One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
מְטַמְּאֵי מִשְׁכָּב וּמוֹשָׁב
Those Who Render Couch and Seat Impure 4-6
Sefer Taharah · Which women are read forward only and which are read backwards, why no number of quiet years purifies anybody without immersion, and how the weight of a zav travels down through a thousand layers without weakening
4
Women who are impure only from the moment bleeding is discovered
24
Months after a birth in which the exemption holds, even if the child died
7
Detergent agents applied to a stained garment before it is immersed
1000
Mattresses under one stone, every one of them a primary source of impurity
Ch 4Who is read backwards, and how a stain is judged
- Four women, and the clock runs forward only. A pregnant woman once the pregnancy is obvious, a nursing woman for twenty four months from the birth even if the child died or was weaned or handed to a nursemaid, a girl who has never menstruated, and a woman called elderly in her presence who does not protest, are impure only from the moment they discover bleeding and do not impart impurity retroactively. (4:1)
- Counting a young girl's first occasions. A girl below the age of expected menstruation is not retroactive for the first and second bleeding and becomes retroactive on the third, and a girl who has reached that age is not retroactive on the first and is retroactive from the second onward, with a three month gap resetting the count each time. (4:3, 4:4)
- The inspections that shorten the reach. Every woman in these categories must still inspect herself continually even though she does not defile retroactively, and the Sages ordained inspection in the morning for the pure articles handled the previous evening and in the evening for those handled that morning, with a further inspection whenever terumah is eaten. (4:6, 4:7)
- Where a stained garment came from decides its status. Bloodstained garments from Jewish homes are presumed impure and those from gentile homes pure, while garments found in the streets of Jewish cities are pure, since Jews are not suspected of discarding them but of hiding them away; the whole impurity here is a decree imposed because of doubt. (4:10)
- Seven detergents, and the owner's own standard. A stained garment is treated with seven detergent agents and immersed, and if the stain will not lift it was a dye while if it lifts or fades it was blood and the pure articles it touched are impure, because the owner showed that the stain concerned him by removing it; a man who washes a second time over a remaining trace makes the garment impure until every remnant is nullified. (4:11, 4:13, 4:14)
RememberThe standard a person adopts today does not begin today. It reclassifies what he was already doing.
Ch 5Days alone purify nobody
- Nothing expires by waiting. A zav, a zavah, a niddah and a woman after childbirth impart impurity to people, to vessels and to whatever they lie on until they immerse, and even several years without a further impure emission leave them exactly as impure as before. (5:1)
- Days and immersion, not days alone. A woman after childbirth who does not immerse after the seven days for a male or the fourteen for a female finds that everything discharged afterwards, even within her days of purity, has the status of niddah blood whether moist or dry, since Scripture made the matter depend on days together with immersion. (5:2)
- The staircase down and the staircase up. Blood discharged from the inner space of the uterus while she is descending to immerse is impure and the immersion does nothing for it, while blood discharged as she ascends is pure blood, because the water has already acted on everything within her body. (5:3)
- Purified and not yet complete. Throughout her days of purity she has the standing of a person who immersed today and has not yet seen nightfall, so she may eat second tithe and disqualifies terumah, while for sacrificial food she remains a derivative of impurity and must immerse again at the end of those days before touching it. (5:4)
- The seventh day is not safe until sunset. A zav and a major zavah who immerse on the seventh spotless day may not touch pure articles until evening, since a discharge that day disqualifies the days already counted and the pure articles they handled become impure retroactively. (5:9)
RememberTime is a necessary condition here and never a sufficient one. The days can pass perfectly and produce nothing if nobody enters the water.
Ch 6Bed, seat, saddle, and the weight that travels down
- Lying, sitting and riding. A surface for lying and a surface for sitting are one category, and Scripture names them separately to teach that a man who lies on a seat or sits on a couch defiles it either way; a surface for riding is the seat used while mounted, such as a donkey's packsaddle or a horse's saddlecloth. (6:1)
- Touch a saddle and your garments stay clean. Any such surface becomes a primary source of impurity by Scriptural law, but touching a lying surface defiles the garments of the one touching while touching a riding surface does not, since the verse about riding omits the laundering of clothes; carrying either one defiles garments until contact is broken. (6:2)
- Madaf, and its rank. Vessels resting above a zav are called madaf and are treated as articles he touched, so they do not defile a person or an earthenware container but do defile food and liquids as other derivatives do, and the Rambam states plainly that this impurity is a Rabbinic decree. (6:3)
- The bed of the dead, and why. When a zav, a zavah, a niddah, a woman after childbirth or a metzora dies, the surfaces they lay or rode on go on conveying impurity as in their lifetime until the flesh decomposes, a Rabbinic safeguard lest one of them merely lost consciousness and appeared to have died; a gentile who dies leaves no such impurity behind. (6:4)
- A thousand mattresses and one stone. The impure person need not touch the surface at all, so that with a thousand lying surfaces stacked one upon another, a stone on the uppermost and a zav resting on the stone, the topmost surface and the one against the ground alike become primary sources of impurity, and food, liquids, vessels and people set on a stone above a zav are all primary derivatives. (6:5)
RememberWhat is above a zav is affected completely and at any distance. This impurity is not a substance that thins as it descends. It is weight.