Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

I vaguely recall that a short while ago we had a discussion here on the enigmatic incident at the inn on the way to Egypt, as described in Ex. 4:25

ותיקח צפורה צור ותכרות את ערלת בנה ותגע לרגליו ותאמר כי חתן דמים אתה לי

"Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me"

Reading today Lev. 12:2-4

אשה כי תזריע וילדה זכר וטמאה שבעת ימים כימי נדת דותה תטמא וביום השמיני ימול בשר ערלתו ושלשים יום ושלשת ימים תשב בדמי טהרה בכל קדש לא תגע ואל המקדש לא תבא עד מלאת ימי טהרה

"If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child then she shall be unclean seven days according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised And she shall then continue in the blood of her purifying three and thirty days she shall touch no hallowed thing nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purifying be fulfilled"

It occurred to me that this is a possible resolution to the puzzling חתן דמים XATAN DAMIYM, namely, that a birth giving woman was prohibited to her husband until the circumcision of her new born son on day eight. To remove this overdue hindrance at the hotel, where they were together at leisure, the enterprising, far from squeamish, Ziporah did what she had to do, threw the foreskin at her husband's feet (as was the custom?) to remind him of his conjugal obligations as her XATAN.  

Isaac Fried, Boston University