Traité Niddah

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : even if she continues to experience bleeding during the days that are fit for the new counting following the negation of the days counted by a zava, she remains pure. If a woman experiences bleeding during her seven clean days, she negates any days counted thus far, and must begin a new count of seven clean days. Accordingly, all the days that follow her days of ziva are effectively considered days that are fit for the counting of a zava. Therefore, blood emitted due to labor pains during these days is also ritually pure. Consequently, the blood that accompanies labor pains is ritually impure only if she begins to emit it during her days of menstruation.

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : The Gemara poses a difficulty with regard to the opinion of Levi: We learned in the mishna: How long before birth is pain attributable to her labor pains? Rabbi Meir says: Even forty or fifty days before the birth. Rabbi Meir apparently maintains that a woman who experiences continuous labor pains accompanied by emissions of blood for forty or fifty days remains pure.

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : The Gemara explains the difficulty: Granted, the mishna is clear according to Rav, as you find that it is possible that she will remain pure for such a long period, i.e., in accordance with the explanation of Rav Adda bar Ahava that Rav deems the blood pure even during the days that are fit for the new counting following the negation of the days counted by a zava. Accordingly, as long as the woman begins to experience labor pains during her days of ziva, she remains pure until birth, provided the labor pains continue without a twenty-four-hour period of resting. But according to Levi, who maintains that blood accompanying labor pains is pure only during the days of ziva, the mishna is difficult, as it is impossible for her blood to remain pure due to labor pains for fifty days.

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : The Gemara explains that Levi could say to you: Does the mishna teach that she is pure during all these days, i.e., that she remains pure throughout the days of menstruation and ziva? Not so. Rather, if she emitted blood due to labor pains during the days of menstruation she has the status of a menstruating woman, whereas if she emitted the blood during the days of ziva she is pure. The mishna is teaching only that she will not be deemed a zava on account of this blood.

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : Some Sages state another version of the above disagreement: Rabbi Levi says: The birth of a child renders the mother ritually pure only if she experienced bleeding during the eleven days that are fit for her to become a greater zava, i.e., if she experienced bleeding on three consecutive days during that time. But if she experienced bleeding on only one or two days she is rendered a lesser zava, and she must observe a clean day for each day she experiences a discharge. What is the reason? It is written: “And if a woman has an issue of her blood many days…all the days of the issue of her impurity she shall be as in the days of her menstruation: She is impure” (Leviticus 15:25). The verse is referring specifically to a greater zava, indicating that the halakha that a woman is not rendered a zava on account of an emission of blood caused by labor pains applies only to a greater zava.

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : Abba Shaul says in the name of Rav: The birth of a child renders the mother ritually pure even if she experienced bleeding on the days that are fit for her to become a lesser zava. What is the reason? “Days” and “many days” are written there, from which the impurity of a lesser zava is derived. Accordingly, the verse includes a lesser zava in this halakha as well.

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : The Gemara raises a difficulty: We learned in the mishna: How long before birth is pain attributable to her labor pains? Rabbi Meir says: Even forty or fifty days before the birth. Rabbi Meir apparently maintains that a woman who experiences continuous labor pains accompanied by emissions of blood for forty or fifty days remains pure. If so, the mishna is difficult according to both opinions, as all agree that only emissions of blood due to labor pains that occur during her days of ziva are pure. The Gemara responds: Does the mishna teach that she is pure during all fifty days? Not so. Rather, if she experienced labor pains accompanied by emissions of blood during the days of menstruation she has the status of a menstruating woman, whereas if she experienced them during the days of ziva she is pure.

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : With regard to the above statement of Rabbi Meir, it is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Meir would say: There is a scenario in which a woman experiences labor pains accompanied by emissions of blood for one hundred and fifty days, and the impurity of ziva is not included in those days, i.e., she will not be rendered a greater zava. How so? First, a woman emits blood for two days not at the time of her menstruation, e.g., she experiences bleeding on the tenth and eleventh days of ziva. She is not rendered a menstruating woman by these emissions, as they occurred during the days of ziva, nor does she become a greater zava, since she experienced bleeding on only two days.

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : Rabbi Meir continues: And then she continues to experience bleeding throughout the seven days of menstruation. She is not considered to have experienced bleeding of ziva for three consecutive days, as the third emission occurred during her days of menstruation. And she then experiences bleeding for the first two days after the days of menstruation, i.e., on the first and second days of the eleven days of ziva. And on the third day of ziva she begins the period of fifty days before giving birth, during which the child renders her pure. This constitutes a period of sixty-one days during which she is not rendered a greater zava.

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : Rabbi Meir continues: And this period is followed by eighty days of purity from ziva after giving birth to a female, for a total of 141 days during which she does not become a greater zava on account of blood emitted. And there are then seven days of menstruation following her days of purity, and another two days after the days of menstruation, i.e., the first and second days of ziva, during which she experiences bleeding, for a total of 150 days during which she does not become a greater zava on account of blood emitted.

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : The Rabbis said to Rabbi Meir: If so, there is also a scenario in which a woman experiences emissions of blood due to labor pains for all the days of her life, and the impurity of ziva is not included in them. For example, she gives birth to a female, and at the conclusion of her days of impurity engages in intercourse with her husband and becomes pregnant. She continues to experience bleeding throughout her days of purity, after which she experiences bleeding during the seven days of menstruation and the first two days of the next cycle of ziva. She then experiences labor pains accompanied by blood for fifty days, after which she miscarries a female. She subsequently becomes pregnant again within eighty days of the miscarriage, and the above process repeats itself. In this manner, she will never become a greater zava.

Traduction française en préparation — version anglaise (Steinsaltz) : Rabbi Meir said to them: What is your opinion, that a woman is not rendered a zava due to the birth of non-viable newborns? The halakha that blood emitted due to labor pains does not render a woman a zava does not apply to non-viable newborns.