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

  • Hebrew
  • English
  • Espnaol
  • Francais
  • donate
Menu

Hefsek after sunset

15 November, 2015

Question:

I tried to do a hefsek on days 5 and again on day 6 of my cycle, which were both not clean. I managed to get a clean hefsek yesterday (day 7), but this morning (day 8) I found some red spots on my underwear and therefore did not do a morning bedikah. This afternoon I had some guests coming over and I forgot to do a hefsek. I remembered to do it only an hour after sunset. I still did the hefsek and moch dachuk, which were both clean. I wanted to know if I could count on these bedikot. It is important to mention that I am usually clean by day 7–8 of my cycle. More importantly, I am trying to conceive with my second child for 7 months already.


Answer:

A hefsek taharah needs to be performed prior to sunset, because then the first clean day can be considered complete, from its halachic beginning at sunset. Unfortunately, your hefsek taharah on day 8 was too late to allow you to begin your clean days on day 9. You can rely on this hefsek to begin your clean days the following day – day 10.

However, there is a possibility that the red spots you found did not invalidate your original hefsek taharah on day 7.  If each individual spot was clearly smaller in size than a gris (roughly the area of an Israeli shekel or American dime), then that hefsek remains valid.  Otherwise, if you still have the underwear, we recommend having the stains evaluated.  If the spots did not invalidate your hefsek, since you did not perform any bedikot on day 8 prior to sunset, day 9 will be the first of your clean days.

For the future, we suggest performing a bedikah on the morning of a planned hefsek taharah, as a back up in case something causes you to forget later.

It is common for it to take some time to conceive. For women under age 35, up to a year is considered normal. However, if you are concerned, you should not hesitate to contact your physician for guidance.  Sometimes small measures such as using an ovulation predictor kit, can help a couple pinpoint their fertile times to increase chances of conception.

Please write back with any further questions.


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