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

  • Hebrew
  • English
  • Espnaol
  • Francais
  • donate
Menu

Moch on Friday night

4 October, 2011

Question:

I hope you can help clarify when to insert/remove the moch dachuk on a Friday night. Do I insert it at candlelighting time or before? And when do I take it out?


Answer:

On erev Shabbat, the timing of the moch dachuk is slightly complicated by candle lighting, which represents an acceptance of Shabbat.  

For Shabbat to count as the first of your clean days, you should ideally perform your hefsek taharah prior to accepting Shabbat.  Thus, you perform your hefsek taharah and insert your moch dachuk just before lighting candles. 

An alternative is to perform a hefsek taharah earlier in the day and then perform a bedikah just prior to sunset, without removing the cloth – the bedikah cloth remains inside and serves as a moch dachuk.

If neither of the above options is possible (e.g., it is too long for you to leave the moch in, or you forgot, or you are accepting Shabbat early), you may perform the hefsek taharah and insert the moch dachuk after lighting candles, just prior to sunset.   

The moch dachuk is usually removed at nightfall, tzet hakochavim. For this purpose, the time of nightfall can range from as soon as 18 minutes after sunset to over an hour later, depending on local custom and geographical location.

Please note that insertion of the moch dachuk is an ideal, but its omission does not usually affect the validity of the hefsek taharah (see our article on the moch dachuk for more information).  Additionally, if a woman has chronic problems with the moch dachuk, she may be given rabbinic permission to omit it.


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