Комментарий к Вайикра 12:4

תשב — The word תשב signifies here “remaining”, just as in (Deuteronomy 1:46) “And ye stayed (ותשבו) at Kadesh”, and (Genesis 13:18) “and he stayed (‎‎‎וישב) in the Plain of Mamre”

AND SHE SHALL THEN ‘TEISHEIV’¹⁷Literally: “sit” or “dwell.” (REMAIN) IN THE BLOOD OF PURIFICATION THREE AND THIRTY DAYS. “The term yeshivah [literally: sitting] signifies here ‘remaining,’ just like in the verses: ‘vateishvu’ (and ye stayed) in Kadesh;¹⁸Deuteronomy 1:46. ‘vayeishev’ (and he dwelled) by the terebinths of Mamre.”¹⁹Genesis 13:18. This is Rashi’s language. But if so, the verse is stating: “for another thirty-three days she should still wait, touching no hallowed thing nor coming into the Sanctuary, even though they are days of purity as far as [physical relationship with] her husband,”²⁰A woman after the birth of a male child is impure for seven days like a menstruant, and is forbidden to have conjugal relations with her husband. For the next thirty-three days, even though she has an issue of blood, she is permitted to her husband, but she may not eat of the offerings nor come into the Sanctuary until the forty-first day, when she brings her prescribed offerings (Verses 6-8). For a female child the number of impure days are fourteen, and the waiting period until she may eat of the offerings etc. is sixty-six days, and she brings her offerings on the eighty-first day. — It should be pointed out that this is the Scriptural law which explains the verses and the text of Ramban before us. For the practical law to be observed today, see further, Note 23. this being the sense of the expression in the blood of purification. Scripture uses this expression [‘remain’ in the blood of purification, instead of saying “and she shall then be … “] in order to inform us that even though she sees no issue of blood during these [thirty-three days for a male child, or sixty-six for a female], she must still wait this entire period on account of the childbirth [before she may eat of the hallowed food or enter the Sanctuary]. It is possible that the expression teisheiv here is like in the verse, Many days ‘teishvi’ (thou shalt sit solitary) for me; thou shalt not play the harlot, and then thou shalt not be any man’s wife,²¹Hosea 3:3. for a woman who has intercourse with her husband is called yosheveth lo (sitting for him). Now since He said in regard to the seven days [after the birth of the male child], she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of the impurity of the sickness shall she be unclean,²²Verse 2. meaning that she be impure to her husband and for hallowed food during all these seven days, He now said that after the seven days she may sit for her husband [i.e., she may have intercourse with him] for thirty-three days in the blood of purification, but still she may not touch hallowed things nor come into the Sanctuary, even if she sees [no issue of blood], and she may be with her husband even if she sees [an issue].²³This as noted above is the Scriptural law. Rabbi Moshe Isserless states the law as it is to be observed today. After commenting that in some places it is customary that during the entire forty-days period for a male-child and eighty for a female, the mother does not purify herself for her husband by immersion in a ritual pool, he states the law to be as follows: “But in those places where there is no such custom, we should not be stringent at all. Rather, immediately after she has not seen blood following the seven-days for a male-child and fourteen for a female, and after she counted a further seven clean days, she is permitted to her husband. But if she again saw even a drop of blood as tiny as a grain of mustard, she is unclean. For although by Scriptural law it is clean blood, yet the custom has already been accepted in all Israel that no coition is permitted if there is clean blood, the law applicable thereto being in every respect like that of other [unclean] blood” (Yoreh Deah 194:1, Rama).
The correct interpretation appears to me to be that a woman in the days of her menstruation is called niddah (shunned) because she was avoided by and kept distant from all people. Men and women would not approach her, and she would sit alone and not speak with them, for even her speech was considered by them impure, and they regarded the dust upon which she stepped to be impure as the dust of the decomposed bones of the dead. Our Rabbis have mentioned this.²⁴Vol. I, p. 387. Even her gaze was considered harmful, and I have already mentioned this in Seder Vayeitzei Ya’akov.²⁵Ibid., pp. 387-388, and Note 224 there. Thus it was the custom of menstruants to sit in a special tent, this being the intent of Rachel’s words to her father [Laban], Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise up before thee; for the manner of women is upon me,²⁶Genesis 31:35. since it was their custom that a woman in that condition should not walk, nor let the sole of her foot step upon the ground. That is why the Torah was more stringent in regard to what the menstruant sits upon or lies upon [in that both the person who touches them and his garments are rendered impure]²⁷Further, 15:21-23. than with respect to touching [the menstruant herself, in which case the person himself is rendered impure, but not his garments].²⁸Ibid., Verse 19. Similarly Scripture said in regard to the leper: he shall dwell [literally: “sit”] alone; without the camp shall his dwelling be,²⁹Ibid., 13:46. and it did not say as it did in the case of the other impure persons, and he shall go out of the camp, he shall not come within the camp.³⁰Deuteronomy 23:11. Rather, it mentioned the term “sitting,” meaning that he is to avoid walking, since his odor and breath are harmful. It is for this reason that Scripture says here that for another thirty-three days she shall ‘sit’ in the blood of purification, in the same place where she sat in the [seven] days of impurity on account of the childbirth, and further prohibited by means of a negative commandment from touching hallowed things or coming into the Sanctuary during that time. The [Rabbinical] interpretation thereof is as follows:³¹Sifra, Tazria 1:7. “She shall continue [in the blood of purification for three and thirty days]. This comes to include a woman in hard labor during the eleven days,³²It is important to clarify first certain basic Scriptural concepts in order to understand the text before us: (a) Commencing with the day on which a woman first sees a menstrual issue, she is to count seven days of impurity. During these days she remains impure, and forbidden to her husband, whether or not she sees another issue in the course of them. The issue, however, having ceased before the sun has set on the seventh day, she is to immerse herself that night in a ritual pool and may enter into conjugal relations. [However, for the Rabbinic ordinance as observed today, see Note 35.] (b) After these seven days of impurity effecting the menstruant, commences “the eleven-day period” (here referred to in the text) during which she becomes subject to the law affecting the zavah (a woman suffering a flux outside her regular period). That is to say, if during this period she sees one or two issues on the same day or on two consecutive days, she only has to immerse herself in a ritual pool on the following day, and returns to her purity with the setting of the sun. A woman suffering a flux of this kind is often referred to as “a minor zavah.” If, however, during the eleven-day period she sees one or more issues on three consecutive days, she becomes “a major zavah,” being under the obligation to count seven “clean days” after the complete cessation of the flux. And if in the course of these seven “clean days,” she sees another issue, she is to commence counting seven “clean days” anew. With the completion of the counting of seven completely “clean days,” the major zavah is to immerse herself in a ritual pool, bringing on the following day the prescribed offering (further, 15:29-30). Thus it is clear that by ordinance of the Torah, the law of the menstruant is far different from that of the zavah, to which she is subject during “the eleven-day” period, or the intervening time between her regular periods. See additionally, Note 35 as to the Rabbinic ordinance. that she be pure from zivah (the law of ‘flux’).³³Thus a woman who was in protracted labor for three days of this “eleven-day period” [during which ordinarily the laws of zivah would have applied], and she saw issues on these three consecutive days, is yet not subject to this law. But, as the text continues, if she was in hard labor during her seven days of menstruation and she saw an issue, she is impure as a menstruant. I might think that she should also be regarded as pure from [the impurity conveyed through] menstruation;³⁴See above, Note 32 (a). Scripture therefore says [as in the days of the impurity of her sickness] shall she be unclean.”³⁵It is important to note that by Rabbinic ordinance a woman seeing an issue at any time whatever, is under obligation to count seven completely “clean days” after the cessation of the issue last seen — irrespective of whether she has seen the last issue within the seven-day period, or at any time thereafter. She must then immerse herself in a ritual pool, whereupon she is considered purified, and may enter into conjugal relations — the conditions attaching to the eating of hallowed food no longer of course being in force in our days because of the destruction of the Sanctuary and the absence of certain other means of ritual purification.

בדמי טהרה, although this blood could not have originated from a new ovulation but dates back to the last ovulation before she had become pregnant, whatever had happened at that time is no longer relevant the whole appearance of that blood having changed completely.