Siman
187 Seifim 7 - 9:
7. If during a bedikah b’chorin v’sadkin and she finds bloodstains in only one place on the side, we attribute the blood to a wound that exists at that place. Certainly, this is case if she feels pain during the exam in that particular spot and in all other areas she has no pain.
8. If she wishes to be cured, she must affect the cure before she sees 3 times "as a result of intercourse,” but afterwards, there is a question as to whether she can be helped by the cure. There are those who permit her if a Jewish doctor tells her that is cured. If a woman sees that her menstrual blood has stopped because of the cure and that fact is easily discernable we can rely on a non-Jewish doctor as well.
9. If she received a sudden fright, a clot of blood was expelled by her, and she was cured, she is permitted to her husband. If she then sees one time "as a result of intercourse”, we know with certainty that the earlier injury or clot has not been cured. Today we do not rely on this leniency. However, we do not remove her from her husband after the cure until she has intercourse and returns to her earlier state.
Medical Treatments
If a doctor has established a cure for a woman who has not yet seen blood as a result of intercourse 3 times but only twice, a woman who has and who would therefore otherwise be prohibited to her husband is permitted to rely on this cure[1]. Later poskim have questioned the Shach’s Halacha. They ask, what use it is to us that a woman who does not have the status of “seeing as a result of intercourse” has had a cure. We have no reason to believe that a cure would be effective for someone who has acquired that status.[2] A possible answer lies in the underlying Gemara of how something gains the status of being “normal”. The argument there is whether we establish legal suppositions based on event occurring 3 times or occurring only twice. While we ultimately require 3 occasions of something to establish status, when it would help develop a leniency we can apply the position that it takes only two times. Therefore, our woman who only experienced bleeding as a result of intercourse twice could have the status of the woman who has experienced it 3 times. Then, since the cases would be halachically comparable, we can use the existence of the cure to remove the negative status of the woman in question.[3]
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Last Revised December 16, 2004
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