Niddah
| Halakhic texts relating to this article | |
|---|---|
| Torah: | Leviticus 15:19-30 18:19 20:18 |
| Babylonian Talmud: | Niddah |
| Mishneh Torah: | Kedushah (Holiness): Issurei Biah (forbidden sexual relations): 4–11 |
| Shulchan Aruch: | Yoreh De'ah 183–202 |
Niddah (or nidah; Hebrew: נִדָּה) is a Hebrew term describing a woman during menstruation, or a woman who has menstruated, and not yet completed the associated requirement of immersion in a mikveh (ritual bath).
In Leviticus, the Torah prohibits sexual intercourse with a niddah and the prohibition has been maintained in traditional Jewish law. The laws concerning niddah are also referred to as taharath hamishpacha (טהרת המשפחה, Hebrew for family purity).
Literally the feminine noun niddah means moved (i.e. separated), and generally refers to separation due to ritual impurity. Medieval Biblical commentator Abraham ibn Ezra writes that the word niddah is related to the term menadechem (מנדיכם), meaning those that cast you out.
The noun niddah occurs 25 times in the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible. The majority of these uses refer to forms of uncleanliness in Leviticus. For example, in Leviticus, if a man take his brother's wife, then that is "uncleanness", niddah. The five uses in Numbers all concern the red heifer ceremony (Numbers 19) and use the phrase mei niddah, "waters of separation".2 Chronicles 29:5 includes a single exhortation of Hezekiah to the Levites, to carry the niddah, possibly idols of his father Ahaz, out of the temple in Jerusalem. Usage in Ezekiel follows that of Leviticus. Finally the Book of Zechariah concludes with an eschatological reference to washing Jerusalem:
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