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.

Rambam

Many philosophers have talked about the concept that everything in this world has a purpose. For example, upon observation of a hammer, one can see that it is obviously for banging. All tools must have a job or the craftsman wouldn't have made it. The Rambam takes this further and helps us understand why G-d created the world with so many types of plants and animals. The answer is that if you knew the different properties of everything you would understand why for example, though a plant is poisonous if you eat it, but when you use it as a cream it can heal you.
The Rambam asks a further question: why did G-d create man? One might say that man was created to eat or procreate. However, animals eat and procreate as well! Therefore, we must look at the difference between man and all other creations and see that the only real difference between man and animal is intelligence, specifically in the realms of dibbur and communication. This tells us that our whole reason for existence is to use our wisdom and refine ourselves to do more than the animals do.
The Rambam asks, if our existence is only because we have intelligence, why are some people “stupid”? It’s a good question because if a fly cannot do its job of flying in the wild it gets destroyed very quickly. People, on the other hand, can live very good lives and still not use any refined wisdom. He answers that the role of the non wise is for them to serve the wise. This means that if men would all do nothing but learn and study and grow spiritually then we would all starve to death. The world would have no roads, farms, or government. Therefore, G-d had to create some men with higher levels of wisdom than others.
This leads to one last question. If the intelligent, wise, spiritual people are supposed to be served by the non intelligent, wise, spiritual people then why are there some rich, happy, never worked a day in their lives type people that do not have an intelligent, wise, spiritual bone in their body? This can be answered with the following mashal: a Rabbi walks in the dessert until he can not walk anymore unless he gets a drink and some shade. He sees a mansion nearby with a vineyard. He musters up his last bit of energy and makes it to the shade of a massive wall. The owner, a wealthy lowlife, sees the Rabbi and gives him a drink from the grapevines. The Rabbi survived the episode only because G-d allowed an ignorant and non spiritual person to obtain a wealth large enough for him to have a massive wall and a vineyard all at exactly when it was needed.
We can now understand that every creation has a role in this world. We must use our ability to be higher than animals to serve Hashem or we are no better then a fly without wings.

Dovid Does Kiruv

This story might take a few posts because it happened over many weeks.
A classmate of mine whom i am also a good friend of recently converted to Islam. when i met him in school he was an atheistic born Jew. Every once in a while he would ask me questions about Judaism, which i did my best to answer as best as I could not thinking too much about why he asked or why he cared. one of his questions was why is the Jewish religion so exclusive? another question that he asked was If the Jews believe that the Torah is the ultimate truth and is good for mankind why don't we do missionary work or at least encourage conversion? when i found out that he converted to Islam I actually had a nightmare that night. I do not remember the dream but i do remember waking up in great distress. That morning during shacharis I shed two tears while praying for him. I decided to call him and ask why he thinks Islam is the way to go and why Judaism is wrong. I know (and he told me) that he did research and he is very smart so i knew that he would be open to discuss the whole story. After he told me his side of the story I tried answering his questions and dilemmas but i obviously did not change his mind from one phone conversation, that by the way was more than an hour long. I took his questions to many of my Rebbeim and even some professionals in this field. They gave me excellent answers that i feel made me a better Yid.
The reason i asked so many people was not because they did not have good answers. They actually all said more or less the same thing. i just wanted to be prepared to trouble shoot if he twisted things on me.
why is the Jewish religion so exclusive?
If the Jews believe that the Torah is the ultimate truth and is good for mankind why don't we do missionary work or at least encourage conversion?
The answer to both questions kind of go together so i will just write in Divar Torah format.
First of all, till the time of the Romans the Jewish people did encourage conversion and did go around telling the world about G-d and the Torah. One example is Avraham Avinu and his four door tent that he tried to tell the world about G-d. another is when Moses left Egypt he took in the Airuv Rav whom are converts even though G-d himself warned that they will cause problems later on. the reason we stopped spreading the word of G-d during the Roman empire was because that was the time when schools started. this meant that many more people could now read and write and expose themselves to the Torah. the problem was that because ten percent of the roman population converted, the Romans sent double agents to convert just so they can stop the conversions and harm us.This led the Jews to change the way we spread the word of G-d to a passive approach. we act the way we should and this leads others to ask about our refined ways and opens conversation to people that are interested. we also have a system for conversion that keeps the non sincere people from converting. and if in the long run they sin and get punished for all their new rules that they are not keeping.
as for why we are a nation of chosen people i will give one answer now and build on it next time. our forefathers passed the tests that G-d gave them and therefore merited that their children will be the chosen people. it is not of our deeds but the deeds of our forefathers that we are born Jews. again, we are only the beginning of the system and all people are invited to see the word of G-d and convert but only if they are sincere. There is a Gimarah that states the reason for the exile (into so many lands) is so that the world will be exposed to the true Torah.

mission statement

The point of this blog is so that i can share Divrie Torah with my family and friends. Hopefully I will post once a week. I am not sure as to what my exact theme is going to be. I will probably start with a personal story that got me involved with a Halachic question or Hashkafa issue and then tell you what, in my opinion we/I can learn from it.