Reframing Tumah
As we enter into our next phase of journeying together, we turn our attention to tumah. exploring the concept of tumah is central to understanding jewish perspectives on menstruation. according to the book of Leviticus, menstrual bodies enter a state of tumah at the beginning of their bleeding and remain in this state for seven days.
the widespread translation and interpretation of tumah as ‘impure’ - and it’s complement, tahara, as ‘pure’ - has obscured and denigrated the sacredness, power and importance of menstrual cycles in later jewish texts and for bleeding bodies and those who love them.
when we consider common strands of the bodies which leviticus recounts as being in a state of tumah, a unifying feature is that each are in liminality, an experience of being between the worlds, close to the boundaries where life and death kiss. in addition to menstruants, those named as in states of tumah include post-partum bodies / bodies that have just given birth, bodies that have come near to dead bodies, and bodies that have experienced seminal emissions during sleep / wet dreams. these states are each exemplified by, or accompanied by heightened energetic sensitivity. these are moments of in-between. moments of great opening. moments beyond the norm. understanding bodies in tumah, including the bleeding body, to be liminal, rather than impure, is a foundational reframe from the way menstruation has been parsed - at least on the surface - in jewish contexts for at least two thousand years.
Prohibitions/Sacred Prescriptions
Leviticus states (chapter 12 verse 4) that those in tumah are not to enter the temple. rabbinic interpretation suggests that this is because menstruants are impure and their energy defiles the sacred space. what if the reason for menstruants not entering the temple is because bleeding bodies are themselves temples and are vessels for divinity? how would that change our experience of menstruation? what if they are so energetically potent that it wouldn’t serve to have them in the communal prayer space?
leviticus continues (chapter 15) that those in a state of tumah are not to make khatat, or bring-close, offerings until the conclusion of their menstruation / seven days after their blood began. khatat offerings - in which a priest kills an animal and offers it up to Source - are usually mistakenly translated as sin-offerings. again, rabbinic interpretation explains that this is a prohibition because menstruants are in a state of impurity and should not make offerings to or seek connection with the sacred in this state.
what if there was no need for menstruants to make external offerings, or to seek additional closeness with Source, because we are making blood offerings from our very own bodies and are already experiencing intimate connection with the sacred? how does this impact our relationship with bleeding time? how does this affect our understanding of offering practice? does this inform an understanding of practices of making menstrual blood offerings to the earth?
perhaps for bleeding ones, the intermediaries and intercessors often called upon for spiritual support in connecting with divinity are not necessary, for when one is menstruating we are in a state of heightened connection with sacred presence.
Questions for Reflection
Are there ways you have understood, or understand, the experience of menstruation, or menstrual blood itself to be impure?
If so, where did those beliefs or feelings come from? How have they shaped your menstrual experience, and your experience of your body overall?
If so, has this generated feelings of shame, hiding, disgust or any difficult emotions?
If you haven’t related to menstruation as impure or unclean, what is your understanding and experience of menstruation, and where did or does that understanding source from?
Consider ways that you experience menstruation as a liminal state, an experience of being beyond ordinary reality, or crossing the boundaries of space and time? Are there ways you are in heightened sensitivity or a between-the-worlds awareness?
If so, does that experience feel additionally attuned to the sacred?
If so, what helps you tend well in the liminality - what are practices that support you being well between-the-worlds?
Sacred Separation/Niddah
Additional verses in Leviticus support this possible understanding of tumah as a sacred and liminal space of divine closeness. Leviticus 15:24 reads “And if a man lies…with her, so that her tumah is upon him, he will remain [in his tumah] for seven days.” Rabbinic interpretation parses this as an instruction to avoid intimate relations with menstruating ones, again, because of the menstruant’s impurity. yet when we consider tumah as a state of liminality this passage takes on more texture. One possible reading is that any person who engages intimately with one who is in a liminal state or a space of attunement/at-one-ment with Source will find themselves drawn into a similar state of divine connection and liminality - something that isn’t to be entered lightly, something that sets them apart, too.
Bleeding ones / those in a state of tumah are considered to be in a time of niddah, separation. A reframing of tumah invites a reframing of niddah, a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the power and possibilities in separation. Another way of relating to niddah is that those who aren’t bleeding would do well to leave a wide berth around those in such a heightened state of connection, that we may focus fully on menstrual process and spirit-connection.
Levitical teachings on the tumah of menstruants concludes with the passage in Lev. 15:31 “You are to have the children of Israel avoid/consecrate their tumah, that they not die from their tumah.” This passage is read (translating v’hizartem as “avoid“) by the rabbis as addressing ‘pollution’ of menstrual blood. Yet if v’hizartem is translated as ‘consecrate’, to make sacred, this passage recalls the preceding story of Aaron’s sons'. In this recounting, Nadav and Avihu drew near came near to the strange fire, and in drawing near were consumed by this closeness to Source and returned to the realm of spirit.
This concluding proscription suggests that rather than tumah increasing the danger of death because of impurity, we must take care to honor the sacred potential of states of tumah, that we do not draw so near to Source that it becomes difficult to return to embodied presence. And that those who are in deeply liminal states should have the space around them they need to navigate between the worlds and return well.
Bleeding Sabbath
When I first began consciously honoring my menstruation, creating particular boundaries and practices emerged by necessity. Listening to the needs and desires of my bleeding body, I slowed down, created space around me, and disconnected from my regular routines. These boundaries and practices wove what I understood to be a bleeding sabbath, a time of rest and renewal and attending to the sacred.
My initial bleeding sabbath practices were extreme - for three days I wouldn’t work, wouldn’t speak to men, would only eat red foods and wear red clothes and consume media created by women. At the point in my life I began bleeding sabbath, my menstruation was particularly physically intense - my womb contracted fiercely and often painfully, and my body needed the deep space of calm and rest, needed me to not override it’s experience and push to go about my regular work and play. Time after time, I experienced a deep relaxing in my body when I committed to staying in bed, or staying at home, on the first day of my moon. And time after time, I watched myself override my body’s pace - I would begin to emerge too soon, or to think of going back to my normal plans as soon as I started feeling “better” - and my womb would begin contracting again to keep me horizontal and internally focused.
Gradually, as I came into a sacred menstrual groove, my bleeding sabbaths shifted from three days to one day. In certain moments of my life when keeping a full day bleeding sabbath was challenging, I kept a few hours sabbath and even that was significant.
For many years, the opening ritual for my bleeding sabbath, shortly after my blood dropped, was changing my bedsheets to maroon bleeding sheets. At the completion of my bleeding sabbath practice, I would change the sheets again, to mark the transition.
Bleeding sabbath practice was key to me making space in my life for the sacredness of menstruation. Designating or demarcating time and space to listen deeply to my body’s needs, to honor the bleeding experience, and to allow the emergence of inner wisdom of this time - all of this has invited for me an unfolding of great power and immense healing.
Questions for Reflection
This segment of our course offers an invitation to you to consider how you spend your bleeding time, what structures you put around it, and what container supports you in greatest access to the sacred potential of this time.
what might optimal bleeding sabbath practice include for you? are there any things that you yearn for, or sense would be supportive, during your bleeding time, that you haven’t given yourself?
make a map / blueprint for menstrual sabbath practices you want to explore.
are there specific experiences, activities or ways of being you’ll embrace? are there specific experiences, activities or ways of being you’ll let go?
while you are amidst bleeding sabbath, or simply while you are bleeding, what do you want your relationship to rest to be? what do you want your relationship with work to be? what is your relationship to relationships? do you desire to be around friends, or lovers or partners or family? do you desire to be alone, or only with certain people? how will you signal to those around you, if you will, that you are in a demarcated time, and perhaps that you have particular needs?
what are the foods you will eat? if you aren’t sure yet, what will you be listening for? how will you discern what your body desires to take in? how will you discern what your body doesn’t want?
what will your relationship with media or technology and communication be? are there any additional boundaries you desire in this realm during your bleeding sabbath?
are there particular creative projects you want to engage, or places you desire to devote your energy during your blood time?
what is your sexual energy like when you are bleeding? do you desire erotic engagement with yourself or another while you are bleeding? what is your relationship to physical contact of any kind with others while you are bleeding - do you crave it? do you want space? does this vascillate depending on the moment of your cycle?
Shabbat, Menstruation, and the Moon
When I first returned to Judaism, as an adult, I was given the assignment in my Jewish Renewal class to keep Shabbat. Our class met on a Wednesday and I distinctly remember going home with this assignment, and when Friday rolled around, having no idea what to do. I was resistant to the idea of Shabbat, didn’t understand the why of demarcating time in a special way with prescribed behaviors around it. I felt confused at how to access a sense of the sacred in time, and was not at all convinced of the relevance or power of Shabbat practice. I felt that I didn’t understand how to access it, until I realized the ways I already knew an enormous amount about sabbath practice, from my experience with bleeding sabbath. I applied what I knew about bleeding sabbath - about the importance of marking boundaries in time, and marking boundaries around certain actions. I understood prioritizing what I wanted to pay attention to, and choosing with care what I was embracing for a given period of time, and what I was letting go of or not engaging. my bleeding sabbath practice became a energetic guide for me in understanding how to engage Shabbat. as i felt the connection between bleeding sabbath practice and Shabbat practice, an embodied knowing around the lunar calendaring of Shabbat came into my awareness.
When I first began to observe Shabbat, I also felt confused by it being located in time from Friday sundown to after Saturday sundown. I was clear that my ancestors were keeping Shabbat long before the existence of the Julian calendar. I understood that they were keeping Shabbat according to the cycles of the moon - every seven-ish days ... each new, first quarter, full and last quarter moon. Shabbat’s cycling in this way, rooting in lunar sabbath practice, has it’s origins as a menstrual holiday. With many bleeding bodies living away from artificial light, and bleeding in synchrony, new moon was a time when many menstruated. New moon, as I understand it, was the original first Shabbat, a time of blood. Seven days later, with the waxing half moon, Shabbat was honored again. Seven days later, with the swollen full moon, Shabbat was honored yet again. Seven days later, with the waning / last quarter moon, Shabbat was honored yet again. The moon was the calendar in the cosmos, and the clock in the body. For many years, I’ve sought source-texts for this inner knowing. The closest I’ve come is when a friend pointed me to a text in which the prophet Elisha recounts connections between Shabbat and the new moon as connected. But more powerful than this textual remnant is the deep and resonant “yes that makes so much sense to me” I often encounter from those around me when I share my desire to keep Shabbat with the moon.
What are ways for you that Shabbat practice and bleeding sabbath practice feel connected? Do you have an existing Shabbat practice, or an existing bleeding sabbath practice? If so, what are ways they are similar? What are ways they are different? What needs do each meet? What gifts to each give? What edges do each present?
Are there ways you would like to be attending more fully to sabbath practices of body and blood or of Jewish cycles of time? What will help you engage this?
This is our inquiry for this next moon phase, and for the duration of our time together.