Mishnah Niddah 9

¹A woman who was attending to her needs and observed an issue of blood: Rabbi Meir says: if she was standing she is unclean but if she was sitting she remains clean. Rabbi Yose says: in either case she is clean. ²A man and a woman did their needs in the same bowl and blood was found on the water: Rabbi Yose says it is clean, Rabbi Shimon says that it was unclean, since it is not usual for a man to discharge blood, but nevertheless the presumption is that blood is from the woman. ³If she lent her shirt to a non-Jewish woman or to a menstruant she may attribute a stain to either. If three women had worn the same shirt or had sat on the same wooden bench and subsequently blood was found on it, all are regarded as unclean. If they had sat on a stone bench or on the projection within the colonnade of a bath House: Rabbi Nehemiah says that they are clean, for Rabbi Nehemiah says: anything that is not susceptible to uncleanness is not susceptible to stains. ⁴Three women who were sleeping in one bed and blood was found under one of them, they are all unclean. If one of them examined herself and was found to be unclean, she alone is unclean while the two others are clean, [for] they may attribute the blood to one another. And if they were [all] not likely to observe blood, they must be regarded as though they were likely to observe one. ⁵If three women slept in one bed, and blood was found under the middle one, they are all unclean. If it was found under the inner one, the two inner ones are unclean while the outer one is clean. If it was found under the outer one, the two outer ones are unclean while the inner one is clean. Rabbi Judah said: when is this so? When they passed by way of the foot of the bed, but if they passed across it, they are all unclean. If one of them examined herself and was found clean, she remains clean while the two others are unclean. If two examined themselves and were found to be clean they remain clean while the third is unclean. If the three examined themselves and were found to be clean, they are all unclean. To what may this be compared? To an unclean heap that was mixed up with two clean heaps: If they examined one of them and found it to be clean, it is clean while the two others are unclean; If they examined two of the heaps and found them to be clean, they are clean while the third one is unclean; And if they examined the three and they were all found to be clean, they are all unclean, the words of Rabbi Meir, For Rabbi Meir used to say: any object that is presumed to be unclean remains unclean until it is known to you where the uncleanness is. But the sages say: one continues the examination of the heap until one reaches bedrock or virgin soil. ⁶Seven substances should be applied to a stain: tasteless spittle, the liquid of crushed beans, urine, lye, soapwort, cimolian earth, and potash. If one immersed it and then handled clean things on it, and then applied to it the seven substances and the stain did not fade away it must be a dye, and the clean things remain clean and there is no need to immerse it again. If the stain faded away or grew fainter, it must be a bloodstain and the clean things are unclean and it is necessary to perform immersion again. ⁷What is meant by tasteless spittle? From one who had eaten nothing [that day]. The liquid of crushed beans? The chewing of split beans, ready to be swallowed. Urine? That has fermented. One must scour the stain three times with each of the substances. If he applied them out of the prescribed order, or if he applied the seven substances simultaneously, he has done nothing. ⁸For any woman who has a regular period it suffices [to reckon her period of uncleanness from] the time she discovers the flow. And these are the signs of a regular period: [if the woman] yawns, sneezes, feels pain at the top of her stomach or the bottom of her bowels, discharges mucus, or is seized by a kind of shivering, or any other similar symptoms. Any woman who established for herself [one of the symptoms] three times behold this is a regular period. ⁹If a woman usually observed her menstrual discharge at the onset of the symptoms of her regular periods, all clean things that she handled while the symptoms were in progress are unclean. But if she regularly observed them at the end of the symptoms, all clean things that she handled while the symptoms lasted remain clean. Rabbi Yose says: even days and hours may determine regular periods: if she regularly observed blood flow at sunrise she is forbidden intercourse at sunrise only. Rabbi Judah says: all that day is hers. ¹⁰If a woman regularly observed [menstrual blood] on the fifteenth of the month, and then she changed and observed it on the twentieth both become prohibited. If she changed twice and observed it on the twentieth both [are still] prohibited. If she changed it three times to observe it on the twentieth then the fifteenth becomes permitted and the twentieth is set [as her regular day], for a woman does not establish a regular cycle until she sets it three times, and she doesn't lose her regular cycle until she is free from it three times. ¹¹Women in regard to their virginity are like vines: One vine may have red wine, while another has black wine. One vine may yield much wine while another yields little. Rabbi Judah stated: every vine yields wine, and one that yields no wine is but a dorketi.