Editing Niddah (section)

== Etymology and usage ==
''Niddah'' has the general meaning of "expulsion" and "elimination",<ref name="Sigvartsen2017">{{cite journal |journal=Papers |last1=Sigvartsen |first1=Jan A. |title=The Biblical Law of Niddah and Its Muslim |year=2017 |url=https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=papers}}</ref> coming from the root ''ndd'', "to make distant" (the Aramaic Bible translations use the root rhq, "to be distant"), reflecting the physical separation of women during their menstrual periods,<ref name="Wasserfall1999">{{cite book |last1=Wasserfall |first1=Rahel R. |title=Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish life and law |page=23 |date=1999 |publisher=University Press of New England |isbn=978-0-87451-960-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i0WxScTKeQwC&pg=PA23}}</ref> who were "discharged" and "excluded" from  society by being banished to and quarantined in separate quarters.<ref name="Sigvartsen2017"/> Later in the biblical corpus, this meaning was extended to include concepts of sin and impurity,<ref name="JWA"/><ref name="Sigvartsen2017"/><ref name="Wasserfall1999"/> which may be related to ancient attitudes towards menstruation.<ref name="JWA"/>

Literally, the feminine noun ''niddah'' means ''moved'' (i.e., ''separated''), and generally refers to separation due to [[tumah and taharah|ritual impurity]].<ref name="Jewish">Jacobs, Joseph and Judah David Eisenstein (1906). "[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12621-red-heifer Red Heifer]", ''Jewish Encyclopedia''.</ref> Medieval Biblical commentator [[Abraham ibn Ezra]] writes that the word ''niddah'' is related to the term ''menadechem'' ({{Script/Hebrew|מנדיכם}}), meaning ''those that cast you out''.<ref name="Jewish"/>

=== Hebrew Bible ===
The noun ''niddah'' occurs 25 times in the [[Masoretic Text]] of the [[Hebrew Bible]]. The majority of these uses refer to forms of uncleanliness in Leviticus. For example, in Leviticus, if a man takes his brother's wife, then that is "uncleanness", ''niddah.'' The five uses in Numbers all concern the [[red heifer]] ceremony ({{Tanakhverse|Numbers|19:1}}) and use the phrase ''mei niddah'', "waters of separation".<ref>[[G. Johannes Botterweck|Botterweck]], ''et al''. (1999), p. 163 (vol. 4)</ref> {{Tanakhverse|2 Chronicles|29:5}} includes a single exhortation of [[Hezekiah]] to the Levites, to carry forth the ''niddah'' (translated: "filthiness"), possibly idols of his father [[Ahaz]], out of the [[temple in Jerusalem]].<ref>David L. Petersen ''Late Israelite prophecy: studies in deutero-prophetic literature''   {{ISBN|0891300767}}. 1977 "The final product, 2 Chronicles 29, represents more than just a simple description of Hezekiah's temple rededication; ... Levites dovetails so neatly with the narrative's description of what they did: the carrying of the tumah/niddah."</ref> Usage in Ezekiel follows that of Leviticus. Finally, the [[Book of Zechariah]] concludes with an [[eschatology|eschatological]] reference to washing Jerusalem:<ref>Klein, ''et al.'' (2008), p. 373.</ref> "In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin (''ḥaṭ'at'') and for uncleanness (''niddah'')" ({{Tanakhverse|Zechariah|13:1}}).

=== Rabbinic injunctions ===
The copious laws of ''niddah'' contained in the Jewish rabbinic writings are almost entirely made-up of "fences" ({{langx|he|סייגים}}), or safeguards, built around the [[Torah]]. The general rule which applies is that a woman is clean from the standpoint of the Torah until she feels uterine blood discharge from its source within her body. However, the rabbis have declared a woman to be unclean although she has not felt any discharge of blood, but has merely seen either a red or black blood stain on her body,<ref>Knohl (2014), p. 159</ref> or on her white garment or sheet, and which blood stain is larger in diameter than a [[fava bean]] (about 20&nbsp;mm), in which case she must separate herself from her husband until she can complete seven clean days and can be purified in a ritual bath ([[mikveh]]).<ref name= "Teherani2019">Teherani (2019), p. 6 (chapter 2)</ref> A blood stain that is a dark brown color leaning towards the color of coffee and the color of chestnuts defiles a woman and renders her ''niddah'', on the condition that she feels its discharge. However, if she saw the same color while checking herself with an inspection cloth, but had not felt any discharge of blood, she is clean.<ref name="Teherani 2019, p. 24 chapter 3">Teherani (2019), p. 24 (chapter 3)</ref><ref>Scientifically, the brown colorization found in the spotting of white panties is often the result of period blood being trapped in the vagina and its exposure to the vagina's acidic environment (lactic acid), causing the oxidation, or chemical break-down, of the blood. See Obstetrician-Gynecologist/Physician [[Danielle Jones (physician)|Danielle Jones]], MD FACOG, {{YouTube|KIxg2zxg1CQ|5 "Strange" Things Your Vagina Does That Are NORMAL}}, educational information video / May 2021, minutes 3:52–4:34.</ref> Conversely, a vaginal discharge that is white in color, or either light yellow, green or blueish in color, does not render the woman ''niddah''.<ref name="Teherani 2019, p. 24 chapter 3"/> There are, yet, many other conditions that need to be met, by rabbinic ordinances, in order to render uncleanness to a blood stain.<ref name= "Teherani2019" />
<blockquote>The daughters of Israel have behaved stringently with themselves, insofar that even if they should see a drop of blood as a mustard grain, they would wait over it seven days of cleanness<ref>[[Babylonian Talmud]] (''[[Berakhot (tractate)|Berakhot]]'' 31<sup>a</sup>)</ref><ref>[[Maimonides]] (1974), ''Hil. Issurei Bi'ah'' 11:3–4</ref></blockquote>

Although the Written Law ({{Tanakhverse|Leviticus|15:25-28}}) explicitly enjoins women to count seven days of cleanness (see ''[[#Ritual purity aspect|infra]]'') when they have seen [[Zavah|irregular blood sightings]] (the irregularity occurring only from the eighth day of the start of her regular period and ending with the conclusion of the eighteenth day<ref>[[Maimonides]], [[Mishne Torah]] (''Hil. Issurei Bi'ah'' 6:1–5)</ref>), the [[Chazal|Sages of Israel]] have required all women who have experienced even their regular and natural purgation to count seven days of cleanness before they can be purified.<ref>[[Babylonian Talmud]] (''[[Berakhot (tractate)|Berakhot]]'' 31<sup>a</sup>, [[Rashi]] s.v. {{Script/Hebrew|יושבת עליה ז' נקיים}})</ref>