Siman 196, Seif 11

 

  1. A woman expels semen during her seven clean days - if the expulsion is within 6 onos of intercourse, it invalidates that day.  Therefore, a woman who had intercourse, saw blood and then stopped bleeding, cannot begin to count her 7 clean days until 6 complete onos have passed from the time of intercourse, since she might expel semen during that time.  Therefore, she does not begin to count her seven days until the fifth day following intercourse.  For example, if she had intercourse on Saturday night, she cannot begin to count clean days until Thursday, since we hold that semen only becomes unusable until 6 full onos have gone by.  Therefore, Therefore, if she had intercourse Saturday night and expels semen on Tuesday night before the time that she had intercourse on Saturday night, she is still in the sixth onah since her intercourse.  This would invalidate that day for the count and therefore Thursday becomes the first night of her count.  And she makes her hefsek tahara on Day 4 towards the evening and Day 5 becomes the first of the seven clean days.  There are those who have written that she should wait an additional day, so that she does not begin counting until the sixth day, which would now become Day 1 of her new count.  This si because she might have had intercourse during bain hashmashos and she will think that it's daytime.  It could, however, be night and if she would start to count from the fifth day she would still be within the six onos.  Therefore, we add one more day to make it impossible to make an error.  This is the custom in these countries and one may not deviate.  There are also women who have custom to be stricter and to wait a full 7 days, but there is no rationale for this.  The one who is stricter may be stricter and the one who is lenient is rewarded by having an opportunity to perform a mitzvah earlier.  Therese are those who have written that now we make no distinction as to whether or not she had intercourse with her husband.  Any woman who sees even a stain needs to wait 5 days, including the shoe found the stain.  She then performs her hefsek tahara towards evening and begins to count her 7 clean days.  This is the custom in these countries and one may not deviate.

What's Going On - Poletes

The Gemara in tractate Niddah informs us that semen can impregnate a woman for as long as 3 days after intercourse.  Consequently, just as all semenal emissions create impurity in a man, so too would the appearance of semen from the woman for as long as 3 days after intercourse.  The Torah in Exodus 18:15 that as Israel prepares to receive the Torah, Moshe said "Be ready by the third day, come not near a woman." The commentators explain this juxtaposition as telling us that the potential impurity resulting from intercourse can occur for as long as three days.  Consequently, since Bnai Yisrael needed to be in a state of ritual purity to receive the Torah, they were commanded to stay away from activities that could result in impurity during that time period.

To understand the mechanism of applying this halacha, consider the following.  A woman engages in intercourse immediately before her menstrual flow begins at 1 AM Sunday morning.  (Sunday is now counted as Day 1).  Unlike the laws of onah discussed in Siman 184, "onos" here are to be understood as 72 hours, or three complete days from the time of intercourse.  In our example, the 72 hour period ends on Wednesday morning at 1 AM.  Since Sunday was Day 1, Wednesday is Day 4.  After that time she can begin her count of 7 clean days.  However, we have also learned that the 7 clean days must be complete days and therefore Wednesday can never be Day 1 of the 7 days.  After performing her hefsek tahara on Wednesday, she can begin counting 7 days from Thursday (i.e. Wednesday night) on.  Thursday, then, is Day 5 from the commencement of our post-coital count.

The Ashkenazic poskim considered the following problem.  What happens if a woman has intercourse in the early evening.  If she decides that her intercourse occurred on the day just ending when in fact it ended on the new day, if we were to let her start counting on Day 4, she would end up counting clean days during the timeframe in which she can still become impure as a result of poletes.  (e.g. If she had intercourse at 6PM on Sunday and she starts counting Sunday as Day 1, she would start counting 7 clean days on Thursday.  If, however, she counted from Monday as Day 1, Thursday is still within the 72 hour time frame.)  To avoid potential problems resulting from the situation, the Chachmei Ashkenaz made a decree that we halachically consider intercourse as having occurred on the day after it actually did.  By applying this rule it becomes impossible for a woman to begin counting her 7 clean days when she is still subject to poletes impurity.  Therefore, in the example above, the woman would perform her hefsek tahara on Thursday and begin counting on Friday.  Thus the minimum length of impurity is 12 days for Ashkenazim and 11 days for many Sefardim.

In truth, the custom among Sefardim varies.  Those of Spanish descent follow the 4 day rule of the Shulchan Aruch.  Many Sefardim follow the 5 day rule of the Rama, while north Africans, such as those from Tunis and Algiers wait 6 days. Yemenites wait for 7 days.

The actual ruling of the Shulchan Aruch is in a case where there actually was intercourse.  The Rama, however, applies the halacha in all circumstances whether or not the woman had intercourse prior to menstruation.  This appears to be the universally accepted halacha today.  The Bach suggests that there could be a leniency if the husband has been out of town and it is clear that the woman could not possibly have had intercourse in the days preceding menstruation.  The accepted practice, however, is to wait the 5 days regardless.

The Rama emphasizes that one needs to wait 5 days even if the precipitating event is not menstruation but is only a stain.  Rav Wozner explains that the rationale behind all of the various stringencies as in order to provide a simple and fool-proof set of rules so that people do not have to evaluate various variables each month.

There are several times when the Ashkenazim are lenient and permit counting after 4 days.

  1. A virgin bride.  Since the flow that she experiences at her initial intercourse is not uterine blood but rather is blood from an injury, we permit the woman to begin her count early.  This rule would apply for as long as the halachos of virgin blood apply to the woman.
     

  2. A woman whose immersion would have been on a Saturday night after Yom Tov.  As we will learn, the woman is required to completely clean her body before immersion.  In this particular case the woman not had intercourse with her husband during the relevant period and would be able to go to mikvah earlier if she only counted 4 days.  In this specific case, she is permitted to shorten the count.  Similarly, in a place where the men were always away during the week and only came home for Shabbos, the Divrei Malkiel rules that could be lenient and start counting on Day 5 rather than on Day 6.
     

  3. A woman whose cycle is always 13 days.  Observing a 5 day delay would mean the the woman could never have intercourse.
     

  4. There is some room to be lenient if the husband is out of town for an extended period.
     

  5. A virgin bride prior to her wedding does not need to observe this period at all and simply begins counting 7 clean days at the end of her menstruation after making a hefsek tahara.
     

  6. The combination of a stain and her husband begin out of town. According to many poskim she would be permitted to make an immediate hefsek tahara and begin counting her 7 days.

There are a number of other situations in which there are leniencies, but which are rather improbable.

There are a couple of open halachic questions that Rav Wozner and Rav Wolhandler leave unanswered.  The first is the case of a woman becoming a Niddah right after Yom Kippur or Tisha b'Av.  Since intercourse is not permitted on those days, they suggest the possibility of counting those as Day 1 of the 5 days.  The second is if a couple follows the chumra of the Ohr Zarua and separate prior to her menstruation by an additional onah over what is required.

As we see, the rules of poletes are complicated.  They also offer a posek a great deal of flexibility when dealing with halachic situations in this area, the most obvious being fertility and ovulation issues.  Rav Moshe Feinstein has rules that in such a situation we can be lenient if more than 5 days have passed from her last actual intercourse.  He rules that the woman may make her hefsek tahara as soon as her menstruation ends and begin counting the 7 days immediately.

As always, one most never adopt any of the exceptional leniencies that can be applied to poletes on one's own.  Rather, one's specific situation should be discussed with competent halachic authority.


 

 

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