Une femme qui était en travail difficile pendant les quatre-vingts jours de [pureté après les quatorze jours d'impureté après avoir donné naissance à] une femelle, tout le sang qu'elle voit est pur, jusqu'à ce que le fœtus émerge. Et le rabbin Eliezer les considère impurs. Ils ont dit au rabbin Eliezer: «Tout comme dans un cas où l'on est sévère à l'égard du sang lorsque la douleur a cessé [c'est-à-dire que ce sang rend la femme qui accouche impure], il y a une clémence à l'égard du sang pendant un travail difficile [c'est-à-dire qui ne son impure], dans le cas où l'on est indulgent vis-à-vis du sang lorsque la douleur a cessé [c'est-à-dire pendant les jours de pureté post-partum, qui ne la rend pas impure], il ne s'ensuit pas logiquement qu'il faut être indulgent vis-à-vis du sang pendant un travail difficile [ que cela, aussi, ne doit pas la rendre impure]?! " Il leur a dit: "Il suffit que le cas déduit soit traité de la même manière que celui dont il est déduit! En ce qui concerne ce qu'ils ont été indulgents avec elle? En ce qui concerne l'impureté de la zivah . Mais elle [qui était en difficulté pendant ses jours de pureté post-partum, si elle a vu du sang pendant ses jours de niddah , et non ses jours de ziva , elle est impure avec l'impureté d'un niddah .
Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
המקשה בתוך שמונים של נקבה – as for example, that she engaged in sexual intercourse [after immersing in a Mikveh] fourteen days after giving birth [to a female] and became pregnant and then aborted [the fetus] within eighty days.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Niddah
If a woman was in hard labor during the eighty days prescribed for the birth of a female, all kinds of blood that she may observe are clean, until the fetus is born. But Rabbi Eliezer holds them to be unclean. This mishnah discusses an unlikely scenario, but one that the rabbis found interesting (in a legal sort of way) and therefore, worthy of discussion. [This is frequently the case in rabbinic literature. The rabbis wish to discuss legally complex cases, not ones that actually happen most frequently]. A woman gave birth to a girl and then was impure for 14 days. After this time she went to the mikveh and then had relations with her husband (I know, a bit quick, but possible). She became pregnant and was already having pain and blood during the 66 day period in which the blood is considered pure. Note that she knows that this blood is from the new pregnancy, and not the old one. The rabbis hold that this blood is clean until she gives birth again. At this point, if we are sure it is a birth, then she will again be impure with birth uncleanness. Rabbi Eliezer says that since we know that this blood is not from the previous birth, in which case it would be clean, but rather from the difficult labor due to the subsequent birth, we must consider this blood to be unclean. She will have the uncleanness of a menstruant, as was the case in yesterday's mishnah.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
כל דמים שהיא רואה טהורים – for all of it is within the completion [of her period of purification], which is the blood of purity.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Niddah
They said to Rabbi Eliezer: if in a case where the law was stringent in regard to blood discharged in the absence of pain, it was nevertheless lenient in regard to blood discharged during hard labor, in a case where it was lenient in regard to blood discharged in the absence of pain is there not even more reason to be lenient in regard to blood discharged during hard labor? The rabbis now argue out their position. A woman who is pregnant and discharges blood but doesn't have any labor pains is considered a zavah. Her blood is not considered menstrual rather the greater stringency of zivah applies. Nevertheless, if she was in hard labor at the time, the blood would be considered birth blood, which would give her the status of a niddah and not a zavah. Therefore, in a case where the law is generally lenient, during the days of her purity (the 80 days after the birth of a girl), when all her blood is considered pure, so too we should be lenient with regard to blood that comes from labor pains. She should be a niddah and not a zavah.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
ור' אליעזר מטמא – [she is defiled as] a menstruant woman/Niddah. For since it (i.e., the blood) came through hard labor, it is not the blood of purity, but rather on account of the fetus that is in her womb. But the All-Merciful (i.e., God) purifies it from her being in flux on account of her labor, but not from being a menstruant woman.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Niddah
He replied: it is enough for the case inferred to be treated in the same manner as the one from which it is inferred. For in what way were you lenient upon her? From the uncleanness of a zivah, but she does have the uncleanness of a niddah. Rabbi Eliezer responds that this doesn't make sense. The leniency during pregnancy was that she was not a zavah she was only a niddah. So when we derive a law from this situation, we don't need to say that she is pure. It is enough to say that the derived status is the same as that from which it derived. Just as her blood had the status of niddah during her pregnancy, so too during the 80 days of purity, blood due to hard labor has the status of niddah.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
שהחמיר בדם השופי - as for example, the other women giving birth who see three days of relief and then gave birth, is a woman who gives birth with a flux.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
היקל בדם הקושי – to purify her from her flux.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
מקום שהיקל בדם השופי – to purify her from all defilement, as for example, within her completion [of the period of purification].
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
אינו דין שנקל בדם הקושי – to purify the blood from all defilements and even from being a menstruating woman.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
דיו לבא מן הדין [להיות כנדון] – as for example the labor that is within the completion that [of the period of purification following the birth of a child] that you learn from the undefined period of labor, it is enough to be like that which is judged to be like an undefined period of labor, for just as an undefined period of labor – the woman is defiled as a menstruating woman, so the labor that is within the completion [of that period of purification following the birth of a child] is defiled with the status of being a menstruating woman/Niddah.
