Rabbi Zeira's stringency

Rabbi Zeira's stringency (Aramaic: חומרא דרבי זירא‎) or the stringency of the daughters of Israel (Hebrew חומרת בנות ישראל) relates to the law of niddah (a woman during menstruation) and refers to the stringency expounded in the Talmud where all menstruant women, at the conclusion of their menstrual flow, were to count seven days of cleanness, just as women would do who suffered an "irregular flow" (Hebrew: זיבה‎) = "zivah" as defined in Jewish law.

The stringency was enacted due to the confusion of Jewish women on how to view their menstrual flow, whether it was deemed a regular menstrual flow, or one which came as an irregular flow (see infra), known in rabbinic terminology as the zavah ktanah ("minor zavah", and the zavah gedolah ("zavah major").^[1] By declaring that all women had the status of zavah gedolah, this required them to count seven days of cleanness before immersing. Unlike the true zavah who immersed in running spring water, the rabbinic decree over all women only required seven clean days, followed by an immersion in a ritual bath (mikveh).

Original practice[]

The original Torah instruction was that a woman may immerse herself immediately following the cessation of blood discharge. Seven days are given to all women during their regular monthly menstrual cycle, known as the "days of the menstruate" (Hebrew: niddah), even if her actual period lasted only 3 to 5 days. Only with the woman who had an "irregular flow" (Heb. zivah) was she required to count seven days of cleanness when her menstrual flow ceased (Leviticus 15:25–28). The "irregular flow" (Heb. zivah) was determined in the following manner: From the eighth day after the beginning of her period (the terminus post quem, or the earliest date in which they begin to reckon the case of a zavah), when she should have normally concluded her period, these are days that are known in Hebrew as the days of a running issue (Hebrew: zivah), and which simply defines a time (from the 8th to the 18th day, for a total of eleven days) that, if the woman had an irregular flow of blood for two consecutive days during this time, she becomes a zavah and is capable of defiling whatever she touches, and especially whatever object she happens to be standing upon, lying upon or sitting upon. Because of the complexities in determining these days in most women, especially with those who do not have fixed periods, the Sages of Israel declared that all menstruant women are to be viewed in such a doubtful condition, regardless of when they saw blood, requiring them all to count seven days of cleanness before their immersion.^[2]

Chronology[]

The Torah-based menstrual impurity laws were initiated with the reported giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai in the year HC 2448 (-1313 BCE). The stringency was established approximately 1,500 years later, during the amoraic period in approximately HC 3961 (200 CE). The extended lapse in timeline giving way to the stringency is viewed, by some, as being an outcome of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and the ensuing scattering and turmoil.^{[citation needed]}

Halakhic status of the stringency[]

The Talmud Bavli disagrees on how to view the said stringency in terms of it being categorized as a custom or a law, Rava - in dialogue with his student Rav Pappa - abstained from viewing it as an halakha, saying that it is location-based, with communities fully entitled not to comply. Rashi views Rava's comments to his student as hinting that the said stringency evolved into a takanah.^[3]

The Rambam (Hilkhot Issurei Biah 11, 3-4) viewed the stringency as is, a "stringency" alone and not a rabbinic enactment, but he nonetheless advocated adherence to it since (by his era) all known communities abided by it, making it as a neder (vow) that is implicitly applicable.

Rabbi Kook's leniency[]

Among other poskim, Rabbi Avraham HaKohen Kook was of the opinion the stringency is on par with any other rabbinic prohibition, and perhaps lesser than a full-blown rabbinic prohibition. Thus, if need arise to seek leniency from it, leniency may be sought, and applied.^[4]

See also[]

• Tumah and taharah
• Zav

References[]