Throughout all the eleven days [between each period of <i>niddah</i>] she is presumed to be pure. If [during her days of <i>niddah</i>] she sat and did not examine herself, [whether] unintentionally, under duress, or if she intentionally did not examine herself, she is pure. If the time of her regular period arrived and she did not examine herself, she is thereby impure. Rabbi Meir says: if she was in a hiding place when the time of her regular period arrived and she did not examine herself, she is thereby pure, because fear banishes blood. But [a woman] during the days of <i>zov</i> [i.e. the period of eleven days between <i>niddah</i> periods], or a <i>zavah</i> [who is supposed to be counting seven days of purity], or one who should be waiting a day [of purity] opposite each day [of impurity], they are thereby presumed to be impure [if they did not examine themselves].
Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
כל אחד עשר יום – after the seven days of menstruation/Niddah.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Niddah
Throughout all the eleven days a woman is in a presumption of cleanness. If she did not examine herself if this was unwittingly, under duress or intentionally, she is clean. Between one period and the next there are eleven days during which a woman can presume that she will not menstruate (according to the rabbis don't take this as gynecological advice). During this period there is a legal presumption that she is clean. If she doesn't examine herself for any reason, even intentionally, she is still clean.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
בחזקת טהרה – and she doesn’t have to examine herself, for it is a Halakha transmitted to Moses at Sinai (albeit not written down) that there is no distinction between one menstruating cycle to another that is less than eleven days.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Niddah
If the time of her regular period arrived and she did not examine herself she is unclean. When her period is supposed to arrive, she loses her presumption of cleanness. She must examine herself, and if she does not, she is considered impure.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
ישבה לה ולא בקדה – our Mishnah is deficient and should be read as follows: During the days of her menstruating period it requires examination. If she sat and did not examine herself inadvertently, or she was under constraint, or willfully didn’t examine herself, she is [ritually] pure/clean.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Niddah
Rabbi Meir says: if a woman was in a hiding place when the time of her regular period arrived and she didn't examine herself she is clean, because fear suspends the flow of blood. Rabbi Meir holds that fear will suspend the onset of a woman's period. Therefore, if a woman is in hiding, perhaps due to war, and the time of her period arrives, she remains pure because we can assume that she did not have her period.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
הגיעה שעת וסתה ולא בדקה – even though she examined herself afterwards and found herself to be pure/clean, since she didn’t examine herself at the time of her period, that she is impure/unclean, for her menstruation comes at its [appropriate] time.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Niddah
But during the days prescribed for a zav or a zavah or for one who waits day against day, these are presumed to be unclean. A woman who has three consecutive days of blood discharge not during the time of her period is a zavah. A man who has non-seminal genital discharge for three straight days is a zav. Both of them must check themselves every day. Every day that they do not, they are under the presumption of being impure. "One who waits day against day" refers to a man or woman who had a genital discharge that is not menstrual or semen for one or two days (on the third day they would become a zav/zavah). They too must check themselves every day to see if more discharge had occurred. If they do not check themselves, they are presumed unclean. To sum up the entire mishnah if there is some sign that would make us assume that she/he would menstruate or have impure discharge, then there is no presumption of cleanness. Without checking, she/he is impure.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
במחבא (in hiding) – on account of robbers or an army that comes came to the city. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Meir.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
אבל ימי הזב והזבה – the seven clean days that she needs to count.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
ושומרת יום – as for example, that she sees [blood] one day or two days during the days of her flux, she does not count other than one day in cleanliness and she ritually immerses [herself] in the evening and is pure/clean to her husband.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
הרי אלו בחזקת טומאה – since her fountain was opened up and she saw it (i.e., blood) today, even though it is within the eleven [days], she is on the morrow in the presumption of impurity/uncleanness.
