Komentarz do Szabbat 2:6

בשעת לידתן – at the time of danger which is designated for retribution.

Introduction This mishnah provides a quite strongly worded exhortation to women to be scrupulous in the observation of three mitzvoth with which they are strongly associated: lighting Shabbat candles, separating hallah (a percentage of dough which has to be taken from all bread) and niddah menstrual purity. The mishnah says that women die in childbirth for not observing these mitzvoth correctly. I should add a personal note. Loss of life is always difficult, and a woman’s death while giving birth is probably one of the most difficult losses a husband and his and her family could experience. Thankfully, the number of women who die in childbirth is drastically lower in the modern western world than it was in the past. In the time of the Mishnah, it would have been fairly common. The rabbis were struggling to understand why so many women died while giving birth. This must have been especially difficult for them since having children was on of their most important values. While we may have difficulties with their answer, and I don’t think that we should go around saying that people die for non-observance of commandments, we nevertheless can appreciate the difficult theological problem with which the rabbis were trying to cope. Finally, lest you think that the rabbis “had it out for women” the Talmud discusses at great length all types of travails that afflict the world and why they come to the world. The idea that people are punished for sins is normative biblical theology, with no special connection to women.

Regarding Challah and lighting Shabbat candles. because these are among the needs of a household, and she is found at home, and therefore she is bound to them.

For three sins women die in childbirth: because they are not observant of [the laws of] niddah, hallah, and the kindling of the [Shabbat] lights. A midrash connects this mishnah with the sin of Eve. Eve caused Adam’s blood to be spilled (by bringing death into the world), therefore she is commanded in the laws of niddah. By sinning she extinguished the light of the world and therefore she is commanded in lighting the Shabbat candles. She lost the “hallah” of the world by causing the death of Adam, who was the “hallah” of the Garden of Eden; therefore she is commanded in the laws of hallah.