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

  • Hebrew
  • English
  • Espnaol
  • Francais
  • donate
Menu

Loose hair

26 November, 2008
Question:

Shalom,

Last night I went to the mikve. After I dunked, I rinsed off quickly and dried with the same towel I had used earlier to wrap myself in. Then I noticed a small hair (3-4 cm long) on my torso, between my chest and stomach. Most of my rational thinking tells me it most likely was not there during the time of my immersion and most likely made its way there while I was drying off from the post-mikve rinse, but I still have this conscience telling me that perhaps I didn't check myself thoroughly enough beforehand or that somehow the hair got there between my last iyun and my immersion.

Please advise.

Thank you.


Answer:

You do not have to be concerned about the hair you found. A hair on your torso is not considered a chatzitzah because, when you enter the water, it usually will float away from your body. Further, as your intuition tells you, it is possible that the hair was not even on your body at the time of immersion, and only got there when you dried yourself off afterwards with the towel.

You may want to try using a checklist when doing your chafifah and iyun. As you go through your preparations, run through the list to make sure you cover everything. Once you complete the list, you can be sure that you prepared thoroughly and properly.  

B'Hatzlacha!

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