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Mikveh four days before wedding

11 June, 2006
Question:

What is the source and rationale for a kallah not immersing more than 4 days before the wedding but yet allowing this leeway?


Answer:

See the Rema's gloss to Yoreh Deah 192:2 and the nosei kelim there.  The ideal is for immersion to come as close to the first act of relations as possible.  The leeway is based on the custom in the time of the Rema (of which some authorities disapproved) to have the wedding Tuesday night and the first act of relations four days later on Motzaei Shabbat.  Note that, if the interval is longer, the bride need not immerse again so long as she performs bedikot until the wedding.

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