דברים, פרק כ״ח, פסוק נ״ז

The horrors of a siege will eventually shatter the boundaries of human society and drive people to unimaginable despair. Extreme starvation can overpower even the deepest maternal instincts, transforming a mother's natural, fierce love for her newborn into a shocking struggle for survival [העמק דבר, רש״ר הירש, ביאור שטיינזלץ].

The primary approach among commentators is that the starving mother consumes the actual afterbirth, the membrane that surrounds the fetus and emerges with it into the world [אבן עזרא, רשב״ם, הכתב והקבלה]. However, others understand this as a reference to the newborn baby itself, as the infant detaches from the womb and drops into the world [הכתב והקבלה], or simply as a reference to the woman's young children [רש״י]. The emergence of the birth is described using a modest expression for the mother's body [אבן עזרא]. Alternatively, this description reflects the physical position of a woman in labor, who plants her heels into her thighs, making the infant appear to emerge directly from that space [תורה תמימה].

The tragedy reaches its peak when the mother, who should naturally feel profound attachment and love at the moment of birth, instead looks upon her newborn and the afterbirth with a selfish, cruel eye [העמק דבר]. This deep selfishness manifests in an absolute refusal to share any source of food. Driven by starvation, she consumes her young in complete secrecy. She hides her actions so that her husband and other children will not steal the meat from her, unlike the strong man of the family who feels no need to conceal his actions [קונטרס חיבה יתירה]. Her stinginess becomes so extreme that as she eats one of her children, she completely refuses to share even a small portion with her other child standing right beside her [רש״י, בכור שור].