Extra Credit · Niddah 31b
English: GOD spoke to Moses, saying:
Chabad.org — Chumash, English translation + Rashi for Vayikra 12:1
In the Torah’s childbirth laws, the Gemara asks why a woman who gives birth brings an offering.
Niddah 31b
E-Daf — Niddah 31b (Tsurras Hadaf) · Shas.org — Niddah 31b (PDF) · Steinsaltz Center — Niddah 31b · Sefaria — Niddah 31b, source text and translation
English: Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai’s students asked him why a woman who gives birth brings an offering. He answered that, in the pain of labor, she may swear that she will no longer have relations with her husband; the Torah therefore requires an offering when she returns to marital life.
Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai explains the offering in relation to a vow made in the pain of labor and the woman’s later return to marital life. This is one Chazal explanation of the childbirth offering, not a replacement for the Torah’s stated sacrificial procedure.