33. A woman who performs a self examination with an Ayd that has been pre-checked and finds on it a stain as small as a mustard seed, regardless of its shape, is impure.  This is the case even if she finds a smashed louse on the ayd.  Similarly, if she uses a pre-checked ayd and puts it into a box and after a while looks at it and finds blood on it, regardless of the stain's shape, she is impure.
     

34. If she examined herself with a pre-checked ayd and leaves it under a pillow or blanket and the following day finds a blood stain on it - if the stain is elongated she is impure, since there is a assumption made that the shape of the stain is a result of her examination.  If the stain is round and is not larger than a gris she is pure and we attribute the stain to a louse that had been under the blanket. The law is the same (i.e. she is pure) even if the stain is larger than a gris, if there is something to attribute the stain to.
     

35. If she examined herself with a pre-checked ayd and squeezed it between her thighs and the next finds blood on "it", if the stain is elongated she is impure and if the stain is round and is smaller than a gris she is pure.  There are those who make a round stain of any size impure.
     

36. If she examined herself with an un-checked ayd and found a stain on it, even if she put it into a drawer, she is not impure unless the stain is larger than a gris. This specifically applies with an "ordinary" unchecked ayd that has an equal probability of having been either clean or not.  However, if she used an ayd that has a high probability of being prestained, such as taking the cloth from a place where there is often blood, performed an examination and found a stain on it, she is pure even if the stain is larger than a gris.
     

37. If she examined herself with an un-checked ayd, squeezed it between her thighs and found a stain larger than a gris, she is pure.  It  is certainly the case that if she put the ayd into a place that could be susceptible to contamination, she is pure even if the stain is larger than a gris.  However, if she put it into a place that is not normally subject to contamination, she is impure if it is larger than a gris.
     

38. What is considered a pre-checked ayd? If it was examined by her or another person and it is not known to have been exposed to stains, was not carried through the butcher market and was not otherwise exposed to people who work with blood, it is considered a pre-checked ayd.
     

39. A woman is only impure as a result of a stain found on her clothing if she had examined it prior to putting it on.  However, if she put it on without examining it and finds a stain on it, she is pure.
     

 

What's Going On - Examination Cloth

This section does not deal with the same type of kesem - stain or spot that earlier seifim have.  Rather, it relates to the rules for evaluating actual self-examinations.  Whenever the words kesem, spotting or staining in this section, we are referring to the stain that results from an actual drop of blood that the woman is wiping from the vaginal canal during the self-examination.

An examination cloth is called an ayd in Hebrew.  The word also means "witness" and the examination cloth literally serves as the woman's witness to whether she is impure or pure.  Rules regarding the extent of the self-examination are covered in Siman 196.

The ayd should be white and should be inspected by the woman or by someone else prior to insertion.  The laws regarding stains on an ayd differ from those found on clothes or on the skin and are generally dealt with more stringently. 

Seif 38 tells us that a cloth that has been examined and is not known to have been in a place where it could be contaminated and pick up a blood stain (the traditional examples that are used in the Shulchan Aruch are passing through a meat market or being in a place where there are people dealing with blood stained items.)

There is a debate among the poskim as to whether the ayd must used immediately after checking in order to retain the status ("chazaka") of baduk (checked).  Tosfos and Ramban tend to this view.  Rasbha however holds that it maintains its status of being checked if, after being examined, it is stored in a secure place that cannot reasonably get stained.  Since, as we will see, stains on a checked ayd are more likely to make a woman impure than those on an unchecked one, the view that causes the ayd to retain its "checked" status for longer is a stricter one.  The Shevet HaLevi suggests that each case be determined individually, although he also says that the Shulchan Aruch follows the view of Rashba and should be generally be the view followed.

In the category of unchecked ayd, there are 2 different varieties - the ayd beinonis, which is one that has not been checked but also has not been in a place where contamination is likely; and the ayd m'luchlach which is one that has been in places of likely contamination.

The halachic conclusions that we reach is dependant on which of ayd we are dealing with.  Seif 33 tells us that a stain of any size on a checked ayd renders the woman impure.  The exceptions to that rule are laid out in Seifim 34 and 35. In 34, we learn that if, after taking out the ayd and before examining it she puts the ayd in a place where contamination is possible and then finds a stain on it, we evaluate the stain according to its shape and size.  Seif 35 tells us that if she somehow squeezes the ayd between her legs before examining it and finds a stain - her status is a dispute among the poskim.  Rashba understands the case to be one where she finds a stain on the ayd.  In that case we evaluate the stain as we do in Seif 34.  There are views that disagree with the Shulchan Aruch on this and assert that a stain on the ayd should always be considered as resulting from the self-examination and render her impure.  If a stain is only on her leg and not on the ayd, we do not make the assumption that the stain transferred in its entirety from the ayd and thus she is pure.  If the stain is on both her leg and thigh, the conditions of this Seif would apply.  Nevertheless, in this situation the halacha follows the yesh omrim, leaving the woman impure regardless of the size or shape of the stain.

In a similar manner, everything that we have learned previously about stains on clothing applies only when she had inspected it prior to putting it on.  If she had not and if the stain does not have an indication that it is new, the woman would remain pure.  Kraisi U'Plaisi points out that since we typically don't examine all of our laundry closely, our normal status today would be to consider clothing as un-checked, as an ayd beinoni.