Zavah

In Jewish ritual law, a zavah (Hebrew זבה, lit. "one who[se body] flows") 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. Torah sources for the zavah are sourced in the book of Leviticus (, ). According to textual scholars, the regulations concerning childbirth,() which have a similar seven-day waiting period before washing, and the sin and whole offerings, were originally suffixed to those concerning menstruation, but were later moved. Although the zavah regulations clearly have a sanitary benefit in the light of modern medical knowledge, Biblical scholars see these regulations as having originally derived from taboos against contact with blood and semen, because they were considered to house life and were consequently considered sacred; the seven-day period is thought to exist to ensure that the abnormality has genuinely ceased, the sin offering is considered to have originally been made as an apology for violating the taboo. According to the Jerusalem Talmud, the eleven-day period between each [monthly] menstrual cycle is Halakha LeMoshe MiSinai. This has been explained by Maimonides to mean that seven days are given to all women during their regular monthly menstrual cycle, known as the days of the menstruate (Hebrew: niddah), even if her actual period lasted only 3 to 5 days.