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The beginning of Parshat Tazria/Metzora begins with an inequality: when a woman gives birth to a son she is טמאה a word I think no translation does justice to (generally “impure” or “unclean”) with him for 7 days until his
brit milah and then she remains טמאה, for an additional 33 days.[2] For a daughter the numbers are doubled: the woman is טמאה for 14 days and then has an additional 66 days of being טמאה.[3] Why is this the case? I have often said tongue-in-cheek that women love their daughters so much that it is that much harder to part with them-the daughter gets to stay alone with her mother for 14 days as opposed to the son which is only 7 days. Howeve