When the importance of a midwife to the procreation of the Hebrews was presented during the simulation, I was pretty skeptical about it. I did not buy that a midwife would basically orchestrate every aspect of the procreation act, and that a husband and wife had to bow to a midwife's dictates. My 21st century mind was unwilling to fully accept this concept because of the vast amount freedom experienced by modern day couples. In my mind, a midwife would only be necessary and useful after the conception of a child, such as providing help with prenatal care, labor/delivery, and teaching new mothers infant care skills. It never occurred to me that a midwife's expertise would be required before the conception!
However, my opinion of the importance of midwife in arranging the details of procreation was changed after reading Leviticus chapter 15 on laws concerning discharges causing uncleanness. Any woman who is experiencing her monthly cycle will be unclean for two weeks; therefore she is only able to become pregnant two weeks out of every month. If her husband accidently comes in touch with her during that time, depending on the contact, he runs the risk of becoming unclean for one evening to an entire week. Opps! Also, anytime a man has an “emission” with his wife, both they and their linens must be washed with water, but all will still be unclean until evening. The Israelites only had a two week window of opportunity for procreation, which even during those two weeks, the happy couple had to be careful about when and where. What if the husband was a priest, and had to be “clean” in order to make the necessary sacrifices for the community? No procreation for him!
Thus, it makes sense why the services of a midwife would be necessary to navigate the complexities of procreation and uncleanness. A husband would need to know when his wife would be “clean”, and that period of time may need to be conducive to him having time to become “unclean” and then go through the process of becoming “clean” again. One afternoon and evening may not be a big deal for an Israelite man to experience being “unclean”. However if it’s at the wrong time, he could be “unclean” for an entire week, and that could cause difficulties within the life of the community. To prevent this happening, the Israelite community employed the use of midwife to ensure that any unnecessary difficulties did not occur.
As a 21st woman and social worker, I have an extremely difficult time reading the responses to how a woman should be treated when she is a victim of rape. My strongest reaction though is to the response mandated for a betrothed woman is raped within the confines of a city. If a betrothed woman is raped while she is in a city, then she and the raper are to be stoned, she "because she was in a town and did not scream for help..." Deut. 22:24. Apparently the Israelites did not have access to Law and Order: Special Victims Unit or half of the movies on Lifetime because I can think of several instances where a victim is unable to scream for help. The threat of death, being gagged or drugged can silence the voice of a woman even in the most violent of circumstances.