Mishnayos Eduyos Perek 1 Mishnah 1

שמאי אומר כל הנשים דיין שעתן – All the women who see [menstral] blood know their hour to defile what is pure that they came in contact with from the time of their seeing [blood] and onward. And we don’t say that before this also, that there was blood in the walls of her womb that had been established and that she was impure even before this, for all women defile in with their vagina, and even though blood had not exited outside. And the reason of Shammai is that he did not suspect that perhaps, before this there had been blood, for if you say this, the heart of a man smites him (i.e., he has no clear conscience) all the time of intercourse and he separates himself from his wife, and it is found that the daughters of Israel would refrain from engaging in [the Mitzvah] of “being fruitful and multiplying.”

מפקידה לפקידה – She checked today and found herself to be pure, and checked at the end of the week and found herself to be impure. We are suspicious of her physical contact from the first examination and onwards, lest with the removal of her hand, she saw that the walls of her womb established her presumptive condition [of cleanness], and we do not worry about refraining from “being fruitful and multiplying”, for specifically, for purity that we defile them from one examination to the next examination, and not to her husband, for Shammai says: if we make her defiled from her purity, the heart of man smites him (i.e., he has no clear conscience) and he would separate also from sexual intercourse.

לא כדברי זה ולא כדברי זה – not according to the words of Shammai who is more lenient and does not make a tence for his words, and not according to the words of Hillel, who went beyond his measures (i.e., extended the restrictions of the law too far – see Talmud Niddah 4b) who was too strict, for certainly, all these “many days” (according to Hillel) do not establish that the walls of the womb are [filled with] blood.

מעת לעת ממעטת על יד מפקידה לפקידה – two times were mentioned with regard to the woman to defile that which is pure retroactively, and he went after the liberal of both opinions. For if “from one (i.e., the present) examination” to the [last] examination is greater than from one term of twenty-four hours (of retrospective uncleanness) [reduces the term of the interval from one examination to the other], we go after one from twenty-four hour period to the previous one, and we don’t defile other than those pure things that she came in contact with from yesterday at that hour. But if the period “from one term of twenty-four hours is greater than from one examination to the one that preceded it, such as when she checked herself in the morning and found herself to be pure, and in the evening, found herself to be impure, we don’t defile anything other than those pure things that were from the examination in the morning and beyond. And the Halakha is according to the Sages.

על יד – of another, like “Next to him” in the Book of Ezra (actually – it is Nehemiah 3:8, which is like (verse 16): “And after him.”

וסת – fixed (i.e., regular time of menstruation), for it was established for her the time of menstruation three times, and she checked at the time of her regular time of menstruation and found herself to be impure, she knows her time, and we don’t worry that perhaps before this it occurred, for certainly, her time of menstruation comes on time.

והמשמשת בעדים הרי זו כפקידה – Two things are taught and this is how it should be understood: She who uses evidences – a piece of cloth used by women for ascertaining their condition of cleanness or uncleanness that is to say, it is Mitzvah upon each and every woman to use two pieces of evidence which she checks with them, one before sexual intercourse and once after sexual intercourse.

הרי זו כפקידה – the evidence that is after sexual intercourse is considered like an examination.

ממעטת על יד מעת לעת ועל יד מפקידה לפקידה – for you might have thought lest she sees a drop of blood like a mustard seed and ends up takes a handful of semen and that it would not be considered an examination, our Mishnah comes to tell us, that until after sexual intercourse, it is considered like an examination, but the evidence used before sexual intercourse is not like an examination, and because she is restless, that is she is anxious to have sex, she does not bring it into the holes and fissures [of her vagina].