Siman 189 Seifim 14-16
14. If she were accustomed to seeing every 20 days (and she had a vesses kavua for that interval), and it changes to 30 days, both of those days are now prohibited. When day 20 arrives of her cycle, she is prohibited; if she does not see, she must then suspect the 30th day. If she sees a second time on day 30, both the 20th and the 30th days remain prohibited. If she sees three times on the 30th, the 20th day becomes permitted to her and the 30th day becomes prohibited[1]. If after seeing on the 30th once or twice she then returns to a 20-day cycle, only the 20th is prohibited to her and is re-established as her vesses and the 30th becomes permitted.
15. If her cycle changes and is no longer fixed - for example, once she sees on the 30th, the next the 32nd and the third the 34th her original vesses[2] is uprooted and she has no fixed vesses anymore. If she returns to seeing on the date of the original vesses, she is re-established in that vesses and will again always be concerned with it until it is uprooted 3 times. The Halacha is the same if she stopped seeing for 3 periods and then returns to her regular cycle.
16. Similarly would the rules apply to uprooting a vesses of Rosh Chodesh. How? If she is accustomed to seeing on the new moons and one passes and she does not see, she continues to suspect Rosh Chodesh until 3 of them have past and she did not see; in this case, she no longer suspects Rosh Chodesh. If she went back to seeing on Rosh Chodesh provided that she had not established a new Vesses Kavua then her vesses is immediately restored.
What's Going On - Changing intervals
If a woman sees on day 30 rather than on day 20 that we start counting the next set of 20 days from the date of her actual period and not from the theoretical 20 day point at which we had originally anticipated as her vesses date[3]. There is brief consideration in the gemara to the latter position that it quickly dismisses as illogical.
When the gemara and by extension, the Shulchan Aruch use 20 days, they actually mean 20 days from the end of the 7 days of Niddah, so in truth the interval is 27 days. Thus, all other multiples of cycles must be considered accordingly - 40 days or 2 cycles is really 54 days, 60 is 81 and 80 is 108. I don't know why the gemara uses this methodology, but it does, so the use of 20 days as an example is not outside the realm of reality for most women.
As we have already seen, a woman with a fixed vesses must perform a bedikah during the suspect onah. If she does not, she must perform the bedikah as soon as possible after the end of the onah to be permitted to her husband. If she performed the bedikah late and found blood, we need to determine whether the blood that she has seen is the result of a vesses that started at the appropriate time or it the bleeding actually started in the onah of the bedikah. In the latter case, she would be considered as having started late. The halacha is that the woman treats her situation according to the strictness that would result from each of them. That is, she considers herself as having had a timely vesses and as having a vesses that started late, meaning during the onah of her actual bedikah. This means that she treats the coming month as though she has had an off-cycle bleeding but does not count the incident as one of the three off-cycle bleedings required to uproot a Vesses Kavua.[4] The woman will begin her counting towards her next cycle from the point at which she actually saw blood and from the theoretical time she should have seen according to her Vesses Kavua.[5]
The language of the Shulchan Aruch implies that the reason the woman separates from her husband on Day 30 is because that is the actual interval that she experienced in her previous cycle. However, there are poskim who maintain that if the woman had a normal cycle of less than 30 days observe the Onah Beinonis if she does not menstruate according to her Vesses Kavua for that month.[6] However, we do not hold like that.[7]
Seif 14 is complicated. Let us assume that a woman is on a 32-day cycle and her latest period is the 15th of Cheshvan. Based on her vesses kavua she will suspect 32 days later later, or on the 16th of Kislev (day 32 of one cycle is day 1 of the next cycle). She abstains from relations with her husband during the appropriate onah on the 16th, performs the required examination and has no flow. Since she does not have a Vesses HaChodesh she does not suspect the 15th of Kislev; because she has a vesses kavua she does not worry about the onah beinonis, which would fall out on the 14th of Kislev. Let us assume that she actually has period on the 20th of Kislev, which is day 36 of her cycle.
Had she seen on time, she would only concern herself with day 32 of the next cycle, or the 21st of Teves. Because her last period was off-cycle, she needs to concern herself with both the yom hachodesh of her last period, so she will suspect on the 16th of Teves. Additionally, she will suspect the actual interval of the previous period, or 36 days, and suspect on the 25th of Teves. This woman now has her period on the 25th of Teves. She has now seen twice at 36-day intervals. For the following month she will suspect her vesses kavua of 32 days (27 Shevat), the date of the month of her last period, or the 25th of Shevat and the 36 day interval of her actual previous cycle on the 1st of Adar.
Let us assume that she has her period on the 1st of Adar. She now has had 3 cycles of 36 days. Based on this, she has uprooted her previous 32-day cycle and has a new vesses kavua of 36 days. Therefore, the following month she will suspect only the vesses kavua, which will fall on the 7th of Nisan.
Another scenario is that she sees on "schedule" at 32 days on the 27th of Shevat. She is now considered to have returned to her normal vesses kavua and will next suspect only on the 28th of Adar. By returning to her regular cycle she eliminates the need to observe the various additional days she had been suspecting in the previous 2 months.
Seif 15 offers us another complication. Let us say that woman has her period on the 29th of Shevat, or 34 days after her previous one. She does not establish a new vesses kavua, but she has missed her vesses kavua 3 consecutive times. She therefore uproots her old vesses and is now considered as a woman who has no fixed vesses and must suspect on the interval day, the date of the month and the onah beinonis. However, since she did not establish a new vesses kavua, her old vesses is not totally uprooted and if she ever sees on that cycle in the future, it would be restored. If at any time in the future she sees on a 32-day cycle, she reverts to her old vesses kavua.
Vanishing Intervals
Another variation on the theme is completely missing periods. Let's use our original case with a woman with a 32 day cycle who expects to see on the 16th of Kislev. Let's assume that she doesn't see then and doesn't have a period for, say, 100 days. How to treat her vesses is a major argument between the Shulchan Aruch and Maharshal (for biographical information on any of the poskim mentioned, please go to the "Other online shiurim" section and click on the link in the second bullet.)
The Shulchan Aruch maintains that the woman must suspect every 32 day period - the 17th of Teves and the 19th of Shevat. At this point she has had 3 32 day cycles without ever seeing. Her vesses is deemed to be uprooted and will no longer suspect any particular day. If however, she has a period in the future, she will wait for the second period and if that second period comes at a 32 day interval, she is restored to her 32-day cycle.
Maharshal maintains that once the woman misses the first interval on the 16th of Kislev, she does not suspect any future date. This makes some sense since the Shulchan Aruch's understanding requires us to act "as if" her period came on time and we are counting 32 days from that date. Mahrshal maintains that we have no reason to do so. The other side of this ruling is that when she does see again after 100 days, she is immediately restored to her 32-day vesses kavua.
If she sees after 80 days (less than 3 cycles worth of time), Maharshal will consider a vesses of 80 days and 32 days for her next period.
The Shach notes that we hold like Maharshal when it comes to
the interim cycles - that she does not suspect any day once she has missed her
regular cycle and like the Shulchan Aruch when it comes to the
commencement of periods in the future - that she needs to have a cycle of the
same length as her previous vesses kavua before she is re-established in
it.
Another wrinkle - vesses hachodesh
Another possibility is that a woman has a vesses based on the date of the month. Let us assume that a woman always sees on the 15th of the month. During Kislev she sees not on the 15th but on the 17th. According to what we have learned about vesses haflaga, we would start the clock for the next period from the date of the actual period and not from the theoretical start date. With a vesses hachodesh, however, the fact of her seeing on a certain day of the month is an independent event that has nothing to do with intervals. Therefore, she will continue to suspect the 15th of each month until her vesses is uprooted.
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