Commento su Niddah 1:7
אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁאָמְרוּ דַּיָּהּ שְׁעָתָהּ, צְרִיכָה לִהְיוֹת בּוֹדֶקֶת, חוּץ מִן הַנִּדָּה וְהַיּוֹשֶׁבֶת עַל דַּם טֹהַר. וּמְשַׁמֶּשֶׁת בְּעִדִּים, חוּץ מִיּוֹשֶׁבֶת עַל דַּם טֹהַר, וּבְתוּלָה שֶׁדָּמֶיהָ טְהוֹרִים. וּפַעֲמַיִם צְרִיכָה לִהְיוֹת בּוֹדֶקֶת, בְּשַׁחֲרִית וּבֵין הַשְּׁמָשׁוֹת, וּבְשָׁעָה שֶׁהִיא עוֹבֶרֶת לְשַׁמֵּשׁ אֶת בֵּיתָהּ. יְתֵרָה עֲלֵיהֶן כֹּהֲנוֹת, בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁהֵן אוֹכְלוֹת בַּתְּרוּמָה. רַבִּי יְהוּדָה אוֹמֵר, אַף בִּשְׁעַת עֲבָרָתָן מִלֶּאֱכֹל בַּתְּרוּמָה:
Anche se hanno detto che la sua ora è sufficiente, dovrebbe esaminare [se stessa], fatta eccezione per una niddah [una donna che ha scariche mestruali che la rendono impura], o una che è seduta su sangue puro [dopo un periodo di impurità dopo partorendo, c'è un periodo di giorni durante il quale una donna rimane pura anche se vede sangue]. E dovrebbe avere rapporti sessuali usando delle spoglie [letteralmente: testimoni, prima e dopo il rapporto sessuale], ad eccezione di una persona seduta su sangue puro o di una vergine il cui sangue è puro. E dovrebbe esaminare due volte [quotidianamente], al mattino e al crepuscolo, e quando avrà rapporti con suo marito [letteralmente: la sua casa]. Più [ristrette] di queste sono le donne sacerdotali [poiché dovrebbero esaminarsi] nell'ora in cui mangiano da terumah [una porzione di un raccolto dato a un sacerdote che viene santificato dopo la separazione e può essere consumato solo dai sacerdoti o dalla loro famiglia e che non dovrebbero essere resi impuri]. Il rabbino Yehuda dice: [dovrebbero esaminare se stessi] anche quando se ne stanno andando dopo aver mangiato teruma .
Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
אע"פ שאמרו – a woman who has regular premonitory symptoms of menstruation sufficient for her is time.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Niddah
Introduction
Today's mishnah teaches that although women who have regular menstrual cycle do not retroactively defile things (see mishnah one), they should examine themselves at certain prescribed time regularly to make sure that they has not begun to menstruate.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
צריכה להיות בודקת – on every day in the morning and in the evening like the other women.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Niddah
Although though they said [that for a woman who has a regular period] it suffices to reckon her period of uncleanness from the time she observes a flow, she should nevertheless examine herself [regularly], except for a menstruant or one who is sitting over pure blood. Even a woman who has a regular menstrual cycle should still examine herself regularly to make sure she has not begun to menstruate. I should note here that most women might find this strange don't women know when they are menstruating, even without checking? Truthfully, I think this is a legitimate complaint against the rabbis, but if I were to offer a defense I might say two things. First of all, the rabbis were men who obviously knew nothing about what it might feel like to be menstruating. Second, women had frequent contact with the food and the instruments whose purity should be preserved. Therefore, a woman who was impure and didn't know that she was could defile a lot of terumah or vessels used with terumah. To avoid this serious problem, the rabbis mandated that all women examine themselves regularly. There are two types of women who don't need to examine themselves regularly. The first is obviously a woman who is already menstruating. The second is a woman who has recently given birth. Leviticus 12:4-5 prescribes 33 days following a seven day period of impurity for a boy or 66 days following a 14 day impurity period for a girl in which a woman's blood flow is pure. Since any such blood is considered pure, there would be no practical reason for her to examine herself.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
חוץ מן הנדה – from when she saw it (i.e., blood) on day, she is unclean for seven days and does not need an examination all seven [days], for without an attack she is unclean all seven [days].
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English Explanation of Mishnah Niddah
She should also use testing-rags when she has marital intercourse except when she is sitting over pure blood or when she is a virgin whose blood is clean. Generally, a woman should examine herself using examination rags both before and after sexual intercourse. Before intercourse she should examine herself because it is prohibited to have intercourse when she is menstruating. Afterwards she should examine herself to make sure that she has not defiled her husband. Obviously, a "virgin" referred to in this mishnah is not a woman who has never had sex. Rather, it is a woman who has not yet begun to menstruate, as we learned in mishnah four. A woman who is married before she begins to menstruate need not check herself.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
והיושבת על דם טוהר – for why should there be an examination for her, for even if she would sight it (i.e., blood), it is h blood of purity (i.e., vaginal bleeding experienced by a woman from eight to forty days after giving birth to a boy and from fifteen to eighty days after giving birth to a girl. This blood does not render a woman ritually impure, according to the Torah, even though current Halakhic practice renders a woman ritually impure).
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English Explanation of Mishnah Niddah
And twice [daily] she should examine herself: in the morning and at the [evening] twilight, and also when she is about to have sexual relations. This section refers to a woman who must examine herself because she doesn't have a regular period (or for some other reason). Without an examination, , she will defile everything which she had contact with during the previous twenty-four hours. Such a woman should examine herself in the morning to make sure that any pure things that she worked with at night were not defiled. She should also examine herself in the evening to make sure that the stuff that she worked with during the day was not defiled.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
ומשמשת בעדים – even though she has premonitory symptoms of menstruation , she needs to examine [herself] before sexual intercourse and after sexual intercourse [with her husband]. And especially if she was engaged with [ritual] purity, for since requires examination for [ritual] purity, she requires examination also for her husband. But a woman who is not engaged with [ritual] purity, for her husband she does not require examination.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Niddah
Priestly women are subject to an additional restriction [for they should examine themselves] when they are going to eat terumah. Rabbi Judah said: [these must examine themselves] also after they have concluded eating terumah. Priestly women (either daughters of priests or wives of priests) who are regularly occupying themselves with terumah should examine themselves even more regularly. According to the first opinion, they should examine themselves before they eat terumah so that they do not defile the terumah that they are about to eat. Rabbi Judah says that they should examine themselves after eating as well. If she is found to be pure, then even the leftover crumbs are pure. In contrast, had she not checked herself afterward and then later that day (or night) found that she had begun to menstruate, the leftover terumah that she had touched would have to be considered impure.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
ובתולה שדמיה טהורים – four nights according to the School of Shammai, but according to the School of Hillel until the wound of sexual intercourse should heal, and she does not have to use pieces of cloth (literally, “witnesses”), for her blood is pure, and if the appearance of her blood has changed, for since she engaged in sexual intercourse, for on account of sexual intercourse, it changed, but in the morning and in the evening , she requires examination where she didn’t engage in sexual intercourse after the first coition, lest the appearance of her blood changed from her first coition. But if her blood changed in appearance, she is impure/unclean, for we are accustomed to speak where this is not the blood of a virgin.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
שחרית ובין השמשות – in the morning to pronounce fit/kosher the purities of the night, that if she would find herself to be pure, she would know that she didn’t see it (i.e., blood) in the night, and when she minds in the evening that she is impure/unclean, these leave the realm of doubt, and similarly at twilight to pronounce fit/kosher the purities that she was engaged in during the daytime.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
ובשעה שהיא עוברת לשמש את ביתה - when she prepares herself to engage in sexual relations with her husband.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Niddah
רבי יהודה אומר אף בשעת עברתן מלאכול מתרומה – even after they have consumed heave-offering/the priest’s due (i.e., if her husband is a Kohen), she needs to examine herself, to repair the remnants of heave-offerings that are before her that if she finds now as [ritually] pure., when she examines in the evening according to her appropriate manner and she finds that she is impure, there will not be remnants of the heave-offering at all that were retroactively impure, for she examined herself after finishing. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.
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