If the blood from the breaking of the hymen is unclean, what happens the first time a woman has sex? Must the man stop as soon as he sees the blood, or is he allowed to continue, and then must abstain from sex with her until she has taken the Mikvah? Is the man now unclean since he has gotten the woman’s blood on himself?
What’s involved in a Mikvah?
What must a man do if he has had contact with her before she has the Mikvah?
I’ll let cmkeller answer the rest of the questions, but a mikvah (mikveh?) is a baptism-like ceremony in “living water”, which is essentially either rainwater or a natural body of water.
When my wife had her mikveh (upon her return to Judaism), she fully immersed herself (nude, if I remember correctly) in this little swimming pool-like thing in the basement of an urban synagogue. It was filled with rainwater, and it was staffed by a female attendant who made sure everything was done correctly. I think I remember my wife saying prayers in conjunction with the immersion (no surprise, since really observant Jews say prayers for EVERYTHING). Since this was similar to a conversion (she had been Christian when she married me, complete with a Christian baptism), part of the ceremony involved three rabbis who waited outside, listening to the proceedings, and having a little ritual of their own to declare that she was, in fact, a Jew.
No doubt, an observant Jewish woman would have different prayers for ending menstruation, and the thing with the three rabbis wouldn’t be part of the picture, but that should give you an idea of what’s involved.
Lissa, I hope you don’t mind me jumping in here. Good Questions! Lessee…
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It’s not. (I know, I know) Let me explain. The hebrew words “Tahor” and “Tameh” are often translated as “Pure” and “Impure.” Lousy translations. A better explanation has to do with the presence or absence of life.
People become Unclean (for lack of a better term) upon contact with or proximity to a dead body. Becoming Clean involves immersion in a Mikvah (more on that later), among other things.
The reason a dead body is Unclean is because it contains no life - life is good, its absence is not. When a woman menstrates, her body is, temporarily, void of the ability to create life… this vacuum renders her ritually Unclean. The blood has nothing to do with it.
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An observant couple seperates when the woman is Unclean. THey wait for 7 days following the end of her period, then she goes to the Mikvah (more later, I promise :)) and they can reunite. Without going into too much detail, when I say that they seperate, I mean that they do not touch and certainly do not make love… they sleep in separate beds.
Anyway, on a wedding night, once copulation is over and the she is bleeding, the newlyweds seperate for the complete cycle. Many Modern Orthodox brides schedule their wedding to match their natural schedule; others use birth control pills (with a Rabbi’s permission) to ensure they are not menstrating on their wedding night.
Interesting sidenote - when a bride is menstrating, the couple must wait until her period ends to consumate their marriage. As a matter of fact, many authorities hold that they are not even to be alone together, which makes the entire wedding and ensuing Yichud (privacy) period very difficult to coordinate.
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Briefly, a Mikvah is a ritual bath filled with a specific amount of rainwater. It serves the simple purpose of redering Clean the things that are immersed in it. A menstrating woman uses a Mikvah to become Clean, converts to Judaism go to Mikvah to conclude their conversion… pots, pans and similar vessels are immersed in a Mikvah to render them fit for use.
This is just the practical side of the issue, I haven’t begun to discuss why a Mikvah does what it does. That’s another topic.
People immersing in a Mikvah must be nude; this ensures that nothing stands between the individual and the water.
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You should hear the things people say when they see me pray after I go to the bathroom.
Jolt, you’re exactly right. When a woman makes her monthly trip to the Mikvah, no Rabbis are needed. However, a female attendant is required, to make sure that the woman is completely underwater, she has no scabs or makeup, etc, etc, etc.
sdimbert covered it pretty darned well. The only thing he didn’t answer was question # 4, which was:
If you mean just physical contact, really, nothing. When the Holy Temple stood, he would have had to go to the Mikvah himself before he could enter the Temple or deal with holy items, but in modern times, no one can do these things anyway.
If you mean actual sex, then he’s got some serious repenting to do.
OK, so if women are supposed to have a ritual Mikvah after each monthly period…can she do this at home (like in a bathtub or something), or must she go to the synagogue? In modern practice, do Jewish women of child bearing age really go through this ritual bath each month?
A Mikveh has to have a certain volume which your average bathtub does not have. In addition, it is impossible to fully immerse (and be completely underwater) in a regular bathtub.
The water cannot be what is called * Mayim She’uvin * or drawn water. It must be a naturally occuring body of water. This precludes the water from traveling through pipes. The laws in this matter are complex and technical, but, suffice it to say, once the Mikvah contains a certain volume of naturally occuring water, other (drawn) water can be added to it.
Amplifying what sdimbert said, blood is not itself ritually unclean. FLOWING blood, however, is symbolic of death. As sdimbert said, life is good, death is not; and contact with death requires “purification”, shedding the death contact and returning to life.
An interesting side-light on this: in the Jewish community, the cemetary is always on the outskirts, away from the town, to separate the life/activity from the death/cemetary. A cemetary would never be next to a synagogue. In a Christian community, of course, the cemetary is almost always adjacent to the church, because the attitude towards death is quite different from the Jewish attitude.
On the mikvah, I will only add the obvious note that it was this ritual (immersion in water as a symbolic purification) that the early Christians converted into baptism, as they adapted Judaism into their new religion.
One of the ways that archaeologists know they have uncovered a Jewish community is finding the mikvah. It’s pretty impressive to stand on top of Masada, for instance, and see the mikvah, excavated in the stone, dating from around the year Naught.
This raises an interesting question: if you either donate blood, or receive it as part of a medical procedure, are you Unclean, and therefore need a Mikvah?
Just a note: many Mikvahs are seperate facilities, not inside of synagogues. And it’s not quite as public as it sounds; during the proper hours, it’s open only to women, and aside from the (always female) attendant, there’s no necessary quorum of people there (as in a synagogue for communal prayer).
Also, if for whatever reason a woman does not wish to use the community Mikvah, it can be done in any naturally-occurring body of water. However, someone should still be there to help her make certain that the requirements for a proper immersion (e.g., nothing sticking to her body, such as loose hairs or dirt under the fingernails).
Joltsucker:
That is an interesting question vis a vis uncleanliness for the Temple’s sake (a moot point today), and I don’t (yet) know the answer to that. However, it wouldn’t have any bearing on the need for a Mikvah re: marital relations, because that prohibition only applies to the type of ritual uncleanliness associated with blood from the privates, not other kinds of uncleanliness.
No. A woman only needs to go to the Mikvah if the bleeding comes from her privates. Giving blood, cutting your finger, etc, does not render her * tamei *.
In my weekly Talmud class (mostly in English for rank beginners) we are currently studying Ketubot (the tractate of the Talmud dealing with the laws of marriage). On about page 5b, there’s a discussion about whether intercourse is permitted to newlyweds after the first act, which may cause hymenal bleeding.
At least one sage (Hillel?) allows for up to 4 days of intercourse (from Wednesday, on which a virgin was supposed to marry, until Saturday night), even if bleeding continues after the first night. There is no indication (that I remember) that bleeding that does not continue after the first night renders the woman a niddah (and thus forbidden to the man). Now, AFAIK, not even most Orthodox communities regularly hold weddings on Wednesday (correct me if I’m wrong, please). Is the practical halacha universal that hymenal blood on the wedding night requires the 7 day waiting period and mikveh, or is this a stringency practiced only by some communities?
Could the custom of waiting seven days after a woman’s period ends before resuming marital relations have arisen from the observation that a woman is more likely to become pregnant at that point in her cycle?
In other words, could there have been a practical motivation for something that later became custom?
The issue in Ketubot is not based on the Niddah issue, but based on the issue of causing a wound on Shabbos. While the consummation of the marriage is a mitzvah (which is not forbidden due to the blood because the infliction of the wound is not the intended aspect of the act, and such “work” is prohibited only Rabbinically, and so does not override the commandment), subsequent intercourse is optional and therefore might not override the Rabbinic prohibition involved in causing the wound.
If I recall correctly (and I’ll try to look it up; I could be wrong here) the hymenal bleeding being treated as Niddah is a post-talmudic. Biblically, thee are two types of uncleanliness based on blood from a woman’s privates, Niddah and Zavah. At some point (I’m not sure exactly when) the knowledge and ability to distinguish between the two types of blood became lost to the Rabbis, and to stay on the safe side, they declared that the most stringent rules, those of a Zavah, are to be applied to any blood from a woman’s privates. This blanket decree included hymenal blood, which wasn’t Biblically prohibited, since it didn’t actually come from the uterus. I haven’t heard of any Orthodox Jewish communities who do not hold by this decree, but I have to admit that I never thought to ask around.
As I recall, the law in that Talmud in Ketubot was not that a virgin must get married only on Wednesday night, but should get married no later in the week than Wednesday night…Sunday, Monday or Tuesday are fine as well. (There are traditions that say Tuesday is the most preferable and Monday the least, due to mystical reasons.) And these days, with the decree that treats hymenal blood as Niddah (or really, as Zavah), it’s a moot question.
Whilst Lissa posted this thread in response to a comment by cmkeller, may I suggest that future questions of this type be posted simply “for Jewish Dopers”? Whilst cmkeller is more than impressive in his desire to track down the SD, he is not the only one.
IIRC, Ketubot explains that (presumed) virgins are married on Wednesday because of the ordinance by Ezra that courts should be held on Mondays and Thursdays. Thus, if there was any question about a bride’s virginity (which could call into question both the amount to be paid her on her husband’s death or divorcing her, and the permissibility of the marriage itself), the groom could immediately have the matter resolved by the court, instead of possibility continuing in a forbidden relationship (the offspring of which would be mamzerim).
Marriages of (presumed) virgins on Tuesdays became permitted when secular interference with Wednesday marriages became common. Monday marriages were never permitted ab initio, but were accepted under a sort of “don’t ask, don’t tell” arrangement.
A Sunday marriage would have been acceptable, but, as the previous day was Shabbat, a groom could not make calculations about or preparations for the wedding feast on that day.
I believe that there is an authoritative ruling (perhaps stated in the Shulhan Arukh, but I’ll have to look it up) that, if the courts are not convened at set times, any day is acceptable for a marriage.
My apologies to other Dopers of the Jewish faith. The reason I posed the question to cmkeller was that he answered a question for me in the past, and it just seem almost automatic to ask him. Thank you to everyone who contributed answers to my question.
BTW, please don’t start a trend… if I had to post a thank-you every time someone answered a question I asked… Well, wait a minute ::scratched head, reconsidering:: my post count would be… I LIKE that idea!
On a different note, Lissa posted:
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I LIKE that too! let’s all start a club… The Dopers of the Jewish Faith… we can get Satan to design a little smiley with a kippah on it and OpalCat can make us t-shirts… Let’s get moving rabbosai!
