Zavah: Difference between revisions

According to the [[Jerusalem Talmud]], the eleven-day period between each [monthly] menstrual cycle is ''Halacha le-Moshe mi-Sinai''.<ref>[[Jerusalem Talmud]] (''Berakhoth'' 37a [5:1])</ref> This has been explained by [[Maimonides]]<ref>[[Maimonides]], ''[[Mishne Torah]]'' (Hil. ''Issurei Bi'ah'' 6:1–5) </ref> to mean that seven days are given to all women during their regular monthly menstrual cycle, known as the days of the menstruate ([[Hebrew]]: ''niddah''), even if her actual period lasted only 3 to 5 days. From the eighth day after the beginning of her period (the ''[[terminus post quem]]'', or the earliest date in which we begin to reckon the case of a ''zivah''), when she should have normally concluded her period, these are days that are known in Hebrew as the days of a running issue ([[Hebrew]]: ''zivah''), and which simply defines a time (from the 8th to the 18th day, for a total of eleven days) that, if the woman had an irregular flow of blood for three consecutive days during this time, she becomes a ''zivah'' and is capable of defiling whatever she touches, and especially whatever object she happens to be standing upon, lying upon or sitting upon.

 

 

The woman, within an eleven-day window of the completion of her base seven-day ''[[niddah]]'' period (and her typical immersion in the mikveh) notices an abnormal blood discharge. This one time discharge deems her a ''zavah ktanah'' (minor zavah) and brings the requirement for her to verify that the next day will show no discharge. Provided the next day is clean, her immersion in the mikveh prior to sunset makes her ''tahor'' (pure) after sunset.