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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]How common are the 'purity' ceremonies for women in the orthodox community?

Do you believe that the orthodox Jewish faith is more or less supportive of women's rights than other orthodox denominations?[/quote]

[b]I've never heard of a "purity ceremony".  Married jewish women are required to immerse in a ritual bath after their periods before they can have sex with their husbands.  Almost every orthodox married woman I know does this.[/b].[/quote]

Dontcha think that indicates that there's some kind of.... hangup?  Going on there?  I mean a religion that actually requires washing your "hoo-hoo" (to borrow a phrase from the political forum) before sex?  Because, menstuation, ick!

While a good idea and one I personally engage in, having a religion dictate it?  Really?  [/quote]

Ritual baths are not to remove physical impurities, but rather to remove spiritual impurities. Before immersing, one must already be completely clean having soaked in a bath and removed all make-up, dirt, nail polish, etc.  The concept stems from the spiritual impurity of death. Since every egg is a potential life, every period is sort of a death, in that it was a loss of potential life. The mikvah (ritual bath) cleanses the spirit, not the body.

Orthodox judaism dictates basically every aspect of my life, this is just one more thing.[/quote]

But when this rule was created, people didn't know about eggs, right?  And if it's a spiritual impurity, why doesn't focus solely on prayer or burning incense?  Is there any male impurity that requires bathing?  And, I recall in Leviticus lots of other rules about mentruation.  Do you have to follow all of them?  I think there were rules about burning sacrifices after childbirth.  Also, why do you think a woman is "ritually unclean" for a longer period of time after giving birth to a female child vs. a male child?

Also is it true the men won't shake a woman's hand because she might be menstruating?

http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/says_about/menstruation.html

http://www.enduringword.com/commentaries/0312.htm[/quote]

Lots of questions here, I'll try to answer them as best I can.

Many laws in judaism involve a physical act, rather than simply prayer.  Since birth and sex are both physical acts, the way to prepare for them is through a physical act and as someone who follows this tradition, I can tell you from personal experience that its a lot more significant and meaningful than a prayer would be.  Another example would be that before Yom Kippur, there is a tradition to take a live chicken (or nowadays most people use money) and swing it over your head while reciting a prayer for forgiveness. The physical act makes the prayer more concrete.

There is no current requirement for men to immerse in a mikvah but many do before the High Holidays and some even on a weekly basis before the Sabbath.  Back in the time of the Holy Temple, the High Priest 9Cohen Gadol) used to immerse before performing certain sacrifices.

The rule of burning a sacrifice after childbirth is based on the assumption that women often make promises/swear during childbirth, i.e. "I will never do this again!!", and after someone makes a false promise (man or woman), a sacrifice is necessary.

The longer wait after a girl has been explained to me before, but I've never 100% understood it. Here is a link to a Jewish website, which answers the question.  http://www.yoatzot.org/question.php?id=5032.  The link you posted discussed Original Sin, which is a Christian concept and makes me assume that the explanations were not from a Jewish source.

Regarding shaking hands, there are some orthodox men who will not touch women at all, even to shake their hands.  Its not related to menstruation, rather to a belief that no touch is permissible outside of marriage or family.  Most men who work in the modern world will shake hands even if they otherwise follow this rule to prevent the embarrassment of the other person, who probably didn't know.

However, when a wife is menstruating or before she has immersed in the mikvah, under strict Jewish law, her husband is not permitted to shake her hand or touch her in any way.  This is simply a prohibition against sex taken to an stringency under the premise that husbands and wives cant touch without wanting to have sex (clearly the rabbis hadn't been to my house!)
The separation leading up to the mikvah is said to have many psychological benefits as it gives the couple a chance to miss each other and basically renew their passion on a monthly basis.  Its very challenging and when we got married, our rabbi basically told us to "do our best", although many rabbis are much stricter about it.

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