Mammal birth

Hello, Rabbi! I have a question about periods and birth. In the start of the Torah when the apple is eaten G-d gives periods and birth to women, but ALL mammals do that. So does he punish all female animals, because reptiles, fish, etc. don’t. Certain snakes and lizards live birth so that doesn’t make sense, and hyenas have a pseudo penis which is extremely painful for them to birth through. Was this a lesson, or was this a bias? I am truly faithful, just curious.

Shalom!

Thank you for your question.

As you note, menstruation and the pain of childbirth are said to be among the punishments give to Eve for the sin of eating the forbidden fruit.

Here are some of the Midrashic teachings:

Midrash Rabba 20:6 teaches the following:

On the verse, “I will make most severe your pangs in childbearing; in pain shall you bear children”—and on gender relations: “Yet your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” the Midrash expounds: “Your pangs” is the anguish of impregnation; “in childbearing” is the suffering of pregnancy; “in pain” is the affliction of miscarriages; “shall you bear” is the pain of childbirth; “children” is the suffering involved in the rearing of children. “Yet your urge shall be for your husband”; a woman's desire is for her husband.

In the Avot D’rabbi Natan we find: “ harbeh ,” “ arbeh ” (that are translated here together as “I will make most severe”), and “your pangs in childbearing”: “ Harbeh ”—it is painful for the woman at the beginning of her menstrual period; “ arbeh ”—the first intercourse is difficult for her; and “your pangs in childbearing”—throughout the first three months of pregnancy, a woman’s face is ugly and turns green.

There are a number of other Midrashic versions to this teaching, as well.

Regarding your question as to why all mammals menstruate though the punishment was given to Eve, a number of answers can be suggested.

1. It may very well be that menstruation was always going to be a reality for female mammals, but it was retroactively connected to the sin of Eve. This is similar to the dispute regarding the rainbow: Was the rainbow created after the story of the flood to be a sign that G-d would never flood the world again, or was the rainbow always there but was simply retroactively associated with the sign the G-d would never flood the world again.

2. It could be that once Eve was created to menstruate it become the natural cycle of all female mammals.

It is taught that there are three commandments that were given to women in order to atone for the sin of Eve: niddah (i.e. the laws of family purity), the taking of hallah from dough when baking bread, and the lighting of the Shabbat candles.