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

  • Hebrew
  • English
  • Espnaol
  • Francais
  • donate
Menu
Side Bar

Premenstrual staining, minimum days, and onot

14 May, 2006

Question:

I have a regular period and expected it on Shabbos morning. Late Friday afternoon, I had some staining that would not have put me in niddah – a stain on coloured underwear and a small stain on toilet paper after a 15 second wait. I thought my period may come anytime so decided I wasn't niddah but that I would abstain for 24 hours to see what would happen. My period started properly a couple of hours later, once it was Friday night. What day do I count as day 1 – when I saw the stains on Friday afternoon, or when my flow started Friday night? Also when should my next anticipated period be – day or night onah? Thank you.


Answer:

Although you were concerned, at the time of the spotting, that a flow might begin imminently and thus abstained for halachic reasons, the day of the spotting cannot count as the first day of the five-day minimum, because you were certain that you were tehorah.  Abstention was highly recommended, but not mandatory, so the five days are unaffected by it.  The first of the five days began with Friday night.  The first day to attempt a hefsek taharah is Wednesday.

Since you actually became a niddah with the flow that began at night, and since your flow is not consistently preceded by such spotting, that night will be the onah from which your vesatot are calculated.


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