Jewish Female Purity

 

   For this topic, I had found myself drawn to more religious rituals and the one that I had more interest in looking at was Orthodox Jews. In a sense, I have slowly learned about all the ways that Jewish people must keep themselves pure with everything they do. Therefore, my analysis is based on a sense of impurity that women must endure every month. Through a process called Niddah, female Orthodox Jews are bound to a set of rules that restricts any kind of physical contact with their husband or husband-to-be while mensurating. Taken from the Bible, women who are menstruating are considered to be impure and therefore, anything that the woman touches while in this state of impurity, is then deemed to also be impure. Upon looking for images to represent such a process, I had stumbled upon this art by the creator, Alison Judd. In this piece of art specifically, she wanted to represent what it was like to go from the process of being impure to pure through seven copper plates. The pieces that are darker are some that were dipped in acid which concealed the entire surface of the plate. While it is hard for me to understand to grasp the importance of this work as I am not Jewish, I do think that the artist leaves a lot of this piece up to interpretation based on who is viewing it. Before learning more about what the artist wanted others to at least see in this piece, I had felt that the plates represented this idea of going from pure to impure as a woman approaches her menstruation cycle and the additional seven days after that they are still considered impure. Whether my point could be considered a good interpretation, nonetheless, the art piece continues to elicit emotions about why Jewish women continue to have this practice since it is something that is bigger than themselves as humans. 

    Furthermore, after reading Mary Douglas, I was fascinated with the idea of purity, boundaries and social structure. Douglas' whole reason for writing Purity and Danger is to build off of Durkheim and his ideas about sacred and profane items. Douglas goes on to further speak about how the boundaries of the body are supposed to protect from what feels threatening and precarious. Furthermore, if each individual body in of a society is seen to be something that is more than the individual self and rather, an extension to the outside world, then of course, every person wants to hold themselves to be as clean as possible of whatever they believe in. Continuing through the reading, Douglas also talks about how cleanliness is something that continues to dictate who are able to be relieved of that fear of impurity. One of the most notable points in the Douglas article is the double standard that women are forced to abide by no matter what. As Douglas states, "Through the adultery of a wife impure blood is introduced to the lineage. So the symbolism of the imperfect vessel appropriately weighs more heavily on the women than the men" (Douglas 1966; 156). This depicts a lot of higher standards that are held against women to ensure that they continue to stay pure. However, this symbolism also signifies how women have and will always be considered second-class members to males in societal groups. 

    Thus, this idea of "purity" for women in the Orthodox Jewish community is an exact representation of how women have to put in more effort to be considered pure. Women are the ones that have to travel to the mikveh. Women are the ones who have to take the blame for causing their husbands to be impure as well if they touch while she is menstruating. This is something that can be directly correlated to the Douglas text as she had talked about the how any secretion from the body is considered to be marginal that breaks the boundary of the body. However, when it comes to males, their "precious stuff" is not considered to be impure because it can be lost whereas blood cannot. Once again, placing males and females in a hierarchy, with this specific process of menstruation, where males are to be free from these impurities while females must endure what Douglas calls "carrying away the waste matter" (153). Ultimately, this is ritual, Niddah, to "re-purify" a woman seven days after menstruation in the Jewish culture adds to the organization of our society that is larger than the individual and has existed for eons. 

Alison, Judd. nd. “Niddah (The Immersion).” Alison Judd. Retrieved April 04, 2024 (https://www.alisonjudd.com/copy-of-analog-stories-2).

Douglas, Mary. 1966. “Introduction and External Boundaries.” Pp. 1-159 in Purity and Danger: An Analysis of concept of pollution and taboo. London and New York: Routledge.