by dby » Sat Jul 04, 2009 10:54 pm
It is interesting to note that "ceremonial uncleanness" (Tamei) is the natural order of things and that you have to do many special things in order to achieve the state of being "clean" (Tahor).
When a child is born, the mother (and everything she touches) becomes "unclean". If the child is male then the length of time before she can become clean/Tahor is cut in half. The shedding of the blood of the son (circumcision) appears to bring her to the state of being clean faster. (An interesting spiritual picture obviously - the Blood of the Son brings us to a way in which we can be spiritually clean.)
As the child matures and starts having emissions (of either the male or female variety) - this again puts them in the state of Tamei/uncleanness every time it happens. When they get married and have sexual relations with their spouse, this again puts them in the state of Tamei/uncleanness each time. Finally they die, and their corpse renders everyone and everything in the house (other than what is in sealed containers) to be Tamei/unclean.
From the beginning to the end of life we are the primary cause of uncleanness. In fact, even within the Orthodox Jewish community, everyone is still in that state of Tamei/uncleanness because there are no ashes of the red heifer to overcome corpse uncleanness. (This is covered in the first chapter of today's Torah reading - Numbers 19). Corpse uncleanness entered in because of the sin of the first Adam which brought death into the world. Corpse uncleanness is overcome by the Resurrection of the Last Adam (Messiah). Out of the fallen Adam (all mankind) Messiah is forming the Echad Chadashah Adam (the One New Man) - a renewal of the original unfallen Adam.
But to answer the original question - yes, the command is to not have intimate relations with a woman during the time of her monthy blood flow until the days of her seperation (a higher level of holiness during which time her husband cannot come near) are complete. She goes through an immersion in water (Christians call this baptism) and she can again be intimate with her husband.
So, each month the wife is set aside for a time. Then, when this is over, she becomes "born again" (arising from the water) and returns to her husband to celebrate the honeymoon again. It is as though the wedding night is celebrated each month. Traditionally the husband takes her out for a nice meal, gives her gifts, etc.
Obviously I'm speaking from the Jewish way of looking at this. The Christian community tends to look upon the woman in a negative fashion, they don't recognize the monthy cycle as being a higher level of holiness that the woman achieves at this time - instead they would think of her as being "under the curse". So they miss the entire lesson and the picture of the Born Again experience and the rehersal for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb that this all points to.