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

  • Hebrew
  • English
  • Espnaol
  • Francais
  • donate
Menu

Rescheduling immersion

11 November, 2015

Question:

I am supposed to go the mikvah sunday night but I have a doctor's appointment for my son in the late afternoon and a bat mitzvah in the evening. My husband is out of the country and is returning Sunday late afternoon and I won't see him till the evening. Would I be allowed to go Motzei Shabbat? It would make my Sunday manageable. If not, I don't know when I would be able to go.

One more thing that may or may not be important –– I had a hefsek tahara Shabbat afternoon and then Sunday afternoon I had a spot that was questionable. Since I knew my husband would be away I simply did another hefsek tahara Sunday night and did not ask. The spot was small and on a pantyliner but a questionable color, reddish brown. My bedika Sunday morning was fine and so was Sunday afternoon.


Answer:

Mikveh immersion may not take place a night early.  However, in your case, we can consider the stain you saw on the pantiliner Sunday afternoon as a stain on a surface that is not susceptible to impurity (davar she'eino mekabel tum'ah, for details read our articles on stains and feminine hygiene pads). Therefore, the stain did not invalidate your clean days and you may immerse Saturday night as originally scheduled.  

Note that there are sometimes local customs about immersing when a husband is away, but the halacha is that it is permissible to do so.

In the future, please ask questions when they arise, even when it seems that it will not make a practical difference.  We will be happy to help you.


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