Mishnayos Niddah Perek 1 Mishnah 1

שמאי אומר כל הנשים דיין שעתן- since Rabbi Eliezer states (see Mishnah 3 of this chapter): “Four women [fall into the category of those for whom the] time [of first seeing blood] suffices,” it is also taught [here]: “Shammai states: For all women [it is] sufficient for them [to reckon uncleanness from] their time [of discovering a flow],” to exclude from [the statement] of Rabbi Eliezer.

דיין שעתן – women who see blood know their time to make unclean/defile people who were pure who came in contact with them at the time of their seeing [blood] and onward, and we don’t say from before this also there was blood and the sides/walls of the womb preserved it and that she was [ritually] impure beforehand, for all women defile in the vagina and even though blood did not come outside, as it is written (Leviticus 15:19): “[When a woman has a discharge,] her discharge being blood from her body, [she shall remain in her menstrual impurity seven days; whoever touches her shall be impure until evening,],” even though it is in her body and did not come outside, she is impure. And the reason of Shammai is that he was not concerned that perhaps before this there was blood, for if you say that certainly he (i.e., the husband) may always have scruples at the time of sexual intercourse and separate himself entirely from his wife (see Tractate Niddah 3b) and it is found that he would make the daughters of Israel idle from [the commandment] of “being fruitful and multiplying.”

מפקידה לפקידה (from the present examination to the last one) – she examined herself today and found herself to be [ritually] pure, but she examined herself at the end of the week and found herself to be [ritually] impure. We are concerned about her contact from the first examination and onwards, lest at the moment she removed her hands, he saw her and the sides of the womb preserved it. But regarding being idle from engaging from “being fruitful and multiplying” we are not concerned, for specifically for [ritually] pure women is that we make them unclean from the present examination to the last one, but not for her husband. But Shammai states, that we also don’t make [ritually] pure women unclean, for if so, he (i.e., the husband) may always have scruples at the time of sexual intercourse and separate himself also from sexual relations [with his wife].

לא כדברי זה – Shammai who is more lenient and doesn’t make a fence for his words.

ולא כדברי זה – Hillel who is much too stringent, for certainly all those many days, we don’t maintain the sides/walls of the womb with blood.

מעת לעת ממעטת על יד מפקידה לפקידה (the term of twenty-four astronomical hours – of retrospective uncleanness – reduces the term of the interval from one examination to the other – i.e., we go by the shorter term whichever it may be) – two times that were mentioned regarding a woman to defile those who are pure retroactively, and we go according to the more lenient that is in both of them. If the period from the present examination to the last one is greater than the period of twenty-four astronomical hours, follow after the period of twenty-four astronomical hours and she does not defile other than those pure individuals that she came in contact with from yesterday at this time. But if the period of twenty-four astronomical hours is greater than from the present examination to the last one, as for example, she examined herself in the morning and found herself to be pure and in the evening, she found herself to be impure, we do not defile any other than those pure people that were from the examination in the morning and onward. And the reason of the Rabbis, is because the Sages ordained for the daughters of Israel would examine [themselves] I the morning and the evening, in the morning to permit/make fit the purity of the night, and in the evening to permit/make fit the purity of the morning. But if she examined [herself] in the morning and found herself to be pure, and in the evening and found herself to be impure, she lost the purity of the day, and this one [woman] who sat many days and did not examine herself according to the ordinance of the Sages, she lost one additional period, because of a fine, and in order to make the standards of the Sages consistent, so that there will be no dispute between whether she examined herself in the morning and where she examined herself in the afternoon, they did not want to distinguish or to eliminate or to add at the time. And they provided a fixed time, a period of twenty-four astronomical hours, to not have a rule that would vary according to circumstance [and not be the same for all. And the Halakha is according to the Sages (see Talmud Niddah 4b).

על יד – after, like )Nehemiah 3:8 – and not as it states, Chapter 3 of Ezra): “Next to them”/ועל ידו החזיק [Uzziel son of Harhiah, of the smiths repaired],” which is like “and after him.”

וסת (regular date/symptoms of menstruation) – fixed , that it was established for her the times of menstruation, and she examined herself at the time of menstruation and found herself to be impure.

דיה שעתה – but we are not concerned that perhaps it was before this time, for certainly menstruation comes at its [set] time.

והמשמשת בעדים – she examined herself with “witnesses,” which are with a sheet prior to sexual intercourse, and after sexual intercourse.

הרי זה כפקידה – In the Gemara (Tractate Niddah 5a) it establishes that our Mishnah teaches two things, and this is what it said: and a piece of cloth used by women for ascertaining their condition of cleanness or uncleanness, that is to say, it is a Mitzvah upon the woman that she should use two pieces of cloth (i.e., literally, two witnesses), one prior to sexual intercourse and one following sexual intercourse. And that is like an examination. And it reduces the term of the interval from one astronomical period of twenty-four hours and through a present examination to a past examination. For you might have thought lest she see a drop of blood like a grain of mustard and it will release an effusion of semen and it will not be like an examination. Therefore, it comes to teach us that this is not the case. But if she had sexual intercourse in the afternoon with “testimony” (i.e., a piece of cloth that she used to examine herself beforehand), and she examined herself afterwards in the evening and found herself to be impure. We do not defile those with purity from her examination in the morning until her sexual intercourse, for behold, at the time of her sexual intercourse she examined herself and found herself to be pure. But even though that she examined herself prior to sexual intercourse it is not considered to be a good examination, for in the midst that she was hurrying to engage in sexual intercourse, she doesn’t bring in/pas the cloth/sheet (i.e., the “witness”) to the holes and slits, an examination with a “witness” (i.e., the cloth or sheet) is a good examination, and is considered like an examination that we mentioned.