Комментарий к Берешит 31:35

LET NOT MY LORD BE ANGRY THAT I CANNOT RISE UP BEFORE THEE. I do not understand what kind of an apology this is. Do women in that condition not rise or stand? Perhaps she said that her head and limbs feel heavy, and she was sick on account of the menstruation, for such is the customary way among them, and all the more among those such as Rachel, whose birth-giving powers are diminished since they have little blood,²²¹See Kethuboth 10b. and menstruation presses very heavily upon them.
The correct interpretation appears to me to be that in ancient days menstruants kept very isolated for they were ever referred to as niddoth on account of their isolation since they did not approach people and did not speak with them. For the ancients in their wisdom knew that their breath is harmful, their gaze is detrimental and makes a bad impression, as the philosophers have explained. I will yet mention²²²See Ramban Leviticus 18:19. their experiences in this matter. And the menstruants dwelled isolated in tents where no one entered, just as our Rabbis have mentioned in the Beraitha²²³“Exterior,” a teaching of the Tannaim that for some reason had not been included in the Mishnah by Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi. The collection of Beraithoth was compiled by Rabbi Chiyah and Rabbi Oshayah. They are generally found in the Tosephta. which follows the order of the Mishnah. of Tractate Niddah:²²⁴There are differences of opinion among scholars concerning this Beraitha. See my Hebrew commentary, p. 177, and commencing with the second edition also on p. 548, column 2, top of page. “A learned man²²⁵The meaning of the word talmid or talmud here is not clear. is forbidden to greet a menstruant. Rabbi Nechemyah says, ‘Even the utterance of her mouth is unclean.’ Said Rabbi Yochanan: ‘One is forbidden to walk after a menstruant and tread upon her footsteps, which are as unclean as a corpse; so is the dust upon which the menstruant stepped unclean, and it is forbidden to derive any benefit from her work.’” Therefore Rachel said, “It would be proper for me to rise before my lord to kiss his hands, but the way of women is upon me, and I cannot come near you nor walk at all in the tent so that you should not tread upon the dust of my feet.” And Laban kept silent and did not answer her, as it was customary not to converse with them at all because the speech of a menstruant was unclean.

ותאמר...כי דרך נשים לי, she referred to menstruation. The Torah elsewhere described this as אורח הנשים, when describing Sarah as no longer experiencing these cycles (Genesis 18,11).

אל יחר בעיני אדוני כי לא אוכל לקום מפניך. “may my lord not be angry, for I am suffering from my monthly menstrual pains.” Nachmanides writes that he does not understand what kind of an excuse Rachel offered with these words. Who has ever heard of women who experience these pains being unable to get up and stand on the floor? Perhaps she meant that all women suffer from pains in their head and in their limbs when these pains begin. I believe it is far more likely that the women in those days were quarantined during their monthly cycles so that men would not approach them and speak to them as it was considered that they could thereby confer disease through their exhaling bad breath. Our sages have already confirmed this in a Baraitha in the tractate Niddah. Even to be looked upon by a menstruating woman was considered hazardous. This is why special huts were set aside for the use of women in such a condition. [this editor has seen such a hut in Hawai with his own eyes. Ed.] According to the aforementioned Baraitha, a Torah scholar is forbidden to even enquire after the well being of such a woman. Rachel said that good manners require that she give a kiss to her father but that due to her present condition she was unable to do so, etc. Some commentators do not understand the words דרך נשים as applying to menstruation pains but, on the contrary, to the state of pregnancy.

כי לא אוכל לקום מפניך, “for I am unable to rise before you.” This verse proves that the ancients already practiced the restrictions of ritual impurity when their women were menstruating. In fact, they treated such impurity as equivalent to the ritual impurity associated with a dead body. According to Niddah it was forbidden to enquire after the welfare of a menstruating woman. Rabbi Nechemyah there says that that even the words which come out of the mouth of a menstruating woman are ritually impure, and one is not to walk on the ground such a woman has walked on. One must also not make use of what such a woman has produced with her hands while in such an impure state. This is why Lavan kept quiet and left her tent. The high level of Yaakov’s chastity is attested to by the fact that each of his four wives had her own quarters.