I vaguely recall that a short while ago we had a discussion here on
the enigmatic incident at the inn on the way to Egypt, as described
in Ex. 4:25
ותיקח צפורה צור ותכרות את ערלת בנה
ותגע לרגליו ותאמר כי חתן דמים אתה לי
"Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her
son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art
thou to me"
Reading today Lev. 12:2-4
אשה כי תזריע וילדה זכר וטמאה שבעת ימים
כימי נדת דותה תטמא וביום השמיני ימול
בשר ערלתו ושלשים יום ושלשת ימים תשב
בדמי טהרה בכל קדש לא תגע ואל המקדש לא
תבא עד מלאת ימי טהרה
"If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child then she shall
be unclean seven days according to the days of the separation for her
infirmity shall she be unclean And in the eighth day the flesh of his
foreskin shall be circumcised And she shall then continue in the
blood of her purifying three and thirty days she shall touch no
hallowed thing nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her
purifying be fulfilled"
It occurred to me that this is a possible resolution to the puzzling
חתן דמים XATAN DAMIYM, namely, that a birth giving woman was
prohibited to her husband until the circumcision of her new born son
on day eight. To remove this overdue hindrance at the hotel, where
they were together at leisure, the enterprising, far from squeamish,
Ziporah did what she had to do, threw the foreskin at her husband's
feet (as was the custom?) to remind him of his conjugal obligations
as her XATAN.
Isaac Fried, Boston University
_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
