Siman 189 Seifim 28-30
28. Similarly, an older woman who has passed 3 cycles since she became old is considered menopausal and no longer concerns herself with her fixed cycle (both a young girl and an older woman do not concern themselves with non-fixed cycles).
29. What is an "old woman"? Someone who is not bothered when someone calls her Ima as a result of her age.
30. If she returned to her previous cycle her law is like that of a young girl who never saw.
What's Going On - Old Women
These seifim are less applicable in modern times than one might think. In general, this classification has been reserved by the contemporary poskim for women over the age of 60[1]. Other women fall into the category described in Seif 2, of a woman who uproots her vesses kavua as the result of not seeing for an extended time, but who still has a chazaka of being a woman who menstruates (just like in the previous seif our young girl had a chazaka of being someone who did not menstruate.)
There is some discussion as to what is meant by "not bothered" in seif 29. The general dispute centers on whether the woman she not be at all bothered by being called an old woman, or whether it means that she is accustomed to it. The first definition would usually result in an older threshold for achieving this status.
The leniencies inherent in this law are somewhat limited.[2] We only permit the application of the leniencies for vesses kavua if they are not part of her Torah-based “niddah days” or “zivah days” (basically, 18 days).following an earlier vesses. For example, if a woman were to menstruate on the 1st and the 15th of the month, since each period is within 18 days of the other, she would not establish a vesses kavua.
There are exceptions to this general rule revolving around the concepts of “ma’ayan pasuach” and “ma’ayan sasum”. Literally, these mean an “open spring” and a “closed spring”. The Talmud understands the former as being continued bleedingt as a result of a uterine tearing that had not yet healed and the latter as a new bleeding unrelated to any earlier bleeding. The limitation in the application of the rule is that we only apply it if the baseline bleeding is from a ma’ayan pasuach. If it is from a ma’ayan sasum, then she can establish a vesses kavua. For example, if she menstruated twice on rosh chodesh and then again on the 25th and again on rosh chodesh, since the the baseline of rosh chodesh was bleeding from a ma’ayan sasum, she would establish a vesses for rosh chodesh. The principles of ma’ayan are complicated and do not always correspond with anatomical reality. I think that it is sufficient to know that the concepts exist and that they have potential practical application in halacha.
The 3 cycles referred to in Seif 28 is the same 90 day period that applies to the young girl of the previous seif and not 3 of her own cycles.[3] The entire 90 day period must be after she has qualified for the status of zekainah.
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