in the form of living germs are supposed to find their way into the maternal body. With the advent patriarchal institutions, the male laid eager claim to his posterity. It was still necessary to grant the mother a part in procreation, but it was conceded only that she carried and nourished the living seed, created by the father alone. Aristotle fancied that the foetus arose from the union of sperm and menstrual blood, woman furnishing only passive matter while the male principle contributed force, activity, movement, life. Hippocrates held to a similar doctrine, recognising two kinds of seed, the weak or female and the strong or male. The theory of Aristotle survived through the Middle Ages and into modern times.
According to the Platonic myth, there were at the beginning men, women, and hermaphrodites. Each individual had two faces, four arms, four legs, and two conjoined bodies. At a certain time they were split in two, and ever since each half seeks to rejoin its corresponding half. Later the gods decreed that new human beings should be created through the coupling of dissimilar halves. But it is only love that this story is intended to explain; division into sexes is assumed at the outset. ... St Thomas proclaims woman an ‘incidental’ being, which is a way of suggesting – from the male point of view – the accidental or contingent nature of sexuality.
Under these imaginative hypotheses, woman was restricted to the nourishment of an active, living principle already preformed in perfection. These notions were not universally accepted, and they were argued into the nineteenth century.
Today one notes an opposite tendency on the part of some scientists. The discoveries made in the course of experiments on parthenogenesis have led them to reduce the function of the sperm to that of a simple physico-chemical reagent. It has been shown that in certain species the stimulus of an acid or even of a needle-prick is enough to initiate the cleavage of the egg and the development of the embryo. On this basis it has been boldly suggested that the male gamete (sperm) is not necessary for reproduction, that it acts at most as a ferment; further, that perhaps in time the co-operation of the male will become unnecessary in procreation – the answer, it would seem, to many a woman’s prayer.
Thus the egg – active in its essential feature, the nucleus – is superficially passive; its compact mass, sealed up within itself, evokes nocturnal darkness and inward repose. It was the form of the sphere that to the ancients represented the circumscribed world, the impenetrable atom. Motionless, the egg waits; in contrast the sperm – free, slender, agile – typifies the impatience and the restlessness of existence. But allegory should not be pushed too far. The ovule has sometimes been likened to immanence, the sperm to transcendence, and it has been said that the sperm penetrates the female element only in losing its transcendence, its motility; it is seized and castrated by the inert mass that engulfs it after depriving it of its tail.
I can only suppose that in such misty minds there still float shreds of the old philosophy of the Middle Ages which taught that the cosmos is an exact reflection of a microcosm – the egg is imagined to be a little female, the woman a giant egg.
The truth is that these notions are hardly more than vagaries of the mind. Male and female gametes fuse in the fertilised egg; they are both suppressed in becoming a new whole. It is false to say that the egg greedily swallows the sperm, and equally so to say that the sperm victoriously commandeers the female cell’s reserves, since in the act of fusion the individuality of both is lost.
There are two interrelated dynamic aspects of life: it can be maintained only through transcending itself, and it can transcend itself only on condition that it is maintained. We may conclude, then, that the two gametes play a fundamentally identical role; together they create a living being in which both of them are at once lost and transcended.
But the fundamental difference between male and female mammals lies in this: the sperm, through which the life of the male is transcended in another, at the same instant becomes a stranger to him and separates from his body; so that the male recovers his individuality intact at the moment when he transcends it. The egg, on the contrary, begins to separate from the female body when, fully matured, it emerges from the follicle and falls into the oviduct; but if fertilised by a gamete from outside, it becomes attached again through implantation in the uterus. First violated, the female is then alienated – she becomes, in part, another than herself. She carries the foetus inside her abdomen until it reaches a stage of development that varies according to the species
It is obvious once more that many of these traits originate in woman’s subordination to the species, and here we find the most striking conclusion of this survey: namely, that woman is of all mammalian females at once the one who is most profoundly alienated (her individuality the prey of outside forces), and the one who most violently resists this alienation; in no other is enslavement of the organism to reproduction more imperious or more unwillingly accepted. Crises of puberty and the menopause, monthly ‘curse’, long and often difficult pregnancy, painful and sometimes dangerous childbirth, illnesses, unexpected symptoms and complications – these are characteristic of the human female.
This accounts for our lengthy study of the biological facts; they are one of the kys to the understanding of woman. But I deny that they establish for her a fixed and inevitable destiny. They are insufficient for setting up a hierarchy of the sexes; they fail to explain why woman is the Other; they do not condemn her to remain in this subordinate role for ever.