A woman will give birth every day

"A woman will give birth every day" is one of the prophecies of the Geulah (Redemption). Its meaning is that the situation during Galus (exile), where pregnancy lasts nine months, will change, and on the same day a woman conceives, she will also give birth. Furthermore, the same woman will bear additional children on another day from the same marital union that produced the first child.

Source of the Prophecy

"Behold, I will bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the ends of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and she who is giving birth together; a great assembly shall return here." — Yirmiyahu 31:7

The Gemara relates regarding this verse:

Rabban Gamliel was sitting and expounding that in the future a woman will give birth every day, as it says: "The pregnant woman and she who is giving birth together." A certain student scoffed at him, saying: "There is nothing new under the sun." Rabban Gamliel said to him: "Come, and I will show you an example of this in our world." He went out and showed him a chicken. — Shabbos 30b

Translation: Rabban Gamliel sat and taught that in the future days of Moshiach, a woman will give birth every day, as Yirmiyahu prophesies, "The pregnant woman and she who is giving birth together." This means that on the same day she becomes pregnant with one child, she will have already given birth to another child earlier, thus "together."

There was a student there who scoffed at Rabban Gamliel and said: How is this possible? It is written (Koheles 1:9), "There is nothing new under the sun," so how can this new phenomenon of a woman giving birth every day occur?

Rabban Gamliel answered him: Come, I will show you an example of this that already exists in our world today.

He went out and showed him a chicken, since a chicken lays an egg every day.

The Essence of the Prophecy

The concept of continuous flow of influence without interruption in spirituality:

Generally, the order is that any influence coming from Above must pass through the entire order of hishtalshelus (chain of spiritual worlds), and because of this, the influence can sometimes be diminished, and sometimes – also delayed. This explains the statement of our Sages that "a person is judged every day," because even though he was already judged on Rosh Hashanah for the entire year, nevertheless, the influence decreed on Rosh Hashanah can be delayed Above, and this is the basis for the daily judgment.

But in the future, the manner of influence will be that it need not be delayed in the order of hishtalshelus at all; rather, the influence will descend from Above and immediately extend below into this world. As it is written, "His word runs very swiftly."

Time of Gestation

Brief Period - 21 Days

The Maharsha states that it's impossible to say that the pregnancy and birth of a child would occur on the same day. If this were the case, Rabban Gamliel's proof, where he showed a student a hen that lays eggs every day, would be insufficient. Even with a hen, the conception (when it is impregnated by the male) and the laying of the egg don't happen on the same day - there are twenty-one days between conception and the laying of the egg.

Therefore, Rashi explains that indeed the discussion is about two different children. On the same day that a woman conceives a new child, on that same day she will give birth to a child from a previous conception, like a hen.

But according to their explanation, there is still some difficulty: how could it be that she would give birth every day? After one birth, there are many days when intimacy is forbidden (since the laws of ritual purity and impurity will exist in the time of redemption). Therefore, it would be impossible to have births during all these days, which are seven or fourteen times more than the days when intimacy is permitted. So she cannot give birth every day.

Nine Hours

The Arizal explains that the intention is that the time of pregnancy will be one day. Instead of pregnancy taking nine months as it does now, in the future it will take only nine hours.

However, the Rebbe notes precisely in the words of the Alter Rebbe that all the births a woman will give birth to every day will be "from one intimacy." The meaning is through one intimacy - from one intimacy she will bear one child on one day, a second child on the second day, and so on.

And now the question of how birth could happen every day is resolved, given that there are more days when intimacy is forbidden. Since we're saying this will be from one intimacy, then from the intimacy that occurred during the permitted time, several births would follow on several days (one after the other, even on prohibited days). This is indeed how it works with a hen (which the Gemara uses as an example) - despite the fact that after conception the hen doesn't receive the male, nevertheless, she lays several eggs on several days from the one mating with the male.

It Has Already Happened in History

Extended topic – It Has Already Happened in History

At the beginning of creation with Adam and Eve, birth occurred immediately. In the future, this will happen in an even more elevated manner.

Generally, this also happened before the flood, when on the same day a woman conceived, on that same day she also gave birth.

Our Deeds and Service

Since everything from above comes through human service, in human service there must also be the concept of speed, especially regarding good resolutions. It often happens that on Shabbat and holidays, or during prayer, people stand in inspiration and make several good resolutions, but afterward when it comes to implementing these resolutions throughout the day, sometimes the resolution becomes smaller, or they aren't implemented immediately, and it gets delayed.

Therefore, there must be the concept of speed, "His word runs swiftly" – that the resolution made during prayer should be drawn down immediately into actual practice, and through this we also affect the drawing down from above, that this drawing down will also be in a manner of "His word runs swiftly."

See Also

• Speed of Growth - In the future, trees will produce fruits every day