[Avodah] Sefer HaChinuch on why 2 weeks Nidah for a girl and only 1 for a boy

[Gershon Seif]

Anyone ever see what the Sefer HaChinuch writes about why women who give birth to a boy are in Nidah for a week but for a girl it's 2 weeks?

I just got up to there last night. Mitzvah 166.

He says the following: We know that if the woman is mazriya first, she becomes pregnant with a boy. Being mazriya indvolves heat. And we all know (he says that it's basic logic) that heat removes excesses. Cold allows excesses. Therefore when she gives birth to a boy were there was heat invloved, there were less excess fluids for her body to release so the time period is shorter.

Is there any basis for this in today's medical views? Is this simply based on the  medical knowledge of his time?

I assumed when reading this, that it was his view based on medical views of his time. Since the sefer HaChinuch writes in the hakdama that he's just trying to figure out reasons and he may be wrong at times, this didn't bother me at all. Perhaps he tried his best and he was wrong. 

The problem is that he then quotes a Ramban and says that this is exactly what the Ramban is saying too. - Now, the Ramban never said in his hakdama he's approximating or guessing. He writes that there that he will often be misunderstood because he alludes to kabbaIistic ideas. So I always thought those hard to understand Rambans were really allusions to kabbalistic ideas and I moved on. But it seems that the Chinuch learned that this particular Ramban is just basic "common sense". 

So what happens if we find that modern science rejects the Chinuch's pshat? Are we left saying the Ramban got it wrong? Or he meant something else and we don't understand? Or the chinuch had a different approach to learning Ramban? 

Or perhaps I'm misreading the whole piece in the Sefer HaChinuch????


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