Nishmat's Women’s Health and HalachaIn memory of Chaya Mirel bat R' Avraham

  • Hebrew
  • English
  • Espnaol
  • Francais
  • donate
Menu

International Date Line

6 August, 2003
Question:

Dear Yoetzet,
I have a question about counting 7 white days when crossing the International Date Line. If I make a Hefsek Taharah on Thursday afternoon in Australia, and that Sunday I leave on an airplane at 11:00am and, after travelling for 17 hours, arrive in California that same Sunday at 9:00am, does my day of travelling count as one of my white days and therefore I could go to the Mikvah Wednesday night in California? I am in my first year of marriage (shanah rishonah) and am trying to have children, B’ezrat Hashem, B’shaah Tovah.
Thank you.


Answer:

In order to answer your question, we made sure to check with a Rav who has flown back and forth to Australia. You are correct, on the way to California you can go to the mikveh Wednesday night. You will in fact have counted seven days, as you will have experienced seven sunsets. (A day is defined as the period from one sunset to the next. When travelling between time zones, this may be longer or shorter than the standard 24 hours.) On the way back from California to Australia, if you did a hefsek taharah on Monday (before sunset), you would go to the mikveh on Tuesday night as you would need that “extra day” to have seven sunsets.

This internet service does not preclude, override or replace the psak of any rabbinical authority. It is the responsibility of the questioner to inform us of any previous consultation or ruling. As even slight variation in circumstances may have Halachic consequences, views expressed concerning one case may not be applied to other, seemingly similar cases. All health and health-related information contained within Nishmat's Women's Health & Halacha Web site is intended to be general in nature and should not be used as a substitute for consulting with your health care professional. The advice is intended to offer a basis for individuals to discuss their medical condition with their health care provider but not individual advice. Although every effort is made to ensure that the material within Nishmat's Women's Health & Halacha Web site is accurate and timely, it is provided for the convenience of the Web site user but should not be considered official. Advice for actual medical practice should be obtained from a licensed health care professional.

For further questions or comments: 

The Nishmat Women's Health and Halacha Site is a public service of Nishmat, The Jeanie Schottenstein Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women. This project and others like it are made possible by contributions from people like you. If you have benefited from the service, and wish to enable us to help others, click here to donate.

Users of Internet filtering services: This site discusses sensitive subjects that some services filter without visual indication. A page that appears 100% complete might actually be missing critical Jewish-law or medical information. To ensure that you view the pages accurately, ask the filtering service to whitelist all pages under yoatzot.org.

Accessibility Toolbar