007 - הִלְכוֹת אִסּוּרֵי בִּיאָה פֵּרֶק ז

Laws of Issurei Bi'ah, Chapter 7

1. A pregnant woman who began to suffer, was seized by labor pains, and blood began to come out before she gave birth—that blood is what is called dam koshi (the blood of difficult labor). What is its law? If it came in her days of niddah, it is niddah blood, and she is tamei as a niddah. If it came in her days of zivah, she is tahor, for it says of the zavah, "דָּם יִהְיֶה זֹבָהּ בִּבְשָׂרָהּ" ("her issue in her flesh is blood," Vayikra 15:19); from the oral tradition they learned: her issue because of herself, and not because of the child. This is provided that she gives birth to a live child; but if she miscarried, there is no koshi for miscarriages. Even if the blood was flowing and descending with the pains and the suffering for fourteen days before she gave birth, it is dam koshi and tahor. But if the blood began fifteen days or more before the birth, it is blood of zivah, and she is a yoledes bezov (one who gives birth as a zavah).

2. When does this apply? When the contractions, the pains and the suffering did not stop, but the difficulty continued until she gave birth. But if she saw blood for three days or more in her days of zivah with suffering and pains, and the suffering stopped and she had relief from the pains after the three days, and she remained at ease for twenty-four hours or more—even though the blood did not stop, and even though the suffering and pains returned after the twenty-four hours—she is a zavah. For had the blood been on account of the child, neither the suffering nor the pains would have stopped. If she gave birth after that, she is a yoledes bezov.

3. If she saw blood one day without suffering and two with difficulty, and gave birth; or two without suffering and one day with difficulty, and gave birth; or one day with difficulty, one day without suffering and one day with difficulty, and gave birth—she is not a yoledes bezov. But if she saw one day with difficulty and two without suffering, and gave birth; or two with difficulty and one without suffering, and gave birth; or one day without suffering, one day with difficulty and one day without suffering, and gave birth—she is a yoledes bezov. This is the rule: if difficulty adjoins the birth, she is not a yoledes bezov; if ease adjoins her giving birth, she is a yoledes bezov.

4. If the third day of her sighting fell on the day of the birth—even if that entire day was at ease—she is not a yoledes bezov, for the day of birth adjoins the difficulty. If she saw for two days, and on the third she miscarried, and it is not known what she miscarried, she is a doubtful zavah and a doubtful yoledes.

5. What is the law of a yoledes bezov? She must keep seven clean days and immerse in the evening, and afterward she is permitted to her husband, and afterward she will have dam tohar (blood of purity). She brings the offering of a zavah and the offering of a woman who has given birth. Therefore, if she gave birth to a male—even if the blood stopped on the day of birth—she counts seven clean days and immerses. If she gave birth to a female and counted seven clean days, and they were completed together with the fourteen days of the birth, or after them, she immerses and is permitted to her husband. But if the days of counting were completed within the fourteen, she is forbidden to her husband until the night of the fifteenth.

6. How so? If she saw blood for three days and counted seven clean days, that makes ten, and she is still forbidden until the night of the fifteenth, for during all fourteen days she is like a niddah. Why do we not require a yoledes bezov to count seven after the seven days for a male and after the fourteen days for a female? Because the days of her birth and the days of her niddah period in which she does not see blood count toward her counting of seven, as will be explained.

7. A yoledes bezov whose blood did not stop has no dam tohar; rather, any blood she sees is like blood of zivah. But if she counted seven clean days, and the fourteen days for a female were completed, and she immersed, and afterward she saw blood within the forty days for a male or the eighty days for a female, it is dam tohar.

8. If she counted seven clean days and did not immerse, and afterward saw blood, she immerses and is permitted to her husband immediately, for all the days of purity are fit neither for niddah nor for zivah. But the blood itself is tamei and imparts tumah like the law of niddah blood, until she immerses.

9. A woman who gave birth to a female, and after her fourteen days she conceived, and dam koshi began to come to her within the eighty days—it is dam tohar, even though there is no koshi for miscarriages; for all blood she sees within the days of purity is tahor until she miscarries the fetus. Once she miscarries, she is tamei with the tumah of birth: if she miscarried a male, the tumah of a male; if she miscarried a female, the tumah of a female. She counts the days of tumah and the days of fulfillment from the second fetus. Even if they were twins and she miscarried one today and the other several days later, she counts the days of tumah and the days of fulfillment for the second.

10. A zavah whose flow stopped, who began to count seven clean days, and dam koshi came to her within the clean days—it does not undo the count, and the days of koshi count for her toward the seven. Likewise, if she gave birth within the seven clean days, the birth does not undo the count, and the days of the birth count for her toward the seven, even though she is tamei in them, as it says, "וְאִם-טָהֲרָה, מִזּוֹבָהּ" ("and if she becomes tahor of her flow," Vayikra 15:28): once she has become tahor "of her flow," even though she is tamei with a different tumah, such as the tumah of birth, or the tumah of niddah, or the tumah of tzaraas, she counts on them; and these tumos and the like do not undo the counting.

11. The days of her birth and the days of her niddah period—if she did not see blood in them—count toward her counting of seven clean days. If she saw blood in them, the days of sighting do not count for her, but they do not undo all the days either; rather, when the blood stops she completes the days she had counted. For only a sighting of zov undoes everything, whereas these undo only their own day.

12. Once you understand all these principles we have explained, you will understand what the Sages said: that it is possible for a woman to see blood from the makor day after day for one hundred and fourteen days and not be a zavah. How so? Two before her niddah period, the seven days of her niddah period, two after the days of her niddah period, fourteen of koshi, eighty for a female, seven of niddah, and two after the days of niddah. You have thus learned that any blood a woman sees after the completion of the days of fulfillment is the beginning of her niddah period, and we pay no attention to earlier periods. Therefore, a woman who sees blood at the end of the days of fulfillment, at bein hashmashos (twilight), is a doubtful niddah, for perhaps she saw the blood at night, which is the beginning of the days of her niddah period.

13. We have already explained that a niddah who saw blood all seven days is permitted to have relations on the night of the eighth after she immerses; a zavah ketanah keeps one tahor day, immerses, and is permitted to have relations in the evening; and a zavah gedolah counts seven clean days, immerses, and is permitted to have relations on the night of the eighth. Between one niddah period and the next there are only eleven days, and during those eleven she may be a zavah ketanah or gedolah.

14. Once you remember all these principles, you will understand what the Sages said. A woman who is established all her days as seeing blood one day and not seeing blood the next: at first she has relations on the night of the eighth and on the eighth day, which is one day after her days of niddah. In every eighteen days she has relations on four nights only, and she cannot have relations in the daytime, for the tahor day is kept for the tamei day. Therefore, if she would see the blood on every tamei day from the beginning of the night, she has relations only on the eighth alone, which is one day after her niddah period.

15. If she would see two tamei days and two tahor days, she has relations on the eighth, the twelfth, the sixteenth, and the twentieth day.

16. If she would see three tamei days and three tahor days, she has relations on two days of the three tahor days after her days of niddah, for one of them is kept for the two tamei days adjoining her niddah period; and thereafter she never has relations again, for she has become established as a zavah gedolah, and she has no seven clean days.

17. If she would see four tamei days and four tahor, she has relations one day after her niddah period, and thereafter she never has relations again.

18. If she would see five tamei days and five tahor, she has relations on the three adjoining her niddah period, and thereafter she never has relations again.

19. If she would see six tamei days and six tahor days, she has relations on the five days adjoining her first niddah period, and thereafter she never has relations again.

20. If she would see seven tamei days and seven tahor, she has relations during the first tahor week adjoining her niddah period. Then comes a tamei week, in which she is established as a zavah, and the tahor week that comes after it is for the counting, and she is forbidden to have relations in it. It turns out that in four weeks she had relations only one week. And so all her days: she has relations eighteen days in every eighteen weeks. How so? The fifth week, she is a zavah; the sixth week, in which she is tahor, is for the counting; the seventh week, a zavah; the eighth week, for the counting; the ninth week, in which she sees—five days of it are of the days of niddah and two of the beginning of the days of zivah; she keeps one day of the tenth, tahor, week, and has relations on six. The eleventh week, in which she sees—two of the end of her days of zivah and five of the beginning of the days of niddah; and she has relations five days of the twelfth, tahor, week. The thirteenth week, a zavah; the fourteenth week, for the counting; likewise the fifteenth week, a zavah; the sixteenth week, for the counting; the seventeenth week, a zavah; the eighteenth week, for the counting. And she counts in this way forever. You thus find that in every eighteen weeks she has relations eighteen days. Had this illness not befallen her, and she were a week of niddah and eleven days tahor, she would have relations in every eighteen weeks for eleven weeks, which are seventy-seven days.

21. When she sees a tamei week and a tahor week, she has relations eighteen days, which are about a quarter of the days; and this is what the Sages said: she has relations a quarter of her days.

22. If she would see eight days tamei and eight days tahor, she has relations fifteen days out of forty-eight days. How so? Of the first eight tamei days, seven are her days of niddah and one day is zivus adjoining her niddah period. She keeps one day of the eight tahor days for it, and has relations on seven. Afterward come eight tamei days: two of them complete her days of zivah, and six are of her days of niddah. Then come eight tahor days: one of them completes her days of niddah, and she has relations on a second seven. Afterward come eight tamei days: four of them complete her days of zivah, and four are of her days of niddah; she turns out to be a zavah gedolah and needs a counting of seven. Then come eight tahor days: she counts seven of them and has relations one day. It turns out that she has relations fifteen days in every forty-eight.

23. If she would see nine days tamei and nine days tahor, she has relations eight days in every eighteen days, always. How so? Of the nine tamei days, seven are for her niddah period, and two are zivus adjoining her niddah period. She keeps one day of the nine tahor days for them, and has relations on eight. And so always.

24. If she would see ten days tamei and ten days tahor, and from ten upward—even a thousand days tamei and a thousand days tahor—her days of relations will be as the number of her days of zivah. How so? Of the ten tamei days, seven are niddah and three are zivah; of the ten tahor days, she counts seven and has relations on three. Thus the days of relations are three, and the days of the zivah of her blood are three. Likewise, one hundred tamei days and one hundred tahor: of the hundred tamei days, seven are for niddah and ninety-three are zivus; of the hundred tahor days, seven are for the counting and ninety-three for relations. And likewise a thousand, and likewise every number, in this way.