006 - הִלְכוֹת אִסּוּרֵי בִּיאָה פֵּרֶק ו

Laws of Issurei Bi'ah, Chapter 6

1. The blood of a niddah, the blood of a zavah, dam koshi (the blood of difficult labor), the blood of a woman who has given birth, and the dam tohar (blood of purity) of a woman after childbirth—all of it is one blood. It comes from the makor, and it is from one spring. Only according to the times does its law change, so that one woman sees blood and is tahor, another is a niddah, and another is a zavah.

2. How so? When a woman sees blood for the first time, or when she sees at the time of her veses (her fixed period), which is the time she has established for her niddah period, she is a niddah for all seven days, whether she saw blood throughout the seven or saw only the first drop. If she saw blood on the eighth day, it is blood of zivah, because it is not at the time of her niddah period.

3. Likewise, any blood she sees within the days between one niddah veses and the next niddah veses is blood of zivah. It is a halachah leMoshe miSinai (a law given to Moshe at Sinai) that between one niddah period and the next there are only eleven days.

4. All the seven days at whose beginning her veses was established are called her days of niddah, whether she saw blood in them or not. Why are they called days of niddah? Because they are fit for niddah, and any blood she sees in them is considered niddah blood.

5. All the eleven days after the seven are called her days of zivah, whether she saw blood in them or not. Why are they called days of zivah? Because they are fit for zivah, and any blood she sees in them is considered blood of zivah. Be careful with these two names: her days of niddah and her days of zivah.

6. All the days of a woman, from the day her veses is established until she dies, or until the veses is uprooted to another day, she always counts seven from the beginning of the day of the veses and after them eleven; seven and after them eleven. She must be careful in the count, so that when she sees blood she will know whether she saw in the days of niddah or in the days of zivah. For all the days of a woman are so: seven days of niddah and eleven days of zivah—unless childbirth interrupts, as will be explained.

7. A woman who saw blood in her days of zivah for only one day, or for two days one after the other, is called a zavah ketanah (a minor zavah), and is called a shomeres yom keneged yom (one who keeps a day for a day). If she saw three days one after the other, she is a full zavah; she is called a zavah gedolah (a major zavah), and is called simply a zavah, as it says, "וְאִשָּׁה כִּי-יָזוּב זוֹב דָּמָהּ יָמִים רַבִּים" ("if a woman's blood flows for many days," Vayikra 15:25): the minimum of "days" is two, and "many" is three.

8. The only difference between a zavah gedolah and a zavah ketanah is the counting of seven and the bringing of an offering: a zavah gedolah must count seven clean days, while a zavah ketanah counts only one day; and a zavah gedolah brings an offering when she becomes tahor. But regarding tumah and the prohibition of relations, both are equal.

9. How so? If she saw blood in her days of zivah, whether she saw at the beginning of the night or at the end of the day, that entire day is tamei, as though the blood had not stopped from the time she saw until sunset. She watches the entire night. If she saw nothing at night, she rises early the next day and immerses after sunrise, and watches the entire day. If she saw nothing, this is one tahor day corresponding to the tamei day, and she is permitted to her husband in the evening.

10. If she saw blood on the second day as well, whether in its day or in its night after she immersed, the second day is tamei, and she watches the entire third night. If she did not see, she rises early the next day and immerses after sunrise, and watches the entire day. If she saw nothing, this is one tahor day corresponding to the two tamei days, and she is permitted to her husband in the evening.

11. If she saw blood on the third day as well, whether in its day or in its night, she is a zavah gedolah and must count seven tahor days without blood, as it says, "וְסָפְרָה לָּהּ שִׁבְעַת יָמִים, וְאַחַר תִּטְהָר" ("she shall count for herself seven days, and afterward she shall be tahor," Vayikra 15:28). She immerses on the seventh day after sunrise, and she is permitted to her husband in the evening. On the eighth day she brings her offering: two turtledoves or two young pigeons.

12. A zavah ketanah who immersed on the night of the day she keeps, or a zavah gedolah who immersed on the seventh night, is as though she had not immersed; she is like a niddah who immersed within the seven days.

13. One who has relations with a zavah gedolah on the seventh day of her count after she immersed, or with a zavah ketanah on the day she keeps after she immersed, is exempt from kareis: since she immersed at the time fit for her immersion, she is tahor. But such a woman leads to improper conduct, for her relations and her touch are in suspense.

14. How are they in suspense? If the day was completed after the immersion and she did not see blood, everything she touched after her immersion is tahor, and no one is liable for anything for relations with her after the immersion. But if she saw blood on that day after she immersed, she turns out to have been a zavah retroactively: everything she touched retroactively is tamei, and she and the man who had relations with her are liable for an offering. Therefore she is forbidden to her husband until evening, so that she not bring herself into doubt.

15. A zavah who counted six clean days and on the seventh saw blood—even close to sunset—has undone everything, and she again counts seven clean days from after the tamei day.

16. If she discharged semen within the days of counting, it undoes one day, for she is like a zav who saw a seminal emission, which undoes one day. If she saw blood on the tenth of her days of zivah, on the eleventh, and on the twelfth—even though she saw on three days one after the other, she is not a zavah gedolah; rather she has passed from minor zivus into niddah, for the twelfth day is the beginning of the days of niddah, and one who sees in her days of niddah is not a zavah, as we have explained.

17. What, then, is that which is written in the Torah, "אוֹ כִי-תָזוּב, עַל-נִדָּתָהּ" ("or if it flows beyond her niddah period," Vayikra 15:25)? That if she saw three days close to her niddah period, she is a zavah—for example, she saw on the eighth from her niddah, on the ninth and on the tenth, which are the first, second and third of the eleven days that are her days of zivah. If she saw blood on the eleventh of her days of zivah, immersed in the evening, which is the night of the twelfth, and had relations—even though she is tamei and the man who had relations with her is tamei, and they render tamei a mishkav and moshav (what they lie or sit upon)—they are not liable to kareis, because the twelfth day does not combine with the eleventh day to make her a zavah; the immersion of that night availed her, to save her from the offering.

18. If she immersed on the twelfth day after sunrise, she is forbidden to her husband until evening, as is the law of every zavah ketanah; and if he transgressed and had relations with her, both are exempt from anything. Even if she saw blood after he had relations with her on the twelfth day, it is of no consequence, for this is niddah blood and it does not combine with the day before it.

19. If she saw blood at the end of the seventh day of her niddah period, at bein hashmashos (twilight), and saw on the ninth and the tenth, she is a doubtful zavah: perhaps the first sighting was on the night of the eighth, and it turns out that she saw three days one after the other from the beginning of her days of zivah. Likewise, if she saw blood on the ninth and the tenth of her days of zivah, and saw at the end of the eleventh day at bein hashmashos, she is a doubtful zavah: perhaps the last sighting was on the eleventh day, and she has seen three days one after the other in her days of zivah.

20. A niddah who examined herself within her days of niddah and found that the blood had stopped—even if it stopped on the second day of her niddah period—and, through error or deliberately, did not examine herself until many days after her niddah period, and when she examined herself she found tamei: we do not say that perhaps she was tamei all those days; rather, all those days in which she did not examine herself she is presumed tahor. If she examined herself and found tamei—even if she examined on the seventh day of her niddah period—and at bein hashmashos did not examine herself so as to pass out of the tumah of niddah, but waited some days and afterward examined herself and found tahor, she is a doubtful zavah. And if she found tamei, she is a certain zavah: since at the beginning she found tamei and at the end tamei, she is presumed not to have stopped bleeding. As for the first day of the niddah period, even if she found tahor on it, it is as though she found tamei, for throughout the entire first day the spring is presumed to be open.

21. A zavah who examined herself on the first of the days of counting and found tahor, and did not examine herself until the seventh day and found tahor, is presumed tahor, as though she had examined herself all seven days and found tahor.

22. Likewise, if she examined herself on the first day of the days of counting and found tahor, and on the eighth day and found tahor, she is presumed tahor. If she examined herself on the third day of her zivah and found that the blood had stopped, and did not examine herself on the first of the days of counting, and on the seventh she examined herself and found tahor, she is presumed tahor. The same law applies to a zav in all these examinations: he is tahor, and the days of counting count for him.

23. Any woman who is a doubtful niddah or a doubtful zavah must keep seven clean days because of the doubt, immerse on the night of the eighth, and afterward she is permitted to her husband. She brings the offering of a zavah, and it is not eaten, as will be explained in its place.