Concept of Tumah (Uncleanness), Niddah

The Aish Rabbi Replies

No, not at all. The notion of tumah – spiritual uncleanness – has nothing to do with physical hygiene and certainly not Jewish misogyny. It is a much more general concept – one which also applies to women but which is not at all limited to them.

There are many situations which create tumah. Some of the primary ones are:

1. A dead body.
2. Certain dead animals.
3. A leper (metzora).
4. A man who has an emission.
5. A man who has a gonorrheal flow (zav).
6. A woman after childbirth.
7. A woman who has a period (niddah) – especially if much earlier than its expected time (zavah).
8. Certain types of contact with the ashes of the Red Cow.

The laws of tumah are extremely complex – so much so that I would not even attempt the briefest summary of them here – how tumah is transmitted, how it applies to food and utensils, its many gradations and indirect forms, the restrictions applying to a tamei person or item, how tumah applies to terumah (tithes given to the Priests) and kodshim (sacred items), the purification process, the vast world of extensions the Rabbis of the Talmud made to these principles, etc. Suffice it to say that most students of the Talmud shudder when they approach a section of the Talmud discussing such topics.

There is, however, one underlying concept which I would like to share – in response to your question. Fundamentally, tumah represents a spiritual void. When holiness departs this world, the resultant loss of sanctity creates a type of vacuum – an emptiness from the sanctity which had previously been present. And just as nature abhors a vacuum, so too such a spiritual void cannot exist. It thus becomes filled with its opposite – tumah / impurity.

This is most evident in the case of a dead body. A living person has the ability to serve God and sanctify himself. After he dies, his soul ascends to Heaven and only his lifeless corpse remains. That body, which has now lost its ability to attain holiness, becomes tamei. This is likewise true of a dead animal (unless it was slaughtered and made kosher). A dead animal has a much lower level of tumah – since its previous potential for and subsequent loss of holiness was much lesser to begin with.

The same is true of a woman after childbirth. Before her baby was born, an expectant mother contained within her a new life – a separate being which had its own potential for sanctity and spiritual growth. Now – although a healthy baby was hopefully born – the mother herself lacks the same degree of life she had earlier possessed, and that lack gives rise to tumah. Interestingly, the Torah teaches us that a postpartum mother contracts tumah for a lengthier period of time if she gives birth to a girl than if she has a boy (Leviticus 12). The reason for this is clear: When she was pregnant with a girl, she contained not only a life inside of her, but a girl who herself could potentially create more life. Thus, the tumah engendered when her baby left her is in a sense twice the tumah she contracts when she has a boy – who lacks the same ability to create new life.

Lastly, a woman who has a period suffers a similar type of loss. Beforehand, her body had prepared a lining which had the potential to carry a pregnancy and new life. Since, however, she did not conceive, the potential for life in her body is flushed away and discharged. This too represents a loss of potential life – and is cause for tumah. (It’s interesting to note that the entire phenomenon of menstruation is practically unique to human beings (and several primates). When most other animals become fertile but do not conceive, the additional blood lining their uterus is simply – and much more efficiently – reabsorbed into the body. Only human beings suffer Eve’s punishment that conception and childbirth are much more difficult today (Genesis 3:16). To a lesser extent, the same is true of a man who has an emission (even in the context of marital relations) – who too has lost some of the potential to create life his body had earlier contained.

Secular scholars generally assume that Judaism’s notion of niddah is a throwback to the taboo many primitive cultures placed on women during menstruation – who feared such women were under the influence of dark spirits or the like. But a proper understanding of the detailed laws of tumah demonstrates the profound wisdom of such Torah concepts.