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

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Kallah: scheduling clean days

28 April, 2006
Question:

Hello,

My question refers to having a longer period of time than 7 days between the end of bleeding and the day of your wedding. Due to some circumstances, we had to change the date of our wedding after I had already started to regulate my cycle by taking the pill. As it is now, I will be getting my period May 17, and bleeding will stop May 23, and our wedding day is June 8. I know that I will not start my next period until June 13. How does this change the counting of clean days and the day I can immerse in the mikvah? I would like to, if possible, go to the mikvah the day before the wedding.

Thank you so much for your time, this is a wonderful service.


Answer:

Mazal Tov on your upcoming marriage.

While a married woman will usually go through the taharah process right after her period ends, a bride will often wait, since she has to do her hefsek taharah, count her seven clean days, and immerse in the mikveh as close as possible to her wedding. If immersion the day before the wedding is difficult for her, she can complete her seven clean days and immerse up to four days before the wedding. You can read more about the taharah process for a bride here.

If you are planning to immerse the night of June 7th, your hefsek taharah would be one week earlier, on May 31st, during the day, before sunset. If you plan on immersing during the day on June 7th, then your hefsek should be on May 30th so that you conclude the seven clean days on June 6th. We recommend doing a backup hefsek a day or two early. (It’s also a good idea to try some practice bedikot well in advance.) We follow the view that you do not need to do any further bedikot after your immersion, and you can change to colored undergarments at that point.

You wrote that you are expecting your period after the wedding on June 13th. Note that if you are taking birth control pills to manipulate your cycle, it is usually possible to stop the active pills a little earlier, so that time in niddah due to bleeding could overlap more fully with the separation after first relations. Please write back to us or call our telephone hotline if you have further questions about how to time your period after the wedding.

This response was updated on 7 July 2022.

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