Note: In this D’var Torah I will speak of “women,” but this also includes anyone of any gender who has/had the ability to menstruate.
The first time I heard anyone make a blessing for menstruation, I burst into tears. I was preparing for my first retreat at the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, listening to Rav Kohenet Taya Ma Shere (one of the institute’s co-founders)’s music as I packed. The earthy tones of Rav Kohenet Taya’s voice, accompanied by her heart-like drum beats, pulsed through the speakers of my mobile phone:
You who renew the women
As You renew the moon
Please renew my spirit
As You renew my womb
Beruchah at Shekhinah, she’astani ishah, mechadeshet et haneshamah im halevanah. [Translation: Blessed are You, Divine Presence, who made me a woman, renewing the soul with the moon.] (You can listen to the song here.)
The reason for my tears was two-fold: 1) I had gone months without menstruating for health reasons. I felt disconnected from my body. I actually missed having a period. 2) I had never thought of the act of menstruation as something that deserved a brachah, but as Rav Kohenet Taya sang in my ears, I realised that, of course, it was! There is a magic about menstruation that we often forget – perhaps, for those of us who menstruate, it is because we are caught up in its annoyances, its pain, its mess; perhaps, for all of us who live in this society, it is because it is still one of the greatest taboos, the mere mention of it provoking a strong sense of disgust. And yet, how miraculous that a human being can bleed 7 days (and sometimes more!) without dying. How miraculous that every month, within a human body, there is the potential to grow another life, and then, there is the release of that potential.
Our ancestors knew this magic well. In parashat Metzora, we read of the laws of the zavah, the woman who has a discharge of blood from her body. She enters a period of niddah (menstrual separation) and remains in a state of tumah for 7 days. I have written previously about the terms tumah and toharah, rejecting the unhelpful translations of “impurity” and “purity,” preferring to think of tumah as a human being’s brush with death and toharah as a human being’s brush with eternity. It is worth noting that parashat Metzora also discusses the zav, a male with genital discharge, who likewise enters a state of tumah. Whilst his period of tumah is much shorter (only until evening), men are not immune to tumah. There is more to these laws than a mere disgust at the female body and its workings.
It would be naive to suggest that there is no misogyny at play here; the laws of niddah and their enforcement have been used to exercise power and control over women’s bodies for millenia. However, in offering a feminist reading of the zavah, I invite us not to reject our ancestors’ sense that there was something otherworldly, uncanny, or even magical about menstruation, but rather to embrace it. Over the course of approximately a month, a woman’s body builds up the blood and tissue necessary to grow a life. Approximately once a month, if there are no cells beginning to grow, she releases that blood and tissue. It is a little death. Then, the cycle begins again. A menstruating woman’s body is thus in constant flux between toharah – a brush with eternity – and tumah – a brush with death. This, in and of itself, is worthy of great awe. Why should it not have its own blessing?
At the beginning of April, my colleague Kohenet Rachel Rose Reid and I co-led a Jewish retreat in which, in part, we explored the sanctity that Jewish tradition confers on the human body (you can read more about our work here: www.yelala.co.uk). We introduced participants to the asher yatzar blessing, the traditional Jewish prayer for going to loo. Asher yatzar explicitly celebrates the body’s many openings and hollows, considering the human body’s intricate network of systems to be miraculous in and of themselves. “If one of them is opened [when it should be closed] or one of them closed [when it should be open], it would be impossible to remain alive and stand before You.” Our tradition does not shy away from our bodies, preferring instead to marvel at their capabilities. So, let us add yet another blessing to our repertoire:
Beruchah at Shekhinah, she’astani ishah, mechadeshet et haneshamah im halevanah.
Blessed are You, Divine Presence, who made me a woman, renewing the soul with the moon.
Yael Tischler, LBC rabbinical student
The views expressed in this D’var Torah do not necessarily reflect the position of Leo Baeck College.