The extraordinary importance of the laws of family purity can be appreciated only in light of the fundamental principles of Jewish law that define a woman's rights and obligations. This will enable us to see that the importance of the commandment of family purity extends far beyond the significance it has within the broader context.
A Woman's Obligations
Jewish law does not impose the same obligations on a woman as on a man. While a man is required to take upon himself the burden of the Torah's 613 commandments, as well as many laws instituted by our Sages, a woman is exempt from most of them. The criterion for whether a commandment must be observed is whether it belongs to one of two types of commandments. Every negative commandment—"do not"—is equally binding on men and women. With regard to positive commandments—"do," "perform"—however, there is a distinction between those whose observance is tied to a particular time and those that are not tied to, or dependent on, time.
For example, the prohibitions against eating nonkosher food, lying, stealing, slandering another person, and eating on Yom Kippur, being negative commandments, apply equally to men and women. A woman is also equally obligated with a man to observe certain positive commandments: to love the Almighty and stand in awe of Him, and to honor her father and mother—commandments that are not tied to a time frame and require continual observance. In contrast, women are exempt from time-bound commandments, such as blowing the shofar (on Rosh Hashanah) or putting on tefillin, which are obligatory only for men.
This criterion runs throughout the structure of halachah. What is the logic behind this distinction, which seems strange at first glance?
There are several explanations, and the most popular belongs to one of the Jewish sages of the late Middle Ages—Abudarham. He maintains that a woman's exemption from many commandments is explained by the exceptional respect for her role in the home and family. The Torah makes it easier for a woman to fulfill her responsibilities as a mother, wife, and homemaker by exempting her from those commandments assigned to a particular time. She must observe all the other commandments. For the purposes of this booklet, it is immaterial how satisfactory this explanation is.
A different approach is offered here: an explanation of the difference between the nature of men and women and, as a consequence of this difference, the different obligations imposed on them in observing the commandments. But to appreciate the proposed explanation fully, we must ask ourselves, even before considering a woman's obligations, what is distinctive about commandments whose observance is subject to time restrictions—or, in other words, what distinguishes commandments observed continually from commandments observed at particular times.
Two Kinds of Sanctity
To answer this question, we must define the distinction between two kinds of sanctity—the sanctity of time and the sanctity of place (which includes the sanctity of objects occupying a particular place in space).
Judaism places great importance on place. For example, the place where a synagogue stands is holy; the sanctity of the Land of Israel, of Jerusalem, and of the site where the Temple stood is well known. We should also mention the sanctity of certain objects, such as a properly written Torah scroll, and the "derivative" sanctity of other sacred books printed on a press.
But Judaism places even greater importance on the sanctity of time.
It is not confined to Shabbat and the festivals, but also encompasses weekdays, which can be sanctified. If the day is designated for prayer and putting on tefillin, and the evening and night for evening prayer and the observance of other commandments, this means that we sanctify day and night through the very observance of these commandments.
The sanctity of time, the awareness of the sanctity of history, holds first place in the Torah.
Immediately after the human being was created—on the sixth day—his first experience was an awareness of the sanctity of time—the sanctity of Shabbat. “And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it” (Genesis 2:3).
A person can live an entire lifetime without coming into contact with a sacred place or object. Yet if he is Jewish and has lived for a little more than a week, he has already experienced the sanctity of time. (Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch believed that circumcision takes place on the eighth day after a child's birth precisely because every infant must encounter the sanctity of Shabbat before entering the covenant of our forefather Abraham.)
The sanctity of place affects our consciousness and instills reverence in our hearts only when we are in a sacred place, whereas the sanctity of time permeates our entire lives. It gives us the knowledge that every moment is filled with possibilities truly Divine in their significance. The challenge posed by the sanctity of time follows us constantly, preventing us from sinking into the sacrilege of a life devoid of spirituality. One can take a detour around a sacred place, but one cannot escape the sanctity of time.
When the people of Israel were exiled from the Holy Land, they were torn from the holiest of places. Yet they took the commandments of the Torah—the source of the sanctity of time—with them to every corner of the earth.
The commandments make us aware of the two kinds of sanctity discussed above. Those commandments that concern the Land of Israel, the Temple, and sacred objects strengthen our sense of the sanctity of place. At the same time, the commandments associated with the sanctity of Shabbat and the festivals remind us of the sanctity of time, and each urges a person onward, bringing him into contact with the most exalted sanctity—the sanctity of time. Without these commandments, a person would never become aware of the spiritual content of sanctified time, yet time is the history of existence itself.
The Inner Rhythm
Yet everything said above applies to men, while women are exempt from observing these commandments for a simple reason: they do not need them. A woman is not required to observe time-bound commandments because she inherently experiences the sanctity of time in a far deeper, more personal and intimate way than is available to a man fulfilling the obligations placed upon him.
Unlike a man, a woman is endowed with an internal “biological clock.” The cyclical nature of physiological processes unique to women creates an internal biological rhythm inseparable from her very being. Yet unless this inner rhythm is sanctified, a woman will not experience the sanctity of time. When she observes the law of family purity, however, she makes the “biological clock” within her function in a way that allows her to begin experiencing the sanctity of time.
By observing this one commandment alone, a woman comes to understand the sanctity of time far more deeply than a man can.
Thus, a woman does not need time-bound commandments to remind her of the sanctity of time, whereas a man, who lacks an internal rhythm, must rely on numerous commandments to experience the sanctity of time.
The law of family purity is therefore a Divine gift that allows a woman to rise to the highest level of sanctity. Her experience of time—the historical arena in which God manifests His will and a person encounters his Creator—is internal rather than external.