After the clean and unclean edibles chapter (11), the law of clean and unclean extends now to people, starting with pregnant women. Chapter twelve is primarily about childbirth and the period of uncleanliness that attends to both the mother and the child wether male or female (if distinguishable)...
LEVITICUS 12:2,4-5
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean.I am sure you would like me to dig into the chauvinism of this section in that when a female is born there is a period of uncleanliness, for both the mother and daughter, which is double that of a male child; interesting as that may be, I am not going to throw my two bits at the cosmic reasoning of God. What I will do, however, is jump all over the symbolism of the number 40 again (see An Arc-Cotangent Irreducible Number).
4 And she shall then continue in the blood of her purifying three and thirty days; she shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying be fulfilled.
5 But if she bear a maid child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her separation: and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying threescore and six days.
Right then, here we see the biblical conundrum (the number 40) creep onto the pages again, cleverly disguised as two equations:
- When the woman gives birth she must wait 7-days then an additional 33-days if her child is male...insert the clicks of my trusty abacus here, and...yes, as I thought, 40-Days!
- If the child were female then the mother must wait two-weeks (14-days) and then an additional "...threescore and six days (26-days)." Toss that jumble of numbers into your calculation blender and what do you get, 80-days or two periods of 40-days!
As for relevance...I have none at this time...
~Kipling
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