wendiesan
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WTF, why exactly would this work for their marriage? Is birthing a girl harder on your vagina that birthing a boy??????
This comes from the old misogynistic traditions held by various religions about the relative purity of men and women, and how you should come to whatever designated holy place for some holy ceremony only if you are "clean".
Women were considered to be unclean--more of the earth--than men who were seen to be more than of the spirit. A woman's menstrual cycle, her stages of pregnancy, and the stages of giving birth were held by many religious organizations as proof a woman's uncleanness. In order to preserve the cleanliness, thus the holiness, of these "holy" places, restrictions were put on the behaviour of both the men and women who attended the rituals performed there.
http://www.thebodyissacred.org/body/childbirth.asp
So, for instance, still, among some Orthodox Jewish sects, men cannot touch their wives when the women are having their periods. The women have to be very careful not to contaminate their husbands.
According to Deborah Feldman,
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/fa...t-sex-pedophilia-and-dating-non-jews-345.htmlFor two weeks every month, he cant touch you. He cant hand you a glass, even if your fingers dont touch. He has to put it down on the table and then you pick it up. Secondary contact cant happen. If youre sitting on a sofa, you have a divider between you.
In the Middle Ages, this need for ritual purity led to laws that menstruating or pregnant women or women after childbirth could not enter a church. http://www.womenpriests.org/traditio/unclean.asp In fact, along with suicides and robbers, women who died while pregnant, or in childbirth, and unbaptised children were denied the right to burial in sanctified ground. The unspeakable cruelty of keeping things pure. ttps://books.google.ca/books?id=Ap4jTVHtcT0C&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq=burial+of+unbaptised+babies&source
So, why was a woman eligible to be considered ritually clean 40 days after the birth of a son and 80 following the birth of a daughter? There are different theories, so here are a couple of explanations.
http://www.chabad.org/library/artic...l-purity-after-birth-of-males-and-females.htmAfter having given birth to a baby boy, a woman must wait a minimum of seven days before beginning her pure days; while after a baby girl is born, she must wait a minimum of fourteen days. Since the female child inherently carries a higher degree of holiness, due to her own biological, life creating capability, a greater void, or tumah, remains after her birth. Thus, the greater tumah after a baby girl's birth reflects her greater capacity for holiness (due to her creative powers) and necessitates the longer wait to remove this ritual impurity.
http://www.enduringword.com/commentaries/0312.htma. If she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks: The time period for each phase was double of that when giving birth to a son. For a the birth of a daughter, a woman was unclean for 14 days followed by 66 days.
b. She shall continue in the blood of her purification sixty-six days: The longer period of ceremonial uncleanness for the birth of a daughter should not be understood as a penalty. Instead, it is linked to the idea stated in the previous verses - that the time of impurity is for the symbolic responsibility of bringing other sinners into the world. When giving birth to a female, a mother brings a sinner into the world who will bring still other sinners into the world.
i. Some also suggest the longer period of time in connection with the birth of a girl was because girls are usually smaller at birth, and this would allow more time for the mothers focused care and attention on the child. As well, since sons were more prized, the longer time at home for a mother with a new born girl would force the family to bond more deeply, over a more extended period of time with the new born girl.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejo...rds-sex-regulations.html#sthash.LFBYXLrr.dpufThis one demands more explanation for the casual reader. I mean, what is this 80 days and 40 days thing? Why does the gender of a child matter? And what is with the reference to seven daysare Michelles periods seven days long? With my background, though, I knew what was going on the moment I read this. It seems that the Duggars adhere to Bill Gothards sex regulations, which are loosely based on Leviticus 12 and Leviticus 15and they think you should too. (Bill Gothard, as you will remember, is fast being engulfed in scandal over accusations that he is a serial child molester.) Just what are these sex regulations exactly?
At his Advanced Seminars in 1983, Gothard introduced sex regulations based upon Old Testament commands. Under the session titled Six Purposes, Principles, and Keys To Fulfillment In The Marriage Relationship, he told married couples to abstain from physical relations: 1. During the wifes menstrual cycle; 2. Seven days after the cycles; 3. 40 days after the birth of a son; 4. 80 days after the birth of a daughter; and 5. The evening prior to worship.