008 - הִלְכוֹת אִסּוּרֵי בִּיאָה פֵּרֶק ח

Laws of Issurei Bi'ah, Chapter 8

1. There is a woman who has a veses (a fixed period), and there is a woman who has no veses—rather, she does not feel anything in herself until the blood comes out, and she has no fixed day for her sighting. The one who has a veses is one who has a fixed day: either from twenty days to twenty days, or from twenty-four days to twenty-four days, or less or more.

2. Before the blood comes she feels it in herself: she yawns, sneezes, feels pain at the mouth of her stomach and in her lower abdomen, the hair of her flesh bristles, or her body becomes warm, and similar occurrences. These signs, or one of them, come to her at a fixed time from the day of her veses.

3. We have already explained that any woman who has no veses is forbidden to have relations until she first examines herself; and one who has a veses is forbidden to have relations during the entire onah (time-period) of the veses: if her veses is by day, she is forbidden to have relations that entire day, and if her veses is at night, she is forbidden to have relations that entire night. And from the beginning of the day of the veses she always counts her days of niddah and her days of zivah.

4. Therefore women must be careful with their periods, so that each knows the day and hour on which her veses was established. If it was her way to see on the twentieth day, and the twentieth day came and she did not see, and the twenty-third day came and she saw, both the twentieth day and the twenty-third day are forbidden. Likewise, if she saw a second time on the twenty-third day and did not see on the twentieth day, both are still forbidden. If she saw a third time on the twenty-third day and did not see on the twentieth day, the twentieth day has become tahor, and the veses has been uprooted to the twenty-third day. For a woman does not establish a veses until she establishes it three times, and she does not become free of a veses until it is uprooted from her three times.

5. Any veses established on account of an external cause, even if she saw at it several times, is not a veses, for she saw because of the external cause. If she jumped and saw, jumped and saw, she has established a veses for days, without the jumping. How so? She jumped on Sunday and saw blood; twenty days later she jumped on Sunday and saw blood; nineteen days later she jumped on Shabbos and did not see blood, and after Shabbos she saw without jumping—Sunday after twenty days is established, for it is now known that the day caused her to see, not the jumping, and this day has already been established three times. And so too in every similar case.

6. If she saw on the fifteenth day of this month, on the sixteenth day of the following month, and on the seventeenth day of the month after that, she has established a veses ledilug (a veses of skipping). If the fourth month came and she saw on the eighteenth day, a veses has still not been established for her. Every day on which she saw, she is concerned about it for the future; once that day arrives and she does not see on it, that day has become tahor from the veses—for three uprootings are needed only for a day that was established three times.

7. If it was her way to see on the fifteenth day, and she changed to the sixteenth, both are forbidden. If she changed to the seventeenth, the sixteenth is permitted and the seventeenth becomes forbidden, while the fifteenth remains in its prohibition. If she changed to the eighteenth, the eighteenth becomes forbidden, and all the others are permitted.

8. If it was her way to see on the twentieth day, and she changed to the twenty-second day, both are forbidden. If the twentieth day arrived and she did not see, and on the twenty-second she saw, both are still forbidden. If the twentieth day arrived and she saw, the twenty-second day has become tahor, for she has returned to her fixed veses; and the twenty-second is uprooted, because it was not established three times.

9. A woman does not establish a veses within her days of niddah in which she saw—once she saw one day, she does not establish a veses in all the seven. Likewise, a woman does not establish a veses in her days of zivah, which are the eleven days. But she does establish a veses in her days of niddah in which she does not see. If a veses was established for her in her days of zivah, she is concerned about the veses; and any veses established in her days of zivah, if it was uprooted even once, is uprooted, and it need not be uprooted three times, for the presumption is that the blood is absent in these days.

10. How is she concerned about the veses? If she saw blood at this veses, even one day, she keeps the niddah days because of the doubt, and she is forbidden to have relations on that day, even if she did not see on the other days of the periods. If she saw three days, she is a zavah.

11. Any woman who examines herself often, constantly, is praiseworthy, even if she has a fixed veses, for it is possible that blood will come not at the time of the veses. During all eleven days of her days of zivah she is presumed tahor and does not need an examination; but after her days of zivah she must examine herself.

12. If she remained and did not examine herself, whether unavoidably or willingly, she is presumed tahor until she examines herself and finds tamei.

13. A woman who did not examine herself at the time of her veses, and some days later examined herself and found tamei—even though she is tamei retroactively back to the time of her veses, as will be explained in the subject of tumah and taharah—does not render tamei the man who had relations with her retroactively, and she counts only from the time she saw. If she found herself tahor, she is presumed tahor.

14. Likewise, a woman who saw blood because of a wound she has in the makor, even if she saw at the time of her veses, is tahor, and the blood is tahor, for periods are of Rabbinic origin, as will be explained in Hilchos Metamei Mishkav uMoshav.

15. A blind woman examines herself and shows it to her friend. But a deaf-mute woman and a woman who is mentally incompetent require competent women to examine them and to establish periods for them, and afterward they are permitted to their husbands.

16. Any woman who erred and does not know the time of her veses, and saw blood, must be concerned about zivus. Therefore, if she saw blood one day or two, she keeps the rest of seven, for perhaps this blood is in her days of niddah; and if she saw three days, she counts seven clean days, for perhaps she is in her days of zivah.

17. How does she act to set her veses in order, and to know whether she is a certain zavah or a doubtful zavah, and to know her days of zivah? Everything goes according to the days on which she sees. How so? If she saw one day or two, she completes the seven upon them, and begins to count the eleven days after the seven.

18. If she saw three days, she is a doubtful zavah: perhaps one of them was before her niddah period and two at the beginning of the niddah period. Likewise, if she saw four: perhaps two were before the niddah period and two at the beginning of the niddah period. She keeps five to complete the days of niddah, and eleven days of zivah after the five.

19. Likewise, if she saw nine days, she is a doubtful zavah: perhaps two were before the days of niddah and seven of the niddah; and she begins to count eleven days from after the nine when the blood stopped. Likewise, if she saw eleven days, she is a doubtful zavah: perhaps two were before the niddah period, seven of the niddah, and two after the niddah; and there remain to her nine of her days of zivah.

20. If she saw twelve days, she is a certain zavah: for even if two of them were before the niddah period and seven of the niddah, the three are after the niddah period, and there will remain to her eight of her days of zivah. Likewise, if she saw thirteen days, there will remain to her seven of her days of zivah, and these are the days of counting.

21. If she continued seeing blood, even if she saw a thousand days, when the blood stops she counts seven clean days, and after the seven the days of niddah begin for this woman who erred.

22. You have thus learned that any woman who erred counts, from when the blood stops, no less than seven and no more than seventeen, and then her days of niddah come. How so? If she saw one day and the blood stopped, she counts seventeen—six to complete her niddah period and eleven days of her zivah—and then her days of niddah come. If she saw thirteen or more, she counts seven from when the blood stops, and then her days of niddah come, as we have explained.