Today started out with the deaths of Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu for offering unauthorized fire to the Lord which He had not commanded them to do. “And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.”
Their death was tragic, and at first seemed harsh, but the new era was being inaugurated; and the community needed to be aware that it existed for God, not vice versa.
Then it went into classifying clean and unclean animals. This I really enjoyed, because I have been questioning it since the Ark. It explained the things you may and may not eat according to land animals, flying animals, insects, and sea creatures.
The purification after childbirth was odd. A woman after giving birth to a son was unclean for seven days, and the eighth day the son was circumcised. Then she would continue to be unclean for thirty-three days and could not touch anything holy or go into the sanctuary until her days were complete.
If she had a daughter then she would be unclean for two weeks and would continue her purifying for sixty-six days.
The uncleanness came from the bleeding not from the birth. It is not clear why the period of uncleanness after the birth of a baby boy was half the period of a girl.
When the days of her purifying were complete, she would take the priest a lamb for a burnt offering, and a pigeon or turtledove for a sin offering. He would offer them to the Lord and make atonement for her.