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In Torah and Rabbinic law, a hefsek taharah ("pause" to initiate "purity") is a verification method used in the Orthodox Jewish community by a woman who is in a niddah state to determine that menstruation has ceased.
The performance of a hefsek taharah is needed to initiate the counting of seven days absent of blood discharge.
The source for a Jewish woman to perform an "examination" is quoted implicitly in the Mishnah;
A niddah who examined herself on the seventh day, in the morning...
— Mishnah Niddah 10:2
There is a difference of opinion amongst halakhic sources whether the self-examination is D'Oraita (required by Torah law) or D'Rabbanan (rabbinical requirement).
In the Orthodox Jewish community, women may test whether menstruation has ceased; this ritual is known as the hefsek tahara. The ritual requires that the cloth used to perform this test is first checked carefully to ensure that it is clean of any marks, colored threads, or specks; the cloth itself can be any clean white cloth, although there are small cloths designed for this ritual, known as bedikah (meaning checking).
In the Orthodox Jewish community, further rituals are practices toward assurance regarding the cessation of the menstrual flow. After the hefsek tahara, some women insert a cloth (or, in modern times, a tampon [ citation needed ]), consequently known as a moch dachuk, for between 18 minutes and an hour, to ensure that there is no uterine blood; this must be done carefully, as it could otherwise irritate the mucous membrane, causing bleeding unrelated to menstruation. If there is any fear of irritation causing bleeding, a rabbi may waive this practice.
Some women also repeat the "bedikah" each morning and evening of the seven days subsequent to the end of menstruation. Another tradition is the wearing of white underwear and use of white bedding during this period; conversely, the rest of the time, when not counting the "seven clean days", some women who suffer from spotting deliberately use coloured underwear and coloured toilet paper, since it is only when blood is seen on white material that it has tumah status in Jewish law.
When not during their seven "clean" days, all women are advised to wear colored undergarments.
The bedikah cloth or "checking cloth," called an id ["cloth"] or an "eid"["witness"] in Hebrew, is a clean piece of white cloth used in the process of purifying a niddah. It is used by observant Jewish women to determine whether they have finished menstruation. The cloth is inserted into the vagina, and if no blood is found, the woman may start counting the seven blood-free days. On each of these days, she performs this examination in the morning and in the later afternoon before sunset. If no blood is found, she may go to the mikveh on the eighth evening after nightfall, and then engage in relations with her husband. [1]
This practice is also occasionally used by Jewish men to check if he has gotten blood on himself from his wife after relations to determine whether she menstruates during relations. [2]
Such cloths are about two by four inches, and are available at local Judaica stores, the local mikveh, stores in Orthodox neighborhoods in Israel and pharmacies and some supermarkets in Israel, or may be cut from clean all-white soft cotton or linen fabric. [3]
According to Orthodox authorities, a bride who experiences bleeding from the hymen upon her marriage's consummation counts only four days before performing a hefsek tahara, instead of the usual five.
The Mishneh Torah, subtitled Sefer Yad ha-Hazaka, is a code of Jewish religious law (Halakha) authored by Maimonides. The Mishneh Torah was compiled between 1170 and 1180 CE, while Maimonides was living in Egypt, and is regarded as Maimonides' magnum opus. Accordingly, later sources simply refer to the work as "Maimon", "Maimonides", or "RaMBaM", although Maimonides composed other works.
Mikveh or mikvah is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve ritual purity.
Niddah, in traditional Judaism, describes a woman during menstruation, or a woman who has menstruated and not yet completed the associated requirement of immersion in a mikveh.
Tohorot is the sixth and last order of the Mishnah. This order deals with the clean/unclean distinction and family purity. This is the longest of the orders in the Mishnah. There are 12 tractates:
In Judaism, ritual washing, or ablution, takes two main forms. Tevilah (טְבִילָה) is a full body immersion in a mikveh, and netilat yadayim is the washing of the hands with a cup.
Negiah, literally "touch", is the concept in Jewish law (Halakha) that forbids or restricts physical contact with a member of the opposite sex. A person who abides by this halakha is colloquially described as a shomer negiah.
Bereavement in Judaism is a combination of minhag and mitzvah derived from Judaism's classical Torah and rabbinic texts. The details of observance and practice vary according to each Jewish community.
Niddah is a masekhet or tractate of the Mishnah and the Talmud, and is part of the order of Tohorot. The content of the tractate primarily deals with the legal provisions related to Halakha of Niddah.
Metzora, Metzorah, M'tzora, Mezora, Metsora, M'tsora, Metsoro, Meṣora, or Maṣoro is the 28th weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the fifth in the Book of Leviticus. The parashah deals with ritual impurity. It addresses cleansing from skin disease, houses with an eruptive plague, male genital discharges, and menstruation. The parashah constitutes Leviticus 14:1–15:33. The parashah is made up of 4,697 Hebrew letters, 1,274 Hebrew words, 90 verses, and 159 lines in a Torah Scroll.
In Jewish law, ṭumah and ṭaharah are the state of being ritually "impure" and "pure", respectively. The Hebrew noun ṭum'ah, meaning "impurity", describes a state of ritual impurity. A person or object which contracts ṭumah is said to be ṭamé, and thereby unsuited for certain holy activities and uses until undergoing predefined purification actions that usually include the elapse of a specified time-period.
The Jewish view on birth control currently varies between the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform branches of Judaism. Among Orthodox Judaism, use of birth control has been considered only acceptable for use in limited circumstances. Conservative Judaism, while generally encouraging its members to follow the traditional Jewish views on birth control has been more willing to allow greater exceptions regarding its use to fit better within modern society. Reform Judaism has generally been the most liberal with regard to birth control allowing individual followers to use their own judgment in what, if any, birth control methods they might wish to employ.
In Jewish ritual law, a zav is a man who has had abnormal seminal discharge from the male sexual organ, and thus entered a state of ritual impurity. A woman who has had similar abnormal discharge from her genitals is known as a zavah.
Keri is a Hebrew term which literally means "happenstance", "frivolity" or "contrariness" and has come to mean seminal emission. The term is generally used in Jewish law to refer specifically to the regulations and rituals concerning the emission of semen, whether by nocturnal emission, or by sexual activity. A man is said to be a ba'al keri after he has ejaculated without yet completing the associated ritual cleansing requirements.
Chesed Shel Emes is a Jewish voluntary organisation that is found in various forms around the world.
Forbidden relationships in Judaism are those intimate relationships which are forbidden by prohibitions in the Torah and also by rabbinical injunctions.
In Jewish ritual law, a zavah is a woman who has had vaginal blood discharges not during the usually anticipated menstrual cycle, and thus entered a state of ritual impurity. A man who has had similar abnormal discharge from his genitals is known as a zav.
Jewish traditions across different eras and regions devote considerable attention to sexuality. Sexuality is the subject of many narratives and laws in the Tanakh and rabbinic literature.
In the realm of tumah and taharah terminology, the term Av HaTumah is a rabbinic term for a person or object that is in a state of tumah, second in severity only to corpse uncleanness. Anything suffering from Av HaTumah, such as carrion, the blood of a menstruate woman, seminal fluid, etc., can render those persons who touch it defiled at a further remove, known as a "first-grade level of uncleanness."
Rabbi Zeira's stringency or the stringency of the daughters of Israel relates to the law of niddah and refers to the stringency expounded in the Talmud where an additional five days are added to the Torah-based seven-day niddah prohibition as applicable in Torah law and rabbinic Judaism.
Corpse uncleanness is a state of ritual uncleanness described in Jewish halachic law. It is the highest grade of uncleanness, or defilement, and is contracted by having either directly or indirectly touched, carried or shifted a dead human body, or after having entered a roofed house or chamber where the corpse of a Jew is lying.
