Tazria/Metzora: How Niddah Protected Women

What if the laws of niddah weren’t designed to oppress, but to protect? This article examines a leading Leviticus scholar’s theory and its implications.

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Ishu, age 14, is banished to a hut every month when she has her period, in accordance with the practice of Chhaupadi. Photo credit: Poulomi Basu / ActionAid

Tazria/Metzora: How Niddah Protected Women

According to the Written Torah, as elucidated by the Oral Torah, certain types of uterine bleeding—whether from menstruation (niddah), bleeding outside the regular time (zavah), or childbirth (yoledes)—render a woman ritually impure. A niddah remains in this state for seven days from the onset of bleeding, during which she transmits tumah (halachic impurity), and sexual relations are forbidden. Even after the seven days, marital relations remain prohibited until she immerses in a mikveh (ritual bath) and regains taharah (halachic purity). These laws are part of the Torah’s broader system of tumah and taharah, most of which relates to the Mikdash (Temple).

To the modern reader, these laws may seem primitive, excessive, or oppressive to women. But what if the truth was the opposite? What if the laws of niddah actually liberated women from the kind of oppression they would have otherwise endured? This is the theory advanced by Jacob Milgrom (1923-2010).

It’s rare for me to base the main idea of an article on the theory of a non-Orthodox scholar. Jacob Milgrom was a Conservative rabbi who accepted the documentary hypothesis—positions that would place him well outside the bounds of Orthodoxy. Even though I’m a card-carrying member of the Rambam’s “accept the truth from whoever says it” club (preface to Shemoneh Perakim), I know that might not be enough for some readers. That’s why I feel compelled to cite an endorsement from Koren Publishers, who themselves rely on an approbation by the late Prof. Yaakov Elman. In the preface to The Koren Tanakh of the Land of Israel (p.xxiv), editor Jeremiah Unterman writes:

Milgrom's three volume commentary on Leviticus was thought by the late Yaakov Elman of Yeshiva University to be “the finest commentary ever written on a book of the Torah” … Although Milgrom's theories on the dating and authorship of Leviticus are not consistent with this series' approach to the divine authorship of the Torah, the vast majority of his commentary is devoted to understanding the text and its significance. Indeed, since Milgrom's Leviticus commentary appeared, no academic scholar can write on Leviticus without relating to it. Of particular value for our concerns are his wide-ranging and judicious references to, and discussions of, ancient Near Eastern inscriptions and cultures – Hittite, Mesopotamian, Ugaritic, Phoenician, and Egyptian.

If it’s good enough for the Rambam, for Koren, for Professor Elman—and for me—it should be good enough for my readers. (And if it’s not, feel free to stop reading!)

Here is Milgrom’s commentary on niddah, as cited in Leviticus (Fortress Press, p.141), with my emphasis in bold:

The abhorrence of the menstruant is a cardinal rule among all primitive societies. Across primitive culture, the impurity extends to things she touches, such as eating and cooking utensils, weapons, food, and even footpaths. The effects of her impurity (or neglecting to distance oneself from her impurity) can be deadly: crop failures, disease, military defeat, hunting failures. Because the consequences of even accidental encounters with the menstruant are believed to be so perilous, in most primitive cultures she is isolated to protect the community.

Against the backdrop of Israel's immediate and remote contemporaries and what was probably the dominant practice within Israel itself, the Priestly legislation on the menstruant is all the more remarkable. First and foremost, she is neither banished from the community nor even isolated within her home. The implicit assumption of the pericope on the menstruant is that she lives at home, communicating with her family and performing her daily work. How is this possible, considering the severity of her impurity: even more than having a prolonged discharge, she can contaminate an object she does not even touch if her bed or seat connect with it (v. 23)? The ingenious answer … was to restrict her impurity to that which was underneath her, in effect, whatever might receive a drop of menstrual blood. Of course, she herself was rendered impure and, in turn, could render persons and objects impure. Thus anyone touching her is contaminated (v. 19b). But what if she touches someone? The text is silent. It was not silent on this matter in the case of the zav (a man who has a discharge). It stated explicitly that anyone who touches such a person becomes impure but only if one does so with unrinsed hands (v. 11). The conclusion is as inescapable as it is liberating: the menstruant may touch. As long as she is scrupulous about rinsing her hands, she may clean the house, cook and serve the food, and perform any other work. All she needs is a separate bed, a separate chair, and the discretion to stay out of her family's reach. While I do not intend to exonerate the biblical tradition for partaking in the fetishizing of menstruation, one should not pass over Israel's distinction from its contemporaries (and many modern societies) in not isolating its menstruants and in imposing nearly the same impurity rules for male genital discharges (compare vv. 1-17 with vv. 18-30).

According to Milgrom, the Torah’s goal was to counter the widespread taboos surrounding menstruation in the ancient world. As with the institutions of korbanos (sacrifices), slavery, yefas toar (the captive woman), and other entrenched ancient practices, the Torah didn’t attempt to uproot these systems outright. Instead, it mitigated and redirected them, steering those practices away from the primitive and harmful attitudes they once embodied, and toward a more humane framework for Jews and, eventually, humanity. (For an extensive treatment on this idea, check out my shiur, How the (Seemingly) Outdated Elements of Torah are Evidence of Its Perfection.)

Even though Milgrom headed the Department of Near Eastern Studies at UC Berkeley and conducted far more research on these topics than I ever will, I still wanted to see for myself. Here are a few examples I found:

• In the ancient Arab world, menstruating women were confined to a hut or tent at the outskirts of the encampment (cf. William Roberston Smith, Lectures on the Religion of the Semites. First Series: The Fundamental Institutions, 448).

• In Ancient India, early Ayurvedic medical authorities (Caraka and Susruta, c. 1^st millennium BCE) imposed restrictions on menstruating women during the first three days: no bathing, anointing, or adorning; no daytime sleep, and nighttime sleep only on a low bed of grass; a milk-only diet; and avoidance of crying, excessive speech, or loud sounds. Violating these rules was believed to harm her future child.

• Such beliefs persisted even in “sophisticated” ancient Rome. The renowned author and naturalist Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History (28:23), writes that a menstruating woman’s very presence could spoil wine, blight crops, dull metal, and even kill bees.

It’s tempting to assume these views would have faded on their own. But the persistence of similar practices and prejudices in parts of the modern world—particularly in societies untouched by the Torah or the Abrahamic religions it inspired—suggests otherwise. For example:

• The Gonds—the largest tribal group in Central India, with a population close to that of the Jews—banish menstruating women to gaokors, shacks on the outskirts of the community. These lack proper beds, clean water, working toilets, electricity, and kitchens, since menstruating women aren’t permitted to cook. Unsurprisingly, 23% of girls in India drop out of school once they begin menstruating (The Guardian and Times of India)

• The Huualu people, an indigenous group in Indonesia, exile menstruating women to huts to protect men from harm. (The Menstrual Hut and the Witch’s Lair in Two Eastern Indonesian Societies).

• In Nepal, a Hindu tradition of Chhaupadi is still practiced, despite being outlawed in 2005. Menstruating women—including young girls—are forbidden to enter their homes, cook, or touch communal food or water, and are banished to mud huts or sheds for the duration of their period or longer. It is believed they can spread harm to people, animals, and plants by mere contact. The physical and psychological toll of Chhaupadi is significant (ActionAid).

Counterfactual claims are impossible to prove. We will never know what the state of women would have been had the Torah never been introduced to humanity. But that’s not why I’ve brought Milgrom’s theory to your attention. My point is that we too often make the mistake of judging the Torah’s laws by modern values and norms, forgetting that the Torah was given to a world with radically different values and worldviews. In many cases, it is precisely because the Torah succeeded then that we have the values we do now.

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What do you think of Milgrom’s theory, or my analysis of it?

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