Niddah 54a — the Talmud in English

Are they fools?

Surely

they are mistaken!

For they do not know what their law is, whether they are like niddot or like zavot.

Rather, teach:

while you are correcting the

mistaken

come and correct the clever ones as well! And regarding which clever woman did Rabbi Yehoshua say that she must be corrected?

For it was taught:

A woman who throughout all her days has

one impure day,

on which she sees blood,

and one pure day,

on which she does not see blood—her regulation is:

She has intercourse

on the

eighth

day after her first sighting, for she can immerse and purify herself on the eve of the eighth day, since she does not see blood on it [and have intercourse during it, night and day],

and its night with it,

for on the night following it as well she is permitted, since she is accustomed to see only during the day; and therefore she will become impure only on the morning of the ninth day.

And

likewise she can have intercourse on another

four nights out of eighteen days [

from which a “complete cycle” of seven days of niddah and eleven days of ziva is composed], and these are:

a. After she sees on the ninth day, which is a day of ziva, she observes the tenth day [on which she does not see] according to the law of “observing one day corresponding to one day,” and immerses, purifies herself, and has intercourse on the night following it [the eve of the eleventh day].

b. And after she sees on the eleventh day, she observes the twelfth day, immerses, purifies herself, and has intercourse on the night following it [which is the eve of the thirteenth day].

c. And likewise, when she sees on the thirteenth day, she observes the fourteenth day, and has intercourse on the eve of the fifteenth.

d. And likewise, when she sees on the fifteenth day, she observes the sixteenth day, and has intercourse on the eve of the seventeenth.

Indeed, when she sees on the seventeenth and observes the eighteenth, she is also permitted to have intercourse on the following night, the eve of the nineteenth. But since this night is not included within the eighteen days of the preceding cycle of the days of niddah and ziva, but belongs to the next cycle of eighteen days of niddah and ziva, the tannai did not include it among the nights on which she is permitted to have intercourse.

But

if she would see

the blood

from the evening, she has intercourse only on the eighth!

And on the eighth she has intercourse during its night and day; but on the other days she cannot have intercourse, since on the day on which she saw, she sees from the evening. And on a day on which she does not see, she must observe one day corresponding to one day.

And if the order of her seeing was

two impure days and two pure days,

her regulation is:

a.

She has intercourse on the eighth,

during its night and day!

b.

And

after she sees on the ninth and tenth days and observes the eleventh day, she has intercourse during the day of

the twelfth!

c.

And

after she sees on the thirteenth and fourteenth days and observes the fifteenth, she has intercourse during the day of

the sixteenth!

d. But after she sees on the seventeenth and eighteenth days, she cannot have intercourse on the nineteenth day, because the eighteenth day is the eleventh day of the days of ziva. And it held that one who sees on the eleventh day of her ziva days is forbidden to have intercourse on the following day [even though this day is already among the days fit for niddah, and it does not have the law of “observing one day corresponding to one day”].

And

therefore she can have intercourse the next time only on

the twentieth day!

And when she sees again, on the twenty-first day, she is a niddah. And from this point onward, another new cycle of twenty days will begin!

And the Gemara raises a difficulty:

Then let her also have intercourse on the nineteenth [

nineteen]? For she does not need to observe the nineteenth day under the law of “observing one day corresponding to one day,” because the eleven days of ziva had already elapsed at the end of the eighteenth day, and she no longer has the law of observing!?

And it answers:

Rav Sheshet said: This is to say,

“

As a glutton

as we learned [

that we learned below in the Mishna, as a derogatory designation for a lustful man who has intercourse with a woman who saw blood on the eleventh day of the days of ziva, and immersed on the following day], is forbidden!”

That is: this is not merely a derogatory designation; rather, the Sages forbade having intercourse with a woman who saw on the eleventh day of the days of ziva and immersed on the following day, so that they would not come to err and permit intercourse with a woman who saw in the middle of the days of ziva [who is forbidden to have intercourse on the day following the day of seeing, because she observes one day corresponding to one day, and the entire day is forbidden even after she immersed].

Rav Ashi said:

In fact, on the twelfth day of her days of ziva she is not forbidden, not even rabbinically. For the eleventh day never requires observation on the following day, since the following day is always the first day of the days of niddah.

Rather,

although

the eleventh

day does not require observation,

the

tenth day nevertheless requires observation!

And the “observation” can be only a pure day; but here it is speaking of a case in which she saw blood on the seventeenth and eighteenth days of her cycle, which are the tenth and eleventh days of her days of ziva. It follows that the eleventh day on which she saw [therefore, although it itself does not require observation] did not serve as observation for the tenth day on which she saw, and the tenth day requires observation of one clean day corresponding to it.

And therefore she must observe the twelfth day of her ziva [on which she does not see], which is the nineteenth day of her cycle!

And the Gemara continues to bring the continuation of the beraita:

A woman whose order of seeing was

three impure days and three pure days has intercourse for two days, and thereafter never has intercourse again!

For at the conclusion of the seventh day of her niddah she cannot purify herself, since the eighth day is the second day of the three days on which she sees. And the seeing on the eighth and ninth days is seeing of ziva, and when she stops seeing on the tenth day, she still cannot immerse, because she must observe the tenth day under the law of observing one day corresponding to one day. It follows that she can immerse only on the eve of the eleventh day and have intercourse throughout the eleventh day, and likewise on the following day, the twelfth. From this point onward, once she sees for three days [beginning with the thirteenth day], she is a major zava, and she can never purify herself at all, since she can never count seven consecutive clean days!

And if the order of her seeing was

four impure days and four pure days, she has intercourse for one day

only,

and thereafter never has intercourse again.

For she can immerse only on the eve of the eighth day, which is the last of the days on which she does not see; and afterward, when she becomes impure during her days of ziva, she is a zava who can never count seven consecutive clean days, and is impure forever.

And if the order of her seeing was

five impure days and five pure days,

she immerses on the eve of the eighth day, and

has intercourse for three days [

the eighth, ninth, and tenth], and when she sees on the eleventh day, she becomes a zava who cannot purify herself,

and thereafter never has intercourse again.

And if the order of her seeing was

six impure days and six pure days, she has intercourse for five days [

the eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth]

and thereafter never has intercourse again.

And if the order of her seeing was

seven impure days and seven pure days, she has intercourse for a quarter of her days out of twenty-eight days.

That is: her cycle from the beginning of niddah to the beginning of niddah is twenty-eight days.

For after she immerses for her niddah at the end of the first seven impure days, she has intercourse for seven days. And again she becomes impure for seven days, four of which were within her eleven days of ziva, and she becomes a major zava, and afterward she must count seven clean days, after which she again sees at the beginning of niddah.

It follows that out of the twenty-eight days of her cycle she has intercourse for only one week, and that is “a quarter of her days out of twenty-eight days.”

And if the order of her seeing was

eight impure days and eight pure days, she has intercourse for fifteen days out of forty-eight.

And that is:

a. At the conclusion of the first eight impure days, the eight days clean of blood begin, and she observes the ninth day [which is a clean day] corresponding to the eighth day on which she saw [which is the first day of the eleven days of her ziva], and from this point onward she is permitted for the following seven days.

b. At the conclusion of the first eight pure days, she becomes impure for an additional eight days [during which she sees blood every day], but she does not become a major zava during them. For the beginning of the seeing is on the tenth day of the days of ziva, and it follows that she saw blood on only two of the eleven days of ziva [on the tenth and eleventh days]; and therefore the last six days on which she saw blood are six days of niddah.

c. When the second eight impure days have elapsed, of which the last six days were days of niddah, the second eight days clean of blood begin, and she is now on the seventh day of her niddah. Therefore she immerses in the evening, and again she has seven days during which she is permitted to have intercourse. [By this point thirty-two days have passed for her: two times eight impure days and two times eight pure days.]

d. At the conclusion of the second eight pure days [the first of which was during the days of niddah, and the other seven were on days two through seven of the eleven days fit for ziva], the third eight impure days begin [the first four of which are on days eight, nine, ten, and eleven of the days fit for ziva], and during them she becomes a major zava [and it follows that forty days have passed for her by this point].

e. And at the conclusion of the third eight impure days, the third eight days clean of blood begin, and she counts, according to the law of a major zava, seven clean days out of the eight days clean of blood.

And in the evening, on the eve of the eighth clean day, she immerses, and is permitted for only one day! For on the following day an additional eight days of impurity begin.

It follows that during the forty-eight days she was permitted to have intercourse:

For seven of the first eight pure days.

For seven of the second eight pure days.

And for one day of the third eight pure days.

And the Gemara raises a difficulty:

But there are fourteen!?

The questioner held that she is not permitted to have intercourse on the last day of the third eight pure days, because the seeing of the third eight impure days began on days eight, nine, ten, and eleven of the days of ziva and continued on days one, two, three, and four of the days of niddah. It follows that the counting of the seven clean days began on the fifth day of niddah, continued on the sixth and seventh days of niddah, and likewise on the eighth day, which was already among the days fit for ziva.

The questioner held that it is impossible to count seven clean days of a zava during the days of niddah, when she had already seen blood during them at the beginning of the days of niddah, even though the subsequent days of niddah were clean days. Rather, she must wait until the days fit for ziva begin, and then begin counting the seven clean days.

And the Gemara answers:

Rav Adda bar Yitzhak said: This is to say, the days of her niddah during which she does not see count toward the counting of

seven clean days for purification from the impurity of

her ziva!

Therefore, although the counting of the seven clean days began on the fifth day of her niddah, after she had already seen during the first four days of niddah, she can nevertheless count seven clean days beginning from the sixth day of her niddah and purify herself on the eighth day.

It was asked of them: