Advocates out-of menstrual legislation observance focus on potential strengths such as for example the feeling regarding vacation whenever sexual connections are permitted, the chance to generate low-sexual regions of the partnership and methods from communications, and you can returning to on your own instead value sex
Petitions both in Yiddish (Tkhines) and Hebrew (tehinnot) have been composed to aid in fulfillment of the menstrual laws and to make use of the fulfillment of the commandment as an auspicious time for personal petitions, particularly for fertility.
Chapter 15 of Leviticus serves as the basis for the Jewish menstrual laws. The Hebrew term used for menstruation in Leviticus , 20, 24, and 33 is niddatah, which has as its root ndh, a word meaning “separation,” usually as a result of impurity. It is connected to the root ndd, meaning “to make distant.” This primary meaning of the root was extended in the biblical corpus to include concepts of sin and impurity. The Aramaic Bible translations (Onkelos [second century c.e.], Pseudo-Jonathan, and Neofiti) translate these verses with the root rhq, “in her separation/distance,” some adding “of her impurity.” Both roots reflect the physical separation of women during menstruation (or abnormal uterine bleeding or the seven or fourteen days immediately postpartum) from physical contact or from certain activities in which they would normally engage at other times. In other parts of the Bible, the term Menstruation; the menstruant woman; ritual status of the menstruant woman. niddah was transferred to include abominable acts, objects (Ezekiel 7:19–20), or status, especially sexual sins (Leviticus ) and idolatry. The use of the term niddah to describe the impurity of the land due to 
sin is found in Lamentations 1:8 and Ezra 9:11 and as an antonym of holiness in 2 Chronicles 29:5. These usages of the term may have influenced subsequent reactions to the state of menstruation. The term niddah was transformed into a metaphorical expression for sin and impurity in general. These meanings added to the original sense of distancing or separation, creating a new semantic range that influenced the legal and emotional understanding of niddah over the course of generations.
Efforts so you’re able to imbue monthly period observation which have spirituality are reinterpretation of biblical texts and you will symbols so you can highlight red-colored/blood/life-giving possible plus the strange relationship to reunification
It chiastic construction signifies that there was even more in accordance anywhere between such male and female discharges compared to undeniable fact that brand new discharges come from the fresh snatch and cause impurity. It is clear regarding the conditions you to definitely in the example of the standard men the words are referring to semen, zera, during question of the feminine the discharge are blood, dam. Leviticus twelve, and that deals with beginning impurity, spends the concept of niddah as well as the guidelines said inside Lev. 15 since a research part. The language makes reference to conception as an active females techniques, “people semination.” Lev. 12:dos are translated: “A woman exactly who seminates (tazria) and gives beginning …” The fresh that i has actually interpreted once the “seminated” is tazria, the newest hif’il otherwise causative style of the underlying zr’. This might be and the base of the term zera, semen, stated during the Section fifteen. The concept you to monthly period blood and you may fertility is linked is located in lots of midrashic sources plus the fresh Illuminated. (off Aramaic teni ) “at hand down orally,” “data,” “train.” A student quoted regarding Mishnah or of one’s Mishnaic day and age, i.elizabeth., inside first couple of years of the Well-known Point in time. On the chain away from traditions, these were accompanied by the amora’im. tannaitic material (Niddah 9:11, BT Niddah 64b, Bereshit Rabbah vol. 2, p. 484 so you’re able to Genesis ).
There can be others facet of the toxic contamination we need to believe: their signal. According to verses 17–18, regular coitus output impurity up to sundown for the guy and you can the girl, we.elizabeth. their seed impurity is actually moved to their. Climax down to self pleasure otherwise ne outcomes on the child themselves. When the an excellent niddah provides intercourse which have individuals within the 7 days, regardless if this woman is in reality still menstruating, she transfers to this people the whole seven-time age this lady seeds impurity. Here, too, discover a change in this the man who gets niddah however retains their “normal” men condition because the he will not end up in midras impurity due to the fact lady niddah do. It must be highlighted one in your state away from ritual impurity wasn’t in itself wicked because the menstruation and you can climax is actually part of typical physiology. This new sin stated when you look at the Leviticus is the act out of polluting out-of God’s cultic space because of the an individual’s presence if you find yourself ritually impure. The requirement to have a good sin giving to possess unusual discharge can be explained from the biblical and you can rabbinic theology that frequently charged problems to help you divine retribution to possess sins (Miriam’s leprosy Num. 12). It’s likely, for this reason, your sin giving must atone with the genuine sin you to caused the abnormal position.
The minimum time between one menstrual period and the next was established in the tannaitic period. It was set at eleven days with the term “halakhah le-Moshe mi-Sinai,” that is, a law that is not biblically derived but whose legal status is nearly equivalent to such a law. This concept of eleven days as a minimum between one menstrual period and the next combined with the seven days of niddah is called pithei niddah, the beginnings of the menstrual reckoning. This meant that a woman was niddah for seven days. If she then saw blood during the next eleven days (days 8–18), it was considered in the category of abnormal bleeding, ziva, which would put her into the category of zava. Another crucial clarification during this period was the meaning of “many days” in Leviticus concerning the woman with abnormal uterine discharge. The sages interpreted the phrase as three consecutive days, which meant that if a woman saw blood for three consecutive days during the eleven days, she became the zava gedolah (major zava) referred to in the Torah and must wait the seven clean days. If, however, she saw blood for only one day or two consecutive days, she was considered a minor zava, and required only to sit one clean day for each day she saw blood. The zava gedolah would then wait seven clean days and the next blood she saw would be considered her next period. The seven days of niddah would then begin again, followed by the eleven days between periods. A woman with a normal cycle would fit easily into this pattern because the eleven days were a minimum. Anyone having any kind of irregular bleeding, however, would be obligated to make such calculations until she had seven clean days. Then she could start with the normal seven -and eleven-day system. This system required careful reckoning of one’s menstrual cycle.