For the source text click/tap here: Yevamot 74
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Abaye said: Two verses are written with regard to a woman after childbirth: It is written: “She shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the Sanctuary, until the days of her purification are completed” (Leviticus 12:4), which suggests that once her days are completed and the sun has set on the last day, she is completely pure and requires nothing more.
And elsewhere it is written: “And the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be pure” (Leviticus 12:8), which indicates that following childbirth a woman is not completely pure until she has brought her offerings.
How so? Here, in the first verse, it is referring to teruma; there, in the second verse, it is referring to sacrificial food.
A woman following childbirth falls into the category of one who lacks atonement, but nevertheless the verse teaches that if she has immersed, she may eat teruma after sunset.
We explore this space between purity and waiting for sunset….as well as other laws relating to childbirth and the curious struggle to determine pure blood from impure blood
even suggesting two sources (uteruses?) b. San. 87b; b. Nid. 11b, 35b-36a.
How does this fit with the ancient theories regarding “wandering uterus” described in Greek medicine all the way down to the Victorian period?
The theories of “hysteria” and the origins of neurology (Prof Charcot of the Salpetriere in Paris) will be discussed another time.