LEV106 [The] fundamental difference between man and animal also helps answer questions about some laws of ritual impurity. Touching a dead animal causes ritual impurity for a person for one day until nightfall [this verse, Leviticus 24-26, 31, 39]. But an animal can never make anything else ritually impure as long as it is alive, as it says "whoever touches them when they are dead, shall be unclean until evening" (Leviticus 11:31). But a human being can sometimes cause ritual in purity even while alive. For example, childbirth, the very act of giving life, makes a woman ritually impure for seven or fourteen days (Leviticus 12:2-6). This is the antithesis of the law and logic concerning animals. Why is there a difference between man and animals in ritual purity and impurity? When man or animal fulfills its potential or purpose, it is in consonance with its basic nature. The life of an animal is such that as long as it is alive, its purpose is fulfilled. Every minute of its life it is actualizing its potential and fulfilling its reason for existence. Therefore, an animal can only become ritually impure when its purpose no longer exists, i.e., upon its death. If the animal still has a purpose even after death, then it does not become ritually impure when touched. Thus, kosher animals (those with split homes that chew their cud) that are ritually slaughtered and continue to have a purpose for human beings as food or a sacrifice, do not become ritually impure (Maimonides, Hilchot Avot HaTumot 1:2). But why does a woman become impure at that great moment of giving life, which seems to be the antithesis of ritual impurity? Perhaps this question can be answered by understanding another anomaly regarding the mother giving birth. The Torah tells us that after her time of impurity, the mother brings a sin offering and receives atonement (Leviticus 12:6-7). What possible sin could the mother have committed in giving birth that requires a sin offering and atonement? Although there are many answer to this question, Rebbeinu Bechaya reminds us that the first mention of childbirth in the Torah was connected to the first sin, when Eve ate the forbidden fruit and gave it to Adam (Rabbeinu Bechaya commentary on Leviticus 12:7). Her punishment was a childbirth filled with travail (Genesis 3:16). Thus, every breath reminds us of a time that man did not fill his potential, and the sin offering tries to repair that first sin, whose consequences are seen in the case of each childbirth. Since man is not completed at birth and has not yet fulfilled his potential, he can become ritually impure in life and can render others ritually impure as well.