"Dinah, you have just delivered a beautiful baby girl. After 14 intense hours of childbirth, you have a strong, healthy daughter. Your husband was there with you and loves you more than words can describe and you now are about to begin a family. You have stolen the hearts of everyone in the community as you helped bring a new generation to our people. What are you going to do now, Dinah? Going to Disneyland?"

       "I am going to bring a sin offering to the Temple!"

        Say what?

        Didn't see that coming.

        And yet, this is how the Torah portion begins this week.  When a woman bore a child, the Torah notes: "On the completion of her period of purification... she shall bring a lamb in its first year for a burnt offering and a pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, to the priest." (Leviticus 12:6)

       Why a sin offering? What did she do wrong?

        The rabbinical commentators have struggled with this biblical passage. Why should a woman, who committed no sin during this wondrous act of childbirth, be asked to give a sin offering? An offering of thanksgiving would have been appropriate but when the very first commandment given by G-d to humanity is "Be fruitful and multiply", it is difficult to understand this puzzling requirement.

       So, do you want a good reason or the real reason for it?

        Real reason first.

        A sin offering in Temple days was offered for a whole host of iniquities, not all of which were sinful as we understand it today. Biblical scholar Baruch Levine notes that ancient societies seldom made a distinction between "sin" and "impurity". Body fluids of all sorts created ritual impurity, even those that arose from bearing a child. Childbirth was not "sinful", but the physical act created spiritual impurity and so, after a set period of time for purification, one was required to bring a sin offering. Thus, the real reason for a sin offering here is not because of any act the woman committed but how the ancient world viewed the mysteries of the human body.

       Now a good reason.

       "The students of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai asked, 'Why does the Torah teach that a woman after childbirth brings a sin offering?' He replied, 'During hard labor she cursed and screamed that she will never have sex with her husband again; therefore, the Torah requires she bring an offering.'" (Talmud Bavli, Niddah 31b)

         That's the good reason, Victor?

         Rabbi Bar Yochai offers a lesson about how to live life and understand the human condition. I don't take his words at face value and I am well aware that he, like I, have never experienced physical pain quite like childbirth. Who are we to judge what a woman goes through and whether she should have been stronger? Nevertheless, I see in Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai's words a good lesson not about what one should thinking while giving birth, but how we must try to live when experiencing great trials and difficulties. He is homiletically teaching us that even during the crucible of human existence, one must never give up on the beauty of life.

         Life is often painful and challenging. Human existence provides us all with life experiences that are both intensely difficult and immensely joyous. Sometimes, simultaneously.

        The sin, Rabbi Bar Yochai declares, is to give in to the pain and let the misery of life overwhelm us. "Atonement" here, if we can call it that, is an acknowledgement of an emotional outburst that, even understandably, must never be uttered:

         I have given up on life.

         Never.

         After the wondrous sight of a beautiful child in her arms, the woman may not be thinking of having another child just yet, but she is looking at life again as she should: from a recognition of how precious every second of life is, how joyous love and sexual intimacy can be, and how awesome it is to share life with her partner. 

         Pain be damned.