postpartum depression

I would continue with the kiruv story however, he stopped asking me any worth mentioning questions. Therefore ill write something else this week and return to the kiruv story if and when it unfolds.

I would like to say my very own chiddush this week. I ran it by my Rabbi and he said that it sounds good (coming from him that’s a lot).

It all started because I was thinking of my upcoming baby while I was praying. I am not sure why I thought about this it just came into my head all at once. I even thought I could use my chiddush to explain why the parah adumah (red heifer) happens (my rabbi said it does not so I will leave it out). Later on I started taking this too far and thought It might even help explain postpartum depression. Maybe it does you tell me.

First, a few questions: why does a lady that gives birth to a boy spend less time being tamei (impure) in regard to eating sacrifices compared to one who has a girl?

Why is a dead body impure?

Why is a man impure after emitting seed?

Why is a lady impure during menstruation?

We must understand that the concepts of tumah and tahara are all chukim (laws without reasons…). I will attempt to give an analogy to help us better understand the tumah process. A fire does not lose its flame when it is passed from one candle to another. This is why the Torah is compared to a flame. One can teach it to anybody and everybody and lose nothing. My chiddush is that tumah and tahara are more like a living person if you give part of it away you are now lacking it i.e. cut my arm off, no more arm. Furthermore, in order for a person to recover from the trauma they need to work on it. They must wash and clean it, give it time to heal, and, if need be, take drastic measures to prevent contamination and further damage. When something pure (tahor) is taken from a person they are automatically relatively less pure. They must now go through a process in order to return to their original level of purity.

Let us plug in this idea to the questions:

Why is a dead body impure? The soul left the body, therefore what is left is impure.

Why is a man impure after emitting seed? Seed is part of a soul so you are impure and need to wait till the evening after dipping in the mikva before you can return to your previous level.

Why is a lady impure during her period? Same as above the egg is released by the body and has lost something holy.

Why does a lady that gives birth to a boy spend less time being tamei (impure) in regard to eating sacrifices compared to one who has a girl? This question is more involved. How can we plug in the same equation and get to different levels of tumah. I believe the answer lies in the fact that a girl is holier than a boy (maybe this is evident by the fact that men need to be further processed than woman when they are born i.e. they need to be circumcised). So when a mother gives birth to a girl she just separated from a super holy thing, a complete soul. Realize that the baby is not tameh when born just the mother because the baby is the holy entity. A boy on the other hand still needs to be circumcised and is therefore “less holy” and will cause the mother to be less tameh.

For the finale…

Postpartum depression might have a spiritual aspect to it. Maybe the mother’s soul feels a loss and this manifests into a seemingly meaningless sadness (she should be happy, she had a baby). What we need to understand is that it will take time to recover just as it takes time to return to a pure state. Also one might think that the mother should spend less time with the baby. I think it’s the exact opposite. The baby should be held close so the soul can “see” that what it gave up is so precious and important and maybe it will be consoled.