{"id":8257,"date":"2016-02-09T00:07:31","date_gmt":"2016-02-08T22:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/?p=8257"},"modified":"2018-05-24T12:45:06","modified_gmt":"2018-05-24T09:45:06","slug":"03-09-07","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/03-09-07\/","title":{"rendered":"07. The Status of a Nida"},"content":{"rendered":"
A nida<\/em> (a woman who has menstruated and not yet purified herself by going to the mikveh<\/em>) is obligated to recite all the berakhot<\/em> and prayers and may study Torah, for words of Torah cannot become impure, as it is written: \u201cIndeed, My word is like fire\u201d (Yirmiyahu 23:29). Just like fire cannot become impure, the words of Torah do not contract impurity (Berakhot<\/em> 22a).<\/p>\n There are women who customarily act stringently at the time of menstruation by refraining from entering the synagogue and touching the Torah scroll. Although in principle there is no explicit prohibition against this, these women customarily separate themselves out of respect for the synagogue. Nonetheless, the widespread custom is that women enter the synagogue during the time of menstruation, but only refrain from looking directly at the letters of the Torah scroll when it is lifted (hagbaha<\/em>). 1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n As an aside, we shall mention that there are various customs regarding women going to a cemetery. Some say that it is not proper for women to go to a cemetery at all, some say that women who are nidot<\/em> and have not yet purified themselves in the mikveh <\/em>may not go to a cemetery, some say that only during menstruation women should not go, and others permit going any time. Some women refrain from going to a cemetery when they are pregnant, whereas others do not. Every woman should practice according to her family\u2019s or her husband\u2019s family\u2019s custom. Even those who are customarily stringent may practice leniency in times of need. For example, permission to be lenient and go to a cemetery is granted to one who will regret not going to her parents\u2019 graves on their yahrzeit <\/em>(the anniversary of a death). Also, one who is concerned that her absence will upset others, or a woman who is afraid that people might deduce from her absence that she is menstruating, may be lenient. If possible, though, she should make an effort not to get close to the graves. 2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A nida (a woman who has menstruated and not yet purified herself by going to the mikveh) is obligated to recite all the berakhot and prayers and may study Torah, for words of Torah cannot become impure, as it is written: \u201cIndeed, My word is like fire\u201d (Yirmiyahu 23:29). Just like fire cannot become impure, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-03-09"],"yoast_head":"\n\n