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Niddah
Niddah (or nidah; he, נִדָּה), in traditional Judaism, describes a woman who has experienced a uterine discharge of blood (most commonly during menstruation), or a woman who has menstruated and not yet completed the associated requirement of immersion in a ''mikveh'' (ritual bath). In the Book of Leviticus, the Torah prohibits sexual intercourse with a ''niddah''. The prohibition has been maintained in traditional Jewish law and by the Samaritans. It has largely been rejected by adherents of Reform Judaism and other liberal branches. In rabbinic Judaism, additional stringencies and prohibitions have accumulated over time, increasing the scope of various aspects of niddah, including: duration (12-day minimum for Ashkenazim, and 11 days for Sephardim); expanding to prohibition against sex to include: sleeping in adjoining beds, any physical contact, and even passing objects to spouse; and requiring a detailed ritual purification process. Since the late 19th century, ...
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Mikveh
Mikveh or mikvah (,  ''mikva'ot'', ''mikvoth'', ''mikvot'', or (Yiddish) ''mikves'', lit., "a collection") is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve ritual purity. Most forms of ritual impurity can be purified through immersion in any natural collection of water. However, some impurities, such as a zav, require "living water", such as springs or groundwater wells. Living water has the further advantage of being able to purify even while flowing, as opposed to rainwater which must be stationary to purify. The ''mikveh'' is designed to simplify this requirement, by providing a bathing facility that remains in contact with a natural source of water. In Orthodox Judaism, these regulations are steadfastly adhered to; consequently, the mikveh is central to an Orthodox Jewish community. Conservative Judaism also formally holds to the regulations. The existence of a mikveh is considered so important that a Jewish community is required to construct ...
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Niddah (Talmud)
Niddah (Hebrew: ) is a ''masekhet'' or tractate of the Mishnah and the Talmud, and is part of the order of Tohorot. The content of the tractate primarily deals with the legal provisions related to Halakha of Niddah. In Judaism, a niddah is a woman during menstruation, or a woman who has menstruated and not yet completed the associated requirement of immersion in a mikveh (ritual bath). In the Book of Leviticus, the Torah prohibits sexual intercourse with a ''niddah''. The prohibition has been maintained in traditional Jewish law. The laws concerning ''niddah'' are also referred to as ''taharat hamishpacha'' (, Hebrew for ''family purity''). Niddah, along with Eruvin and Yevamot, is considered one of the three most difficult tractates in the Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communi ...
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Tumah And Taharah
In Jewish law, ''ṭumah'' (, ) and ''ṭaharah'' (, ) are the state of being ritually "impure" and "pure", respectively. The Hebrew noun ''ṭum'ah'', meaning "impurity", describes a state of ritual impurity. A person or object which contracts ''ṭumah'' is said to be ''ṭamé'' ( Hebrew adjective, "ritually impure"), and thereby unsuited for certain holy activities and uses (''kedushah'', in Hebrew) until undergoing predefined purification actions that usually include the elapse of a specified time-period. The contrasting Hebrew noun ''ṭaharah'' () describes a state of ritual purity that qualifies the ''ṭahor'' (; ritually pure person or object) to be used for ''kedushah''. The most common method of achieving ''ṭaharah'' is by the person or object being immersed in a ''mikveh'' (ritual bath). This concept is connected with ritual washing in Judaism, and both ritually impure and ritually pure states have parallels in ritual purification in other world religions. The ...
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Ritual Purification
Ritual purification is the ritual prescribed by a religion by which a person is considered to be free of ''uncleanliness'', especially prior to the worship of a deity, and ritual purity is a state of ritual cleanliness. Ritual purification may also apply to objects and places. Ritual uncleanliness is not identical with ordinary physical impurity, such as dirt stains; nevertheless, body fluids are generally considered ritually unclean. Most of these rituals existed long before the germ theory of disease, and figure prominently from the earliest known religious systems of the Ancient Near East. Some writers connect the rituals to taboos. Some have seen benefits of these practices as a point of health and preventing infections especially in areas where humans come in close contact with each other. While these practices came before the idea of the germ theory was public in areas that use daily cleaning, the destruction of infectious agents seems to be dramatic. Others have descr ...
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Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Modern Judaism evolved from Yahwism, the religion of ancient Israel and Judah, by the late 6th century BCE, and is thus considered to be one of the oldest monotheistic religions. Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the covenant that God established with the Israelites, their ancestors. It encompasses a wide body of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. The Torah, as it is commonly understood by Jews, is part of the larger text known as the ''Tanakh''. The ''Tanakh'' is also known to secular scholars of religion as the Hebrew Bible, and to Christians as the " Old Testament". The Torah's supplemental oral tradition is represented by later t ...
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Menstruation
Menstruation (also known as a period, among other colloquial terms) is the regular discharge of blood and mucosal tissue from the inner lining of the uterus through the vagina. The menstrual cycle is characterized by the rise and fall of hormones. Menstruation is triggered by falling progesterone levels and is a sign that pregnancy has not occurred. The first period, a point in time known as menarche, usually begins between the ages of 12 and 15. Menstruation starting as young as 8 years would still be considered normal. The average age of the first period is generally later in the developing world, and earlier in the developed world. The typical length of time between the first day of one period and the first day of the next is 21 to 45 days in young women. In adults, the range is between 21 and 31 days with the average being 28 days. Bleeding usually lasts around 2 to 7 days. Periods stop during pregnancy and typically do not resume during the initial months of bre ...
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Zavah
In Jewish ritual law, a ''zavah'' (Hebrew זבה, lit. "one whoe bodyflows") is a woman who has had vaginal blood discharges not during the usually anticipated menstrual cycle, and thus entered a state of ritual impurity. The equivalent impurity that can be contracted by males, by experiencing an abnormal discharge from their genitals, is known as the impurity of a '' zav''. In the realm of tumah and taharah, the ''zavah'', just like a '' niddah'' (menstruant woman) and '' yoledet'' (woman after giving birth), is in a state of major impurity, and creates a midras by sitting and by other activities (, , ). Another aspect of her major impurity, is that a man who conducts sexual intercourse with her becomes unclean for a seven-day period. Additionally, the ''zavah'' and her partner are liable to '' kareth'' (extirpation) for willfully engaging in forbidden sexual intercourse, as is the case for a ''niddah'' and ''yoledet''. Hebrew Bible Torah sources for the ''zavah'' are source ...
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Babylonian Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewish cultural life and was foundational to "all Jewish thought and aspirations", serving also as "the guide for the daily life" of Jews. The term ''Talmud'' normally refers to the collection of writings named specifically the Babylonian Talmud (), although there is also an earlier collection known as the Jerusalem Talmud (). It may also traditionally be called (), a Hebrew abbreviation of , or the "six orders" of the Mishnah. The Talmud has two components: the Mishnah (, 200 CE), a written compendium of the Oral Torah; and the Gemara (, 500 CE), an elucidation of the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Hebrew Bible. The term "Talmud" may refer to ei ...
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Midras Uncleanness
''Midras'' uncleanness ( he, טומאת מדרס) is one of the forms of ritual impurity in Judaism which can be transmitted by either an object or person. The term may be translated as ''pressure uncleanness''. A ''midras'' (lit. "trampled on" object) is an object that can be a carrier of ritual impurity. Common objects that could potentially become unclean, and become a such ''midras'' object, include a chair, sofa, mattress, and rug. A person who becomes unclean is categorized as a " father of uncleanliness". Hebrew Bible The general concept of a ''midras'', an object becoming a carrier for uncleanliness, is brought in the book of Leviticus, though the following verse does not employ the Hebrew term ''midras''; Becoming unclean According to Maimonides on Zavim 4:4, the ''midras'' object becomes unclean by a person who is a " father of uncleanliness" (such as a man with a seminal emission or a woman in the middle of menstruation) putting most of their body weight i ...
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Rabbinic Judaism
Rabbinic Judaism ( he, יהדות רבנית, Yahadut Rabanit), also called Rabbinism, Rabbinicism, or Judaism espoused by the Rabbanites, has been the mainstream form of Judaism since the 6th century CE, after the codification of the Babylonian Talmud. Rabbinic Judaism has its roots in Pharisaic Judaism and is based on the belief that Moses at Mount Sinai received both the Written Torah (''Torah she-be-Khetav'') and the Oral Torah (''Torah she-be-al Peh'') from God. The Oral Torah, transmitted orally, explains the Written Torah. At first, it was forbidden to write down the Oral Torah because the rabbis feared that it would become rigid and lose its flexibility, but after the destruction of the Second Temple they decided to write it down in the Talmud and other rabbinic texts. Rabbinic Judaism contrasts with the Sadducees, Karaite Judaism and Samaritanism, which do not recognize the Oral Torah as a divine authority nor the rabbinic procedures used to interpret Jewish scr ...
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Eschatology
Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of the present age, human history, or of the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that negative world events will reach a climax. Belief that the end of the world is imminent is known as apocalypticism, and over time has been held both by members of mainstream religions and by doomsday cults. In the context of mysticism, the term refers metaphorically to the end of ordinary reality and to reunion with the divine. Various religions treat eschatology as a future event prophesied in sacred texts or in folklore. The Abrahamic religions maintain a linear cosmology, with end-time scenarios containing themes of transformation and redemption. In later Judaism, the term "end of days" makes reference to the Messianic Age and includes an in-gathering of the exiled Jewish diaspora, the coming of the Messiah, the resurrection of t ...
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Rashi
Shlomo Yitzchaki ( he, רבי שלמה יצחקי; la, Salomon Isaacides; french: Salomon de Troyes, 22 February 1040 – 13 July 1105), today generally known by the acronym Rashi (see below), was a medieval French rabbi and author of a comprehensive commentary on the Talmud and commentary on the Hebrew Bible (the ''Tanakh''). Acclaimed for his ability to present the basic meaning of the text in a concise and lucid fashion, Rashi appeals to learned scholars and beginning students, and his works remain a centerpiece of contemporary Jewish studies. His commentary on the Talmud, which covers nearly all of the Babylonian Talmud (a total of 30 out of 39 tractates, due to his death), has been included in every edition of the Talmud since its first printing by Daniel Bomberg in the 1520s. His commentaries on the Tanakh—especially his commentary on the Chumash (the "Five Books of Moses")—serves as the basis of more than 300 "supercommentaries" which analyze Rashi's choice of la ...
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