It activity have triggered concern to your man you to definitely she would be impure, the fresh doubt resulting in him to forgo sexual relationship

In the following generation, Rav Papa quotes this statement (BT Niddah 66a) in a discussion on abortion about a woman who labored for two days and then aborted. She was considered a woman who gave birth as a zava. Rava disagreed with Rav Papa and in another discussion (BT Berakhot 31a, which parallels the Rav Huna section mentioned above) did not accept the universality of the ple of established halakhah about which there is no dispute.

These sages, Rav Huna, Abaye, R. Zera, and Rav Papa, all lived within two generations of one another, indicating that this decree was universally accepted very quickly. There may also have been concern for fertility because some sages thought that conception is most likely near the time of one’s period and another opinion set the time for conception near immersion (BT Niddah 31b). It is likely that the issue of fertility was settled quickly by observation of its enhancement in the majority of the population. The time for immersion was very close to ovulation if we assume a twenty-eight- or thirty-day cycle and a period lasting about five days. The seven clean days would then set the time for immersion at the night after the twelfth day’s sunset. Unfortunately for those women with consistently shorter cycles, such an extension of sexual abstention doomed them to halakhic infertility (‘akarut hilkhatit). This extended period of abstention coincidentally allowed a woman to practice a form of rhythm birth control by delaying her immersion in the mikveh for just a few days. In order to explain how the reduction of sexual contact became normative, we must assume that this was an era of asceticism, possibly related to mourning for the continued state of exile and the destruction of the Temple and the subsequent loss of means of atonement for sin. It is also likely that power struggles between the priestly class and the rabbinic sages became focused on purity issues. By “raising” the purity observance of non-priests, the rabbinic sages usurped the elite priestly status, centering the Crown of Torah-Learning (Keter Torah), the Crown of Governance (Keter Malkhut), and the modified Priestly Crown (Keter Kehuna) in the House of the Patriarchs and their adherents, the haverim.

No history is offered for all the of one’s decrees. Next motivation for this significant move was a decline throughout the traditions out of bloodstream checking. Considering Mishnah Niddah dos:6, there had been four tone out-of impure bloodstream. There had been eleven weeks where you to bloodstream could be experienced ziva. Bloodstream marks needed to be off a given proportions. The colour off blood altered because it dried as well as the colour and you will texture of your own cloth influenced how it looked. Hence the brand new sages to whom such as bloodstream trials was in fact brought to possess examination of the fresh bloodstream must be pros. Several provide mean that sages averted examining bloodstream or perhaps certain types of bloodstream; specific no more trained more youthful sages due to an enthusiastic apprenticeship (BT Niddah 20b). If for example the quantity of skilled sages decreased, almost every other methods from discussing question had to be operating. The absolute most efficient function would be to eliminate the variations between the newest classes. From the seriousness of one’s transgression, people development you to tried to steadfastly keep up this system will have to get in the brand new advice one to got rid of the fresh shorter strict group and you will lengthened the greater number of stringent you to definitely. The fresh new age of girl of Israel recommended that want.

There were most likely arguments for the decree, because went far above the latest biblical conditions into menstruating lady and you may somewhat smaller the likelihood of normative halakhic sexual contact

A basic difference of opinion exists between the famous rabbinic sages Shammai and Hillel with reference to the beginning of a woman’s menstrual impurity. In Mishnah Niddah 1:1 (Mishnah Eduyyot 1:1), Shammai claims that a woman becomes ritually impure only when she sees blood. Hillel, contrary to the normally lenient legal position of his school, claims that when the woman sees menstrual blood she is ritually impure retroactively to the time when she last made an internal examination in which she ascertained that she was not menstruating. The sages rejected his stringent view and compromised between Hillel and Shammai. They limited retroactive impurity to twenty-four hours, but it could be shortened if the woman did an internal examination within the twenty-four hour period. The sages therefore decided that if the woman had a regular, established period, both the man and woman examine themselves after coitus. It was unlikely that the set period would deviate but if there was blood they would have to bring a sin offering. Women who did not have a set period continued to be obligated to examine themselves before coitus. Women dealing with ritually pure objects and foodstuffs (including hullin consumed in purity), such as tithes (which were in effect long after the destruction of the Temple), were obligated to examine themselves internally both in the morning to make certain that the objects and foodstuffs touched in the previous evening and night were indeed pure, and again in the evening to ensure the purity of what she touched during the day. Women of the priestly families were allowed to eat certain sacrifices and gifts to the priests, but in addition to the times mentioned above, they had to examine themselves internally before and after eating tithes and sacrifices in order that they ate in purity and that the leftovers could be consumed by others.