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Mishnayos Niddah Perek 4 Mishnah 1

נדה פרק ד׳ משנה א׳

1

Samaritan girls are considered menstruating women from the time they lie in their cradle. And the Samaritan men impart ritual impurity to the lower bedding like the upper bedding, i.e., all layers of bedding beneath them are impure, and their status is like the bedding above a man who experiences a gonorrhea-like discharge [zav]: The status of both levels of bedding is that of first-degree ritual impurity, which can impart impurity to food and drink. This is due to the fact that Samaritan men are considered men who engage in intercourse with menstruating women. And they are considered men who engage in intercourse with menstruating women because Samaritan women observe the seven-day menstrual period of ritual impurity for each and every emission of blood, even for blood that does not render them impure. Accordingly, if a Samaritan woman has an emission of impure blood during the seven-day period, she will nevertheless continue counting seven days from the first emission. It is therefore possible that the Samaritan men will engage in intercourse with their wives while they are still halakhically considered menstruating women, as the seven-day period of impurity should have been counted from the emission of the impure blood. But one who enters the Temple while wearing those garments upon which a Samaritan had lain is not liable to bring an offering for entering the Temple in a status of impurity, nor does one burn teruma that came into contact with those garments, because their impurity is uncertain.

בְּנוֹת כּוּתִים, נִדּוֹת מֵעֲרִיסָתָן. וְהַכּוּתִים מְטַמְּאִים מִשְׁכָּב תַּחְתּוֹן כָּעֶלְיוֹן, מִפְּנֵי שֶׁהֵן בּוֹעֲלֵי נִדּוֹת, וְהֵן יוֹשְׁבוֹת עַל כָּל דָּם וָדָם. וְאֵין חַיָּבִין עָלֶיהָ עַל בִּיאַת מִקְדָּשׁ, וְאֵין שׂוֹרְפִין עֲלֵיהֶם אֶת הַתְּרוּמָה, מִפְּנֵי שֶׁטֻּמְאָתָן סָפֵק:

א׳
Bartenura

בנות כותים נדות מעריסתן – from their youth, when they are placed in the cradle, the Rabbis decreed concerning them that they defile on account of being menstruating women, as it is written (Leviticus 15:19): “When a woman has a discharge”/ואשה כי-תהיה זבה. And it is taught in a Baraita: I do not have [from this verse] anything other than a woman when she is an adult, from where do I learn that a baby one-day old is a menstruant woman? The inference teaches us: "ואשה"/when a woman. But the Cutheans (i.e., Samaritans) do not expound upon [the difference between]"אשה" "ואשה" - a woman, when a woman, for when they see them as minors (i.e., babies), they do not separate/set them aside, therefore, the Rabbis decreed concerning it that all of them [at whatever age] defile.

מטמאין משכב התחתון כעליון (they convey uncleanness to a couch beneath as to a cover above-see also Tractate Kelim, Chapter 1, Mishnah 3) – what is below that of someone who has sexual intercourse with a menstruating woman is unclean/impure just as that which is above a person with gonorrhea/זב, that just as what is above a person with gonorrhea does not defile anything other than foods and liquids, even that which is below the person having sexual intercourse with a menstruating woman does not defile anything other than foods and liquids. And that which is above the person with gonorrhea is that which is removed from upon the person with gonorrhea, we derive from Scripture that he does not defile a person and/or utensils but only food and liquids, as it is written (Leviticus 15:10): “whomever touches anything that was under him shall be impure [until evening],” what is תחתיו/under him? If you were to say that which is underneath the person with gonorrhea/זב – he derives from everything that he would touch when lying down, but the person who comes in contact with anything where the person with gonorrhea is below him becomes defiled, and since we do not combine them and write, “and anyone who comes in contact with everything that is below him and who carries them should wash his clothing,” and we make the religious ruling concerning him that he defiles, it follows that this, “and he defiles,” does not speak of people and utensils, but rather [only] foods and liquids. But Cutheans who engage in having sexual relationships with menstruating women, defile food and liquids that are lying underneath them , but not humans or utensils, like as to a cover above of a person with gonorrhea that he also defiles food and liquids but not a person or utensils. And all of these things were not stated other than at the time when the Cutheans uphold the Torah and are punctilious in many of the commandments like Israelites. But after they (i.e., the Rabbis) examined and found with them [things] like the image of a pigeon at the top of Mount Gerizim that they worship, they made them like complete heathens for all of their things, whether for matters of [ritual] impurity and purity or for the rest of the laws of the Torah, there is no difference between them and between heathens at all.

והן יושבות על כל דם (continue unclean for any sort of blood) – meaning to say, therefore, the Cuthians engage in sexual intercourse with menstruating women, therefore, they continue [to be] unclean for any sort of blood, for all blood that she sees, whether red whether green, she continues unclean for it the days of the menstruant woman, and this is a snare/stumbling block for them, that if she sees green blood today, she begins to count from today seven days of menstrual uncleanness , but if she sees during those actual days of menstrual uncleanness red blood, she does not count other than from the first sighting, but that blood was pure, and from the second sighting she needs to count.

ואין חייבין עליהן - a person who wears or covers [himself] with those clothing and enters into the Sanctuary, is exempt from a sacrifice. Or if those clothing of their couch came in contact with heave-offering, we suspend them.

מפני שטומאתן ספק – for we don’t know if she is a menstruating woman or not. But in the Gemara (Tractate Niddah 33b) it raises an objection on our Mishnah from that which is taught inTractate Tohorot, Chapter 4 (Mishnah 5): “On account of six matters of doubt do they burn the heave-offering,” [and one of them is] “because of a doubt concerning the clothing of a common, uneducated person [who is not punctilious in the observance of the laws of ritual purity],” that is to say on the clothing of a common, uneducated person if they came in contact with it (i.e., heave-offering), it is burned, because perhaps it was [ritually] impure, and this Cuthean also, we derive it that if his couch came in contact with heave-offering, it would be burned, because he is a common, uneducated person, and he has the clothing of a common, uneducated person. And it (i.e., the Talmud) responds that our Mishnah speaks regards a Cuthean who immersed [in a ritual bath] in our presence and came up [from the Mikveh] and tread upon the clothing of a member of the group dedicated to the precise observance of the Mitzvot (i.e., a חבר) who is naked, or that he wore the clothing of a member of the group dedicated to the precise observance of the Mitzvot, or immersed his clothing in his presence (i.e., of the member of the group dedicated to the precise observance of the Mitzvot) in a manner whereby the clothing of the Cuthean when they are trodden upon [from a person with gonorrhea immediate treading, leaning against] did not come in contact with the clothing of the member of the group dedicated to the precise observance of the Mitzvot when he treated upon him, and afterwards, the clothing of the member of the group dedicated to the precise observance of the Mitzvot that the Cuthean tread upon them with heave-offering, we don’t burn the heave-offering on their account. For if it was because of the ritual impurity of the common, uneducated person, he would immerse himself. But if it was because of someone engaging in sexual intercourse with a menstruating woman, perhaps he did not engage in close sexual contact, and the days of his [ritual] impurity had already passed and the ritual immersion is effective. But if you wish to say that he engaged in close sexual contact, perhaps his wife was not continuing unclean for any sort of blood, but rather only on pure blood, and this is a compound uncertainty, and we on a compound uncertainty, we don’t burn the heave-offering.

בנות כותים נדות מעריסתן. מקטנותן, כשהן מונחות בעריסה, גזרו בהו רבנן דליטמו משום נדה, דכתיב (ויקרא ט״ו:י״ט) ואשה כי תהיה זבה, ותניא אין לי אלא אשה שהיא גדולה. תינוקת בת יום אחד לנדה מנין, תלמוד לומר ואשה. וכותים לא דרשי אשה ואשה, וכי חזיין קטנות לא מפרשי להו, הלכך גזרו בהו רבנן דליטמו כולהו:

ומטמאין משכב התחתון כעליון. תחתונו של בועל נדה טמא כעליונו של זב, מה עליונו של זב אינו מטמא אלא אוכלין ומשקין, אף תחתונו של בועל נדה אינו מטמא אלא אוכלין ומשקין. ועליונו של זב, הוא הדבר הנישא על גבי הזב נפקא לן מקרא דאינו מטמא אדם וכלים אלא אוכלים ומשקים, דכתיב (ויקרא ט״ו:י׳) והנוגע בכל אשר יהיה תחתיו יטמא, מאי תחתיו, אילימא תחתיו דזב, מכל אשר יגע במשכבו נפקא, אלא הנוגע בכל אשר יהיה הזב תחתיו יטמא, ומדלא ערבינהו ונכתוב וכל הנוגע בכל אשר יהיה תחתיו והנושא אותם יכבס בגדיו, ואפסקינהו ביטמא, מכלל דהאי יטמא לאו באדם וכלים איירי, אלא באוכלים ומשקים. וכותים שהן בועלי נדות, מטמאים משכב התחתון שלהן אוכלין ומשקין, אבל לא אדם וכלים, כעליונו של זב שגם הוא מטמא אוכלים ומשקים לא אדם וכלים. וכל הדברים הללו לא נאמרו אלא בזמן שהיו הכותים מחזיקים בתורה ומדקדקים בהרבה מצות כישראל. אבל לאחר שבדקו ומצאו להם כדמות יונה בראש הר גריזים שעובדים אותה, עשאום כנכרים גמורים לכל דבריהם, בין לענין טומאה וטהרה, בין לשאר דינים שבתורה, אין הפרש בינם לבין הנכרים כלל:

והן יושבות על כל דם. כלומר, לפיכך הכותים הם בועלי נדות, לפי שהן יושבות על כל דם, דכל דם שרואה בין אדום בין ירוק יושבת עליו ימי נדות, וזו תקלה היא להם, שאם רואה דם ירוק היום מתחלת למנות מהיום שבעת ימי נדה, ואם תראה באותם ימי נדות דם אדום, אינה מונה אלא מיום ראיה ראשונה, ואותו דם טהור היה, ומראיה שניה היא צריכה למנות:

ואין חייבין עליהן. הלובש או מתכסה באותן בגדים ונכנס למקדש, פטור מקרבן. או אם נגעו אותן בגדים של משכב שלהן בתרומה, תולין:

מפני שטומאתן ספק. דלא ידעינן אי נדה [היא] אי לא. ובגמרא פריך אמתניתין מהא דתנן במסכת טהרות פרק ד׳ (משגה ה׳) על ששה ספיקות שורפין את התרומה, על ספק בגדי עם הארץ, כלומר על בגדי עם הארץ אם נגעו בה, נשרפת, משום שמא טמא היה, והאי כותי נמי תיפוק ליה אם נגע משכבו בתרומה, תהא נשרפת, משום דעם הארץ הוא, והוי ליה בגדי עם הארץ. ומשני, דמתניתין איירי בכותי שטבל בפנינו ועלה ודרס על בגדיו של חבר כשהוא ערום, או שלבש בגדי חבר, או שהטביל את בגדיו בפניו, באופן דבגדיו של כותי כשהן מדרס, לא נגעו בבגדיו של חבר כשדרס עליהן, ואח״כ נגעו בגדיו של חבר שדרס כותי עליהן בתרומה, לא שרפינן תרומה עליהן. דאי משום טומאת עם הארץ, הא טביל ליה. ואי משום בועל נדה, שמא לא בעל בקרוב וכבר עברו ימי טומאתו וסלקא ליה טבילה. ואם תמצא לומר בעל בקרוב, שמא לא היתה אשתו יושבת על דם טמא אלא על דם טהור, והוי ספק ספיקא, ואספק ספיקא לא שרפינן תרומה: