פירוש על עדיות 5:4

דם יולדת – that she delayed a week for [the birth of] a male and two weeks for female, and did not immerse [in a Mikveh].

Introduction This mishnah and the mishnah that we will learn tomorrow contain the last lists of disputes between Beth Shammai and Beth Hillel in tractate Eduyoth.

בית שמאי אומרים כרוקה וכמימי רגליה – which ritually defile moist but do not ritually defile as dry,. Even her blood defiles moist but does not defile dry, and is not considered like the blood of a menstruant woman which defiles [both] moist and dry.

Rabbi Eliezer says: there are two instances of lenient rulings by Beth Shammai and strict rulings by Beth Hillel.
The blood of a woman after childbirth who has not immersed herself, Beth Shammai says: [it is] like her spittle and her urine. But Beth Hillel says: it causes impurity whether wet or dry. However, they agree in the case of the blood of a woman who gave birth when she had non-menstrual discharge, that it causes defilement whether wet or dry. According to Leviticus, chapter 12, after a woman gives birth to a male she is impure for seven days and after giving birth to a female she is impure 14 days. After this time she is supposed to go to the mikveh (ritual bath) and she will be pure. Any blood that flows after this time is pure (up to 33 days for a boy and 66 days for a girl). Our mishnah discusses a woman who had not gone to the mikveh after the initial seven or 14 day period. According to Beth Shammai the blood of this woman is not totally impure. Rather it is impure only when it is wet, like her spittle and urine. When dry the blood is pure. Beth Hillel disagrees and holds that it is impure whether wet or dry. The two Houses agree that if the woman was a “zavah”, a woman with an unnatural discharge (such as gonorrhea) at the time of childbirth, that her blood remains impure both when wet and when dry. A “zavah” must count seven clean days (free from any blood) for her to be able to go to the mikveh and become pure. Since she has not been able to do so, her blood remains impure, both wet and dry, as blood normally is.

ובית הלל אומרים מטמא לח ויבש – all the time that she has not immersed [in a Mikveh], it is considered like the blood of a menstruant woman, and even though it is amidst the days of her purification.

Questions for Further Thought:
• Now that we have learned the last list of disputes between Beth Shammai and Beth Hillel, can you discern any order to their appearance in the mishnah?

ומודים ביולדת בזוב – that she needs to cunt seven clean days like the law of all the rest of those with a flux, for if she did not count nor immersed [in the Mikveh], and saw blood during the days of purification, which defiles [both] moist and dry, for it is considered like the blood of someone with a flux all the time that she didn’t count or immerse [in the Mikveh].