Yevamot II 74: The Search for Internal Consistency; Ritual Purity Following Childbirth

The Gemara continues its analysis of those who are not permitted to partake of consecrated foods.  The rabbis consider different tithes: animal tithes, consumed by the person offering those tithes, are different from second tithes, for example.  The rabbis compare an uncircumcised man to a zav and consider stringencies based on that comparison.

The rabbis are searching for some internal consistency.  If second tithes are surrounded by certain halachot in one situation, we should be able to identify similar halachot in other situations.  And if two situations are similar, the halachot should be consistent between them.  However, this system is short of perfect.  

For someone like myself who does not assume that the Torah was actually G-d's word but, instead, an amalgam of different inspired writers, I cannot fathom that a perfect system exists.  Instead I believe that the rabbis - and others - can interpret based on our knowledge and our interests.  In doing so, they find metaphors and connections that validate their understandings.  So the effort that is spent on finding connections between the Temple rites and the rites of yibum is not as exciting for me as it is for others.  Though the sheer human drive for connection is quite powerful.

The rabbis look at halachot regarding the zav and the leper as they attain ritual purity.  There is significance in the setting sun (which permits partaking of teruma), immersion (which allows partaking of the second tithe), and bringing offerings (which allows partaking of sacrificial foods).  But each is required for different states of ritual impurity, from being a zav to being a woman who has gone through childbirth.

Specific consideration is given to women who have gone through childbirth. Since in Leviticus 12:4 we learn that she is impure until "the days of her purification are completed", must she go through immersion or bring an offering?  Is the passage of time enough?  Leviticus 12:8 adds a stringency, teaching that a priest must make such a woman pure.  Abaye interprets this to mean that the new mother can access teruma after immersion and then sunset, in accordance with 12:4.  After the priest purifies her, she can access sacrificial food.

The rabbis find this interpretation difficult.  Shouldn't teruma require the greater stringency?  They suggest alternative interpretations to this end. And so our rabbis begin and end this daf with their search for internal consistency.