Hilchos Niddah Siman 183

Siman 183, Seif 1

1. A woman who has a flow of blood from her uterus, whether by accident or purposefully is impure, if she had a hargasha at the time. If she felt a hargasha and some blood flowed, she is impure even if it has not yet flowed out of her body. Even if she only saw a drop of blood the size of a mustard seed she must observe seven clean days as will be explained below in Siman 196. There is no distinction between a married and an unmarried woman with respect to the prohibition of Niddah, since anyone who has intercourse with a woman who is a Niddah is liable for kareis.

Introduction

According to Halacha, a menstruating woman is considered impure (Temeah). Therefore, it is forbidden for both her and her husband to engage in intercourse until she becomes pure (Tehora). The rules outlined in the Torah are somewhat complicated, but need to be understood to appreciate fully the complexity of this area of Halacha and to understand the different rulings that might arise from seemingly similar situations.

There are two separate sets of verses that deal with a woman’s menstrual flow, as follows:

1. And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be seven days in her menstrual separation (Lev. 15:19)

2. And if a woman have an issue of her blood many days not in the time of her menstruation…she shall number to herself 7 days, and after that she will be clean (Lev. 15:25-30).

From these two sets of verses, we derive three distinct categories of impurity. The first verse instructs us in the law of Niddah. The Torah tells us that when a woman experiences menstrual bleeding, she can immerse 7 days after the beginning of her menstrual flow (if the flow has ended). Therefore, a woman can have bleeding for 6 days and then after the subsequent day, she is permitted to immerse and to become pure.

The second set of verses teaches us about a category of impurity called zavah. A zavah is a woman who experiences a flow of blood at a time that is not normally associated with her menstrual cycle. Bleeding at this time can impose a level of impurity greater than that associated with the Niddah. Based on an analysis of the phrase “many days” that is used in the verse, the Talmud has determined the minimum period of bleeding that imposes this high level of impurity to be 3 days. If one experiences a 3-day flow at a time that is not that which is associated with her normal menstruation, one is called a “zavah gedola” or a “major zavah”. If the bleeding lasts for only one or two days, the woman is called a “zavah ketana” or a “minor zavah.”

The zavah ketana is considered similar to most other impurities – the basic requirement is that the woman wait until she has a day without bleeding and then immerse.

The zavah gedola has very different rules. Before a woman is permitted to immerse to remove this impurity, the woman must stop bleeding and then must count seven consecutive days with no bleeding. This period is called the “7 clean days.”

Therefore, the method of purification is directly related to the type of impurity that is dependant on both the length and the timing of the flow. This means that a woman needs to be aware of when her Niddah time is and when her zavah time is. According to most poskim, a woman’s Niddah time begins with her initial menstruation and lasts for seven days. The eleven days that follow are considered the zavah time. Bleeding during these 11 days would then trigger the zavah impurity rules. After these 18 days, the next Niddah time begins when she next menstruates.

What is a “Hargasha”?

The Siman reviews the fact of requiring to have a 7-day separation from the time of her hefsek taharah until she is permitted to go to the mikveh. A basic outline of why we have adopted these rules follows:

D'Oraissa there are 3 different levels of tumas isha. The first, called Tumas niddah, requires the woman to count 7 days from the day she actual started bleeding and, assuming her flow has ended, can then go to mikveh. . The second is Zavah Ketana and is a flow at an unusual time of the month (we'll get to what "unusual" means soon) that lasts only one or two days. The requirement is for her to have one clean day and then she can go to mikveh.

The third category and the most important one for modern halacha is the zava gedola. If during the "unusual" time she bleeds for three days or longer, she must perform vaginal inspections until she is certain that the flow has ended. At that point the Torah requires the woman to have seven consecutive clean days.

As we noted, there are periods during the month that would require a woman to observe the Tumas niddah rules and times during the month when she would observe the zavah gedola rules. In order to avoid women having to track what day of which period they are based on their menstrual flows and other uterine discharges, it is accepted today that a woman treats all appearences of blood, even quite small ones, as an indication of a zavah gedola state. Therefore, after the woman's menstrual flow ends, we require the woman to count 7 clean days before going to mikveh. As we will see later on, a woman cannot perform a hefsk taharah until the 5th day of her flow, even if it ended earlier. The reason we wait 5 days has nothing to do with Niddah per se, and will be explained later on. There is NO "assumption" that a woman's flow will last for 5 days or so; in fact, we will see that the Halacha for the most part anticipates a fairly short period of flow, as we will see in Siman 184.

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Last Revised August 26, 2004