Niddah 73 – Where Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel Agree

We have seen a disagreement between the two schools concerning the last, eleventh day, of a woman's niddah/zavah cycle, where Beit Shammai were consistently strict and gave the eleventh day the same stringencies as the previous ten days, but Beit Hillel's rulings were mixed. The two schools agree, however, on the laws of the previous ten days.

Beit Shammai said to Beit Hillel, “Why is the eleventh day different?” Beit Hillel answered, “Because the flow on the next day would be that of niddah, not zivah, and not combined with this day.” Beit Shammai continued, “But you do give her some of the ritual impurity laws! So the eleventh day is the same as the ten days before!?” Beit Hillel answered, “We talk only about the impurity decreed by the Sages, but not an actual sacrifice obligation because you can't bring it on your own, without the Torah telling you.”

What is the actual source for the zavah laws in the Torah? - The phrase "When a woman has a discharge of blood, she is ritually impure (niddah) for seven days" – teaches after the seven days she cannot be a nidah, only a zavah. But maybe a discharge during the day renders her a niddah, and at night – a zavah? No, that's cannot be, since the Torah said, “After her niddah period.”

The Talmud ends on a teaching from the academy of Elijah: Whoever learns practical Torah laws every day (and some say, whoever learns hard, or whoever learns complicated laws like these of niddah, or whoever changes these laws every day) – such a person has their next world prepared. Why? Habakkuk says, “The ways of the world are His.” The word “ways” (halichot) can be read as laws (halachot).

Art: James Kerr-Lawson - Caterina Reading a Book

Niddah 72 – Eleventh Day

After the seven days of niddah, a woman immerses herself in a mikveh, and the couple can resume normal marital relations. During the next eleven days, if she sees blood, she is not called a niddah, but a zavah. Now she only has to wait for one day, and immerse in the mikveh the next morning. However, if she sees blood on the following day, the two days now combine, and her immersion in nullified. Therefore, the correct behavior in the eleven days of the zivah period is to wait until the end of the following day, and immerse in the mikveh then.

Our ruling is concerned with the eleventh day itself, when, should the woman see blood on the day following, twelfth one, the two days would not combine, and her early immersion in the mikveh would not be nullified. In that particular case, the woman saw blood on the eleventh day, went to the mikveh at night, not waiting till daybreak, and then had relations with her husband. Beit Shammai nevertheless give the couple all the stringencies of the regular zavah: both make objects ritually impure, and both have to bring a sacrifice. Beit Shammai extend the laws of the previous ten days to the eleventh one. However, Beit Hillel consider them non-guilty from the Torah point of view, and tell them not to bring a sacrifice. The Sages, however, had declared them ritually impure, to prevent this situation.

We will see the different sides of the argument on the next, concluding page of the Talmud.

Art: Caspar David Friedrich - Woman on the Beach of Rugen

Niddah 71 – A Woman Who Died

If a woman died, and then a “reviit” (about 5 ounces) of blood oozed from her uterus, this is not blood of niddah, because the woman did not sense it leave. However, it carries the ritual impurity of a stain. It also has the ritual impurity of a corpse, and has the capacity to make people and items under the same roof ritually impure. Rabbi Yehudah disagrees: since it is not blood niddah, it does not have this ritual impurity. And, if there is less than a “reviit” of it, it has no ritual impurity of a dead either. The first teacher agrees that it is not blood niddah, and if so, why does he assign any impurity to it? He and Rabbi Yehudah disagree about “is vs. becomes”: is uterine blood ritually impure while in the uterus, or does it becomes so when it comes out.

A woman who has given birth and who is in her “pure” days, when even if she sees blood, this does not render her ritually impure (thirty-three days for a boy, and sixty-six for a girl) has the right to eat the second tithe, just like any "immersed today" person - who was impure, went to a mikveh this day, and is awaiting for sunset to become completely pure. This is considered her “extended day” of waiting for complete purity. Afterwards, she brings her childbirth sacrifice, goes to a mikveh, and then she resumes eating the sacrifices.

Art: Johann Georg Meyer von Bremen - Dressing the Baby

Niddah 70 – Men of Alexandria and Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya

The men of Alexandria asked Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya twelve things: three matters of wisdom in law, three on moral lessons, three were just stupid questions, and three were about proper conduct.

They asked about a woman who was divorced, married someone else, and then remarried her first husband. Since that is prohibited by the Torah, what is the status of her daughter – can she marry a Kohen? Do we compare her to a widow who married a High Priest, which is prohibited, and whose daughter cannot marry a Kohen, and do we say that our case is surely worse? Or do we say that our case is better, since a widow married to a High Priest is herself disqualified to marry another Kohen, but our divorcee, although already prohibited to marry a Kohen, can still eat the Kohen's portion, if she is a daughter of a Kohen? He answered, from the Torah's use of the word, “She is abomination when remarried to her first husband” – only she, but not her daughter.

They asked him about a moral lesson. In Ezekiel it says that God "does not desire the death of a wicked man,” but about the sinful sons of Eli it says, “For God desired to kill them?!” He answered that in the first case they were open to repentance, but in the second they were not.

They asked him a stupid question, “Does the wife of Lot transmit ritual impurity of the dead?” He answered, “She is pure salt, and salt does not have any impurity.”

They asked, “What should a man do to become wise?” He answered, “Study more, and limit his business.” They asked, “Many have done that, and yet this has not helped them.” He answered, “They should also plead for mercy from Him to Whom wisdom belongs.”

Art: John La Farge - The Three Wise Men

Niddah 69 – A Zav Who Died

A zav (and also a zavah, a niddah, and a metzora – spiritual leper) who died, all convey ritual impurity through carrying. But – the Talmud asks – all dead bodies convey spiritual impurity through carrying!? – Well, here we are dealing with a case where a corpse lay on a massive, immobile stone. Since this stone is very heavy, then an object below the stone it does not really “carry” the corpse on top of it, and thus this object does not become ritually impure because of the corpse. However, if this corpse belongs to a zav, then the object under the stone does become ritually impure.

In truth, the corpse of a zav does not transmit ritual impurity either. It is the Sages, who decreed that it does, because this may be confused with a live zav, lying on the top of the stone. The concern was that if a dead zav does not carry ritual impurity, then people may confuse him with a live zav who fainted, who does carry impurity. To prevent this confusion, the Sages decrees that a dead zav should have the same impurity as the live one would.

Art: Theodore Gericault - Head of a Dead Young Man

Niddah 68 – When to Examine Oneself

A woman who became a niddah may purify herself seven days after her initial discharge, is she knows with certainty that the flow of blood has ceased prior to the conclusion of the seventh day. (That, of course, is the Torah law, but we mentioned that the modern law is more uniform, though more stingent). When does she need to perform this conclusive examination?

If she examined herself in the morning of the seventh day, and found herself to be pure from blood, then she is presumed to be so later. Even if she did not perform an additional examination at twilight, and after several days she examined herself and found blood, she is presumed to be pure in the interim, and the ritually pure foods that she handled after immersion are definitely pure. Rabbi Yehudah disagrees, and requires an examination right next to the end of the seventh day, because he suspects that the flow of blood may have resumed after morning examination. However, the Sages give a definite lenient ruling: even if she examined herself at the beginning of the second day, and found herself pure, she has the presumption of purity from then on.

Art: Frans van Mieris - Young woman in the morning

Niddah 67 – A Woman Immerses in a Mikveh

When a woman immerses in a mikveh, nothing must separate between her body and the water. This is derived from the immersion of a metzora, spiritual leper, about whom the Torah says, “and he will immerse his flesh in water.” Since the immersion is done in water as a matter of course, then the word “water” teaches exactly that law, that nothing should interpose between him and the water. Thus, there is a requirement to examine one's body and hair for interposition. In addition, the Sages established that a woman should also scrub, or shampoo, her hair before immersion.

In regards to this, Rava taught six specific laws, such as that while scrubbing the hair, she should not use anything that makes hairs stick together; that only warm water should be used, since cold water stiffens the hair and makes it more difficult to clean; and that she should wash the folds of her body, such as armpits, to remove any interposition. But we learned in the laws of mikveh that water does not need to enter folded areas! – True, but just as with flour offering, where blending is not critical, if it can be accomplished, but critical if it cannot, so here too, water does not have to enter there, but it must be able to, otherwise, the immersion does not work.

Art: Theo van Rysselberghe - Young Woman on the Banks of the Greve River

Niddah 66 – Modern Law

Rav and Shmuel both said regarding the law of a newlywed virgin bride that her husband performs only one cohabitation, which is a mitzvah, and then abstains. Rav Chisda objected, “But it once happened that Rabbi Yehudah the Prince gave a newlywed virgin bride four nights, and these were spread out over twelve month!” The Talmud interjects – Rav Chisda should have asked from the ruling that we just learned, which makes the distinction of age! Rav Chisda preferred to base his question on a practical case, which is more authoritative, rather then on a theoretical ruling. But in any case, there is a contradiction!?

The answer is that Rav and Shmuel were talking about the law as it was established later, and the one that is active today. Since not everybody is familiar with all the laws of a virgin bride, and since there is also a concern that the husband's desire for his wife might overwhelm him, the Sages decided to give all virgin brides the law of the most stringent case of those discussed above. Thus, all virgin brides are given only the first mitzvah-cohabitation.

Another stringency that arose in later generations: Rabbi Zeira said, “Jewish women have accepted upon themselves the stringency that even if they see a drop of uterine blood the size of a mustard seed, they wait seven clean days because of it.”

Art: Abbott Handerson Thayer - A Bride

Niddah 65 – The First Night

When a virgin marries, it is to be expected that the rupturing of her hymen will cause her to bleed. This blood, of course, is not menstrual blood, and it does not render her either ritually impure or prohibited to her husband. Moreover, since the wound may take some time to heal, quite often a newlywed virgin may continue to experience bleeding for some time. How long can the blood be attributed to this, and after what time must one suspect that this is blood of a menstrual cycle, is discussed in the following rulings.

If a young girl whose time to discharge blood has not yet arrives (before twelve) gets married, then Beit Shammai give her the four nights during which all blood is deemed to be hymen blood, but Beit Hillel extend this until the wound heals. If her time to discharge blood arrived, but she has not seen blood yet (between twelve and twelve-and-a-half), and she got married, then Beit Shammai give her the first night, but Beit Hillel give her four nights, until Shabbat (as marriages usually happened on Wednesday). Finally, if she already experienced menstrual cycles before she got married, then Beit Shammai give her only the first cohabitation – which is a mitzvah – but Beil Hillel give her the entire first night.

Art: Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot - Jewish Algerian Woman

Niddah 64 – Beginning of a Fixed Period

If a woman's period is accompanied by physical conditions as described earlier, the blood may still come at the beginning or at the end of this condition. If it usually comes at the beginning, and she discovered blood at a later time, it is presumed that it really came at the onset of the symptoms, and therefore all ritually pure foods that she handled since then are declared impure retroactively. However, if the blood usually appears at the end of the symptoms, all the foods that she handled prior are still ritually pure.

Rabbi Yose says that even hours count, and if, for example, she is used for her period to come at six hours on a certain day, it can be assumed every next time the blood also comes at the sixth hour. This has relevance to ritually pure food, but also to the couple's marital relations. For example, if she is accustomed to experience a discharge at sunrise, she is permitted to cohabit until sunrise. However, Rabbi Yehudah disagrees and says that only complete days count, so in our example, she is permitted to cohabit the entire day prior to her fixed period, but is forbidden with the coming of the night.

Art: Martin Johnson Heade - Sunrise

Niddah 63 – Fixed Period

The laws that we learned at the beginning of the Tractate refer to women who do not have a fixed period. However, for those women who do have a fixed period, some laws will be different. What is a fixed period? The typical fixed period is when a woman begins her discharge at the same time repeatedly. For example, if for three consecutive months the woman begins her period on the fifth day of the month, she has established a fixed period. Alternatively, if she begins her period twenty one day after the previous, she has established a pattern.

But we did learn about fixed periods also, at the beginning of the Tractate!? True, but here we are learning not only about time-based, but also about periods based on physical condition.

A different form of a fixed period is one accompanied by certain physical conditions, such as continuous stretching, yawning, or belching, sneezing, feeling pain in the area of her navel or in her lower abdomen, fever or shivers, heaviness of the head or of the body. If she feels any of these, and they are accompanied by a period, and this happens three times in a row – she has established a fixed period dependent on physical factors.

In all of these cases where a woman has a fixed period, her law actually has a leniency: if she was preparing ritually pure foods and saw blood, she does not have to suspect that this blood was actually there from before, but she is ritually impure only from now on. There is no retroactive twenty-four hour period of impurity.

Art: Mihaly Munkacsy - Yawning Apprentice

Niddah 62 – Seven Cleansing Agents

When a garment has the blood of niddah on it, it becomes ritually impure. If it may come in contact with ritually pure foods, it requires immersion in a mikveh. Prior to this immersion, however, one must nullify the blood by rubbing it with seven cleansing agents. If it was indeed blood, it will be removed or it will fade out, and if it was some kind of a dye, it will stay, but dye is not a source of ritual impurity and thus is not a problem. If he does not nullify the blood, immersing it in the mikveh does not help, since the impurity of a stain remains.

The seven agents are saliva (spit before one ate anything in the morning), split bean water, urine (left for three days), alum (sodium carbonate), aloe, detergent (possibly, saltwort), and ashlag. What is ashlag? Shmuel said, “I asked all seafarers, and that said that it is found in the crevices of pearls, and is removed with an iron nail.”

All cleansing agents have to be applied in the order listed, or else the test is inconclusive. If he applied them out of sequence, or all seven simultaneously, he has not accomplished anything.

Art: Pierre Auguste Renoir - Aloe in Algiers Landscape

Niddah 61 – Women Sleeping in Bed

If three women were sleeping in one bed, and blood was found beneath one of them, all three are ritually impure. Since the blood could have come from any one of them, we have no reason to attribute it to one rather than to another. However, if one examined herself and found blood, then only she is impure, but the other ones are pure, since they both attribute it to this one. If one was pregnant and not normally menstruating, the other two are impure, but if all three were pregnant, then again, each one is ritually impure.

If three women were sleeping in a bed – but we just had such a case! – there, they were pressed against each other, but here there is some distance – and blood was found under the middle one (the bed is against the wall), then all three are ritually impure. However, if it was found under the one farthest from the wall, then two are impure, but the one next to the wall is pure.

There was a vast area in Beit Choron where the land was like rock, and people knew that someone was buried there, but could not locate the source of impurity. One Sage told them to bring sheets, spread them out, and places where a corpse was buried became wet. Incidentally, these were people killed by Gedaliah, which led to the Exile. But Gedaliah was righeous, he could not have killed them! True, but since he refused to listen to a warning of a plot, it is as if he killed them. But Gedaliah had a reason: one should not believe bad talk!? – Yes, but one is allowed to suspect that it is true, and needs to check it out.

Art: John Singer Sargent - Two Women Asleep In A Punt Under The Willows

Niddah 60 – Woman Borrows a Tunic

If a Jewish woman lent her tunic to a gentile woman, or if she lent it to a Jewess who was a niddah  at this time, and when she got the tunic back and wore it herself, she afterwards discovered a bloodstain on it, she may attribute this stain to that other woman she lent it to. The other woman does not loose anything thereby: if she already was a niddah, this does not change her status, and if she was a gentile, who does not observe these laws, the Sages presumed that she is a niddah at all times.

However, if three women who were ritually pure wore a single tunic one after another, and afterwards blood was found on it, none of them can blame the other with certainty, and not being able to shift the possible responsibility, they all three becomes ritually impure.

If they sat on a stone bench, though, they are all ritually pure, because, as we saw earlier, any object that does not accept ritual impurity, does not affect the stains either. Rabbi Nechemyah formulated a rule: “Anything that is not susceptible to ritual impurity is not susceptible to stains.” His general rule includes even such cases as sitting on the outside of a clay vessels, since clay vessels do not receive their ritual impurity by contact with their outside surface.

Art: By (after) Dyck, Sir Anthony van - Portrait of two sisters, one in a blue dress, the other in a brown dress holding a bouquet of flowers

Niddah 59 – Attending to One's Needs

If a woman was attending to her needs (urinating) and saw blood, then Rabbi Meir resolves it as follows: if she was urinating while standing, she is ritually impure, but if while sitting, she is pure. However, Rabbi Yose says that in either case she is pure.

What is the logic of Rabbi Meir? He says that a woman who is urinating while standing does it out of a pressing need. In her desire to hold the urine back, she might have caused some of it to backwash into the uterus and bring some uterine blood with it. When she was sitting, however, this is not a concern. And Rabbi Yose? He says that the backwashing scenario has a very small probability, and most likely the blood is from a wound in the urinary tract, which does not render her  ritually impure.

If a man and a woman urinated into the same basin, and later blood was found in the urine, then Rabbi Yose says that she is ritually pure. If in the case above, where the blood came from a woman, but the source of it was not certain, Rabbi Yose declared her pure, then all the more so here, where it might possibly come from a man, he should declare her pure. That ruling we could have deduced on our own. However, Rabbi Shimon declares her impure, since it is more common for blood to come from a woman.

Art: Daniel Ridgway Knight - Women Washing Clothes By A Stream

Niddah 58 – Attribution

Shmuel made the following statement, “If a woman examined the ground of the earth and, finding it clean, sat on it, and then stood up and found blood on the ground, she is still ritually pure, since the Torah said 'Blood flowing in her flesh' – and not on the ground.” The Talmud challenges Shmuel from many angles, because indeed, how is ground different from a garment? However, in the end it answers for Shmuel that the Sages, who established the laws in regard to stains, formulated it similar to other laws of ritual purity, and ground does not ever become impure.

If a woman finds a stain but can attribute it to any other possible source, she should; for example, if she slaughtered an animal or a bird, if she handled garments with bloodstains on them, or if she sat next to people who handed such garments. She may attribute it to her son or her husband, if they were bloodstained or handled blood.

There was an incident with a certain woman who came before Rabbi Akiva and said, “I found a stain.” He asked her, “Perhaps you had a wound?” She replied, “Yes, but it healed.” He then said, “Perhaps if you moisten it, it will bring forth blood?” She answered, “Yes,” in he declared her ritually pure. He saw that his students were looking at each other and told them, “Why is this difficult in your eyes? The Sages who enacted the laws of stains did it with the provision to be treated leniently.”

Art: Harry Watson - Young woman sitting upon rocks

Niddah 57 – Bloodstain on the Flesh

If a woman finds a bloodstain on her body, then if it is directly opposite her genitals, she is ritually impure. These areas would include her heel or the big toe, because they can either potentially come close to the genitals or be right across. However, if the stain is on an area of her flesh that is not directly opposite the genitals, she is ritually pure. If it is on her leg or her foot, then if it on the inside (facing the other leg), she is ritually impure, otherwise, she is pure.

If she finds it on her tunic, then if it is from the belt down – she is ritually impure, and from the belt up – she is pure. If it is on the sleeve, and that sleeve reaches opposite the genitals – she is ritually impure, if not, she is pure. If she is accustomed to take off her tunic and cover herself with it at night when sleeping, then no matter where the stain is found, she would be ritually impure, because the tunic moves around during the night (unless she tied it to her head).

Art: Jean Baptiste Greuze - Young Girl in a Lilac Tunic

Niddah 56 – Creepy-crawly in an Alley

The Torah lists eight crawling animals that convey ritual impurity when they are dead. If such a dead crawler was found in an alley, then ritually pure objects in this alley are declared retroactively impure: perhaps the crawler that is  found now could have been there for several days, and could have touched the pure object. However, if someone can make a statement, “I checked this alley on that day, and it was free of such crawling animals,” then the retroactive impurity stops and does not go beyond this day. Also, if someone swept the alley, then there is no suspicion that the animal was there before: we have to assume that he swept away all impurities, and it could only appear there after sweeping.

In a similar vein, a bloodstain on a tunic renders ritually pure objects impure back in time, but only till the moment that one says, “I checked this tunic, and it did not have a bloodstain on it,” or until the last time it was laundered.

Art: Kauffmann, Angelica - Julia, wife of Pompey, faints at the sight of his bloodstain...

Niddah 55 – Substances

Some substances convey ritual impurity while they are moist, but not after they dry up. These include the emission of a zav (a special white discharge from a male member), his phlegm and saliva, creepy crawly animals (such as rats), an animal carcass, and human semen. Others, however, convey impurity both while moist and also when dry, and this includes the blood of a niddah, and the flesh of a corpse.

Even those substances about which we said that they loose their capacity to convey impurity when dry (such a spit of a zav), if they can be soaked and regain their nature, in such instances they continue to convey impurity even when dry. How long should they be soaked for this test? – In warm water, for a full day.

How are these laws derived? From extra words or letters in the Torah. For example, when the Torah said, “Zav and his emission,” or literally “emission of his,” the extra words “of his” teach that his emission is compared to him in the degree of impurity that it conveys.

Art: Santiago Rusinol i Prats - Convalescent

Niddah 54 – Twilight

We have mentioned multiple times the two different counts, each with its own set of laws, that a woman has: the seven-day niddah count, and the eleven-day zivah count. We have also seen an example of a confusion that may arise when we don't know, in which of the two periods an event has occurred.

Another example of such confusion leading to a messed up count is the case of a woman who experienced a discharge during the twilight of the eleventh day of her zivah period. Twilight is that period when the day ends and the night begins, and a twilight moment might belong to the previous day, or already to the next day, since night is the beginning of the day. If her discharge occurred during the day, then it would belong to the last, eleventh day of her zivah cycle, when she only needs to wait one day after a discharge. However, if her discharge occurred at night, it would belong to the next, seven-day cycle of possible niddah. In that case, she will have to wait seven days before going to the mikveh. Since it is impossible to determine the nature of twilight, she will have not choice but to wait out seven days.

However, even after that, there is still a possible confusion. If she discharges blood on the eighth day, this might be the first day of the zivah, and then she has only to wait one day, or it could be a beginning of the new niddah period, if the previous wait was really unnecessary. Because of all these factors, she has to wait for seventeen days. However, there is never a need to wait for longer, as we mentioned in the Tractate Arachin.

Art: William-Adolphe Bouguereau - Waiting