THE FABULOUS GABOR SISTERS

A post inspired in large part by a recent RenReb post (here: http://renegaderebbetzin.blogspot.com/2007/02/renrebs-four-questions.html).
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Nidah, Zivah, and Zavah.


DEFINITION OF TERMS

Nidah = A menstrual woman; a state of ritual impurity (tuma) connected with a discharge of blood from the female reproductive organ. Seven days from the moment the menses (dam nidah) start are counted for nidah. Then follow eleven days of zivah (running or radiant flow - the clean and clear flow of menstrual blood that follows the expulsion of the engorged uterine lining, which is a darker and denser occurrence. Any bleeding that occurs during zivah is dam zivah. A woman who bleeds during zivah is a zavah. After ziva-zava comes a state of being tahor (pure).


But it is a different ball game after giving birth. After a boy, she is impure for seven days from when vaginal bleeding stops and until she goes to the Mikvah (ritual bath); after a girl, for fourteen days following the cessation of bleeding and until she goes to the Mikvah. Though if she has given birth by Caesarian section and there has been no vaginal bleeding, she need not wait the seven or fourteen days - she is considered to be clean (tahor).
[Please note that until the woman goes to the Mikvah she remains unclean, no matter what type of vaginal bleeding is involved. ]


Mikvah = Pool. In this context, a pool for the ritual cleaning or purifying of people (men also!) and things (cooking utensils!). Not just any puddle of water will do; it has to be Mayim Chayim - living water, meaning water that moves: river or lake water, streams, or pools of fresh rain water. It may however be 'augmented' by tap water. When making use of a Mikvah, a woman is supposed to immerse herself entirely without holding on to anything (lest that portion of the skin in contact with the support not be wet at the same time as the rest of her).
Then the blessing (bracha) is recited: "Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha-olam asher kidshanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu al ha-tevilah" (Blessed art thou O Lord our G-d, King of the Universe, Who has sanctified us by His Commandments and commanded us to perform the ritual immersion).

Women MUST use a Mikvah, men MAY use a Mikvah, but are not obligated to do so. Both should wash themselves thoroughly and completely before entering the pool.


Now, all of this serves as a preambule to the inyana d'iyoma, namely
B.... E.... D.... I.... K... A.... H....
[And yes, you may scream now.]



Please first read this:
http://renegaderebbetzin.blogspot.com/2005/09/my-my-my.html
From which we might learn that we can use a Rabbi's dirty undershirt for bedikah. I'm sure that you can find one such on e-bay.

Then read this:
http://renegaderebbetzin.blogspot.com/2005/10/slight-oops-plus-bedikot-part-i.html



Note: Bedikah means inspection. In matters of tohoros mishpoche, and to be absolutely on the safe side purity and permissibility-wise, bedikas is performed post full flow to examine the state of the unmentionable parts. This is done with a white cloth, so that the colouration may be examined. Those who are uncertain may consult an expert - A Rebbetzin is a good resource for this, though overnight mailing of bedikas-cloths or the relevant untervesh to a rabbi is not entirely unknown either.

[Just make sure that you address the package correctly, as mix ups and switches are not unheard of. Somewhere, at this very moment, there is a rabbi looking with bafflement at a stuffed armadillo, while in the same town a redneck is sitting with an opened package on his table and a big goofy smile all over his ponim.]


In any case, don't obsess about it. And if you're a man, do not press your aishes chayil about it either, as she may at the time be like a cask of powder, that the slightest spark may cause to explode. Some men spend two weeks of every month in a state of timorous fear, others develop a taste for single malts and solitude. Marriage is a blessed state.

[But if your aishes chayil is a Cantonese woman, you’re in ever such luck – just make sure she gets all the lobster she needs and NO... ONE... GETS.... HURT!
Of course, then you’ll have another problem: chashash of shiksa.]

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Note too, that the term bedikas also refers to bedikas chometz = searching for the last hidden morsels of chometz with a candle for showing, by the casting of shadows, where crumbs on a smooth surface might be, and a feather for delicately gathering all the minute fragments. When the crumbs are found they are tied in a parcel with the remains of the candle, the feather, and a wooden spoon protruding as a handle to hold it all by when immolating it the next morning.
It is an issur to have chometz in one's possession from before the beginning of the Passover holiday till after it is over, being eight days in chutz le aretz (outside the land - outside Israel), seven within the land.


Pesachim, the third tractate in Mo'ed, in the first part, Pesach Rishon, goes into excruciating detail on ridding chometz from our abodes and our lives, in every conceivable way. It's one heck of a read.


Many modern poskim opine that a good scrubbing with a rag dipped in household cleanser is more than adequate, provided that the cleanser be allowed to soak into every crack and crevice, which will make whatever chometz is thus drenched both unfit for any possible consumption, and something which a dog will not eat (one of the conditions of acceptability).