Commento su Levitico 15:25

‎ימים רבים [AND IF A WOMAN HAVE AN ISSUE OF HER BLOOD] MANY DAYS — at least three days (since the plural ימים suggests at least two days, the word רבים, “more", must imply at least three days) (cf. Sifra, Metzora Parashat Zavim, Section 5 9),

בלא עת נדתה, after the days of her menstruation have passed, as explained in Niddah 73 A woman is not described as being a zavah so that she would have to bring an offering after being healed unless the seven days during which she was a menstruant or expected to be a menstruant have passed. If after that period during the next 11 days she sees the symptoms of a zavah for three consecutive days she will require to count seven consecutive days during which she is free of these symptoms in order to be able to become ritually pure again. On the eighth day she is ready to offer her two bird offerings, one as a sin offering the other as a burnt offering.

Three. And so we learn in Toras Kohanim: Many days, three; or perhaps it means ten? It says “days” and it says “many.” The minimum number for [the plural] “days” is two; so too, the minimum number for [the adjective] “many” is three. Perhaps two and three equals five? But does it say “days and many”? etc. We need not ask from the phrase “many days” regarding Yaakov where Scripture writes (Bereishis 37:34): “He mourned for his son for many days,” and Rashi explains it means twenty-two years. This is because regarding Yaakov, we cannot explain it means three days, for what would Scripture be informing us [by saying] that he wept for three days? Any man would mourn three days! Furthermore, regarding the laws of the Torah where it is written, “her [blood-]flow, many days,” and one must give a minimum amount for the matter. Otherwise, we would not know how many [days] constitutes a zovoh, thus, one must explain there a minimum amount. And that is: If you hold onto the minimum amount you will take hold, but if you take hold of too much, you will lose everything, and that is the Torah’s measure. However, the verse, “He mourned for his son for many days,” only comes to tell us an excessive amount, and we do not need to know any minimum measurement — how many days, no more or no less. Scripture does not depart from its plain meaning (Gur Aryeh).

זוב דמה,ואשה כי יזוב, “and if a woman have an issue of her blood, etc.” what is described here is what Solomon in Kohelet 10,18 alluded to when he said: בעצלתים ימך המקרה, “through slothfulness the ceiling sags, and through idleness of the hands, the house leaks.” The symbolism contained in this verse refers to the neglect by a woman in observing the laws of ritual purity, especially those laws involving menstruation. If the woman fails to examine herself before the onset of her menses this can have dire consequences, both for herself and the husband with whom she entertains marital relations. In the Talmud tractate Shabbat second chapter, death in childbirth by a woman is mentioned as one of these consequences. If she handled certain hallowed foods while in a state of ritual impurity, she made these foods unfit for consumption and conferred ritual impurity on the party handling them without even having eaten them. An interesting story on this subject is related in the Talmud, tractate, Niddah, folio 6. The famous Rabbi Gamliel had a servant woman working for him, who would regularly be required to seal caskets of wine [of a highly consecrated level, Ed.] and move them to another. After each single time she had moved them, she examined herself about whether her menses had begun, as otherwise the whole casket and its contents would have been unfit for further use. This servant maid found that after she had moved the last casket she had started her period. Upon telling this to her master, she was told that if she had not been in the habit of checking herself after each time she moved a casket, not only the last one but all of them would have become ritually contaminated. This is also why on folio 13 of the same tractate, we have a statement to the effect that anyone who makes a point of frequently checking herself out in this respect is especially praiseworthy.

ואשה כי יזוב זוב, “if a woman have an emission of her blood for many days, (not connected to her menstrual cycle);” this includes when such a flow was the result of some accident, a power completely beyond her control.

בלא עת נדתה OUT OF THE TIME OF HER SEPARATION — i. e. at least three days immediately after the seven normal days of her separation have expired.

Seven days of her menstrual uncleanness. Meaning: After the seven [days] she saw three consecutive days, then, she is a zovoh and she requires seven clean days and a sacrifice. However, if she saw three consecutive days within the time of her menstrual impurity she is only a menstruant woman [and she counts seven days even if she sees during that time, and if she stopped seeing at the end of] seven she immerses and is permitted to have marital relations with her husband. She needs neither seven [clean days] nor a sacrifice. For this reason the verse needs to say, “Outside her menstrual cycle,” to teach this. The first section in which it is written, “When a woman has a discharge,” refers [to the case] when she saw one day or two days, where she is a zovoh ketanoh (lesser zovoh). Re’m writes: However, this raises a difficulty: Why did Rashi derive this teaching from the verse, “outside her menstrual cycle”? Why did he ignore the Beraisa in Toras Kohanim which derived this teaching from the phrase, “after her menstrual cycle”? However, I am astounded that the Rav missed what the Rabbis derived at the end of Maseches Nidah (73a), and Rashi’s words are explicit in the Talmud in Maseches Nidah, see there.

דמה, “her blood;” not the blood related to any pregnancy or fetus.

או כי תזוב OR IF SHE HAS A FLOW during these (the above mentioned) three days,

These three days. I.e., it does not mean, “if [the discharge] flows” without specifying — even one day — because someone who has a flow of one day is not a zovoh gedoloh but rather a zovoh ketanoh, and she “keeps watch day by day.” In the evening she immerses herself and is permitted to have marital relations with her husband. Rashi mentions “these” as if to say: Those mentioned above. This is so that you will not ask: Why does the verse not specify? [The answer is] because they are mentioned above.

ימים רבים, “many days;” an unusual expression as in halachah as few as three days are considered as the minimum for the expression: “many days.” Seeing that this woman had to be physically separated from her husband such a separation is already considered as psychologically painful as if it had been “many” days, literally.(Tanchuma on this portion, section 6).

על נדתה BEYOND THE TIME OF HER SEPARATION — i. e. being remote (distant) from her time of separation by one intervening day — this woman (such a woman) is, in both cases, termed a זבה and the law regarding her is decreed in this section that follows; and it is not like the law of a נדה, because she (the former) requires the counting of seven clean days (i. e. her uncleanness does not end until she has counted שבעה נקיים, seven consecutive days that are clean of any flux; cf. v. 28) and a sacrifice on the following day (cf. v. 29); whilst the נדה does not require the counting of the clean days (i. e. התורה ‎מן nor does she require a sacrifice) but she remains seven days in her separation and no longer irrespective as to whether she has or has not seen a show of blood (i. e. even if there is a flow on the seventh day and it then ceases she is still clean on the eighth day after having immersed herself). And they (our Rabbis) in expounding this section in the Sifra explain. There are eleven days intervening between the end of one ,נדה-period and the beginning of the next נדה-period, so that if she sees blood on three immersed herself. And they (our Rabbis) in expounding this section (Sifra, Metzora Parashat Zavim, Chapter 8 2-3) derived the Halacha of the eleven days that intervene between the expiration of one נדה period and the commencement of another ‎נדה period — i. e. that as a result of any three consecutive days that she sees blood within these eleven days she shall be (come under the law of) a זבה and not a נדה.

After. We should not say “close to her menstrual cycle,” i.e., she never stopped seeing all the seven days of her menstrual cycle, and on the eighth day of her menstrual cycle she also saw. If so, she is still a menstruant woman, and she does not enter the category of a zovoh until she stops [seeing completely] and becomes pure for at least one day. This demonstrates that she stopped seeing the menstrual blood and the source of the menstrual blood is closed. And from this point, another source [of blood] has been opened. Here as well, Re’m says that Rashi’s words originate in the Midrash of Toras Kohanim and he raised a difficulty (see there). However, Rashi’s comment originates from the Midrash Aggadah in Maseches Nidah (73a), and there it was expounded from the verse, “Outside her menstrual cycle” — close to her menstrual cycle, and from the verse, “or if it flows after her menstrual cycle” — distant from her menstrual cycle.

על נדתה, as if the Torah had written: עם נדתה, “with her state of menstrual impurity.” Another example of the use of the word על in the sense of עם, is found in Leviticus 25, 31: על שדה הארץ יחשב, “it is considered as belonging with the field of the land.”

For three. Meaning: [Regarding] all the blood of a woman, from the day she has a regular monthly period until she dies or until her period changes to a different day, she counts seven [days] from the beginning of the day of her period, and then afterwards eleven days. And after them, seven [days], and thus the cycle repeats over and over again. All the blood she sees in those seven days is the blood of menstruation, and she sits seven days in her menstrual cycle, even if she saw only one day, and even if blood flowed freely all seven days of her menstrual cycle and stopped within the seven [days] before evening, she immerses and is permitted to have marital relations with her husband. She does not need [to count] seven clean days or [to bring] a sacrifice. All the blood she sees in the eleven days between one menstrual cycle and the next are the blood of zivah. The following is her law: If she sees one day or two days during those eleven days she “keeps watch day by day” and is only impure the day of the sighting alone. And the next day, if she does not see [blood] that entire day she immerses in the evening and is permitted to have marital relations with her husband. But if she sees three consecutive days in those eleven days then she needs [to count] seven clean days and [to bring] a sacrifice.

That is that He commanded us that a zavah be impure. And this commandment includes the exact ways through which the zavah transmits impurity to others after [it] has come to her. (See Parashat Metzora; Mishneh Torah, Those Who Defile Bed or Seat 5.)