Torah To Gibraltar - The Hashkafah Behind the Harchakos Niddah

this tour class is brought to you by torahanytime.com welcome everyone good afternoon or for you I believe it's a good evening I had the great pleasure a couple months ago to speak on a tour with Rabbi Pisa Crone in Spain and Morocco we actually made a a trip to Gibraltar we were there for a day and I had a really wonderful opportunity to meet a number of the wonderful young men of your community I even had the great pleasure a couple of them came back to Spain where we had a small shear and I have to tell you that walking in the streets of Gibraltar I experienced a very unusual caducea uh and I it was very hard for me to explain it and then I I realized after studying the uh the demographics of world jewelry aside from Eric's Israel what I discovered was that there are more Jews per capita in Gibraltar than really anywhere else in the entire world in other words even here in America where we have millions of Jews I think for every two in America there are 53 citizens in Gibraltar from my understanding it's a 1 to 48. so actually the highest concentration of Cloudy straw in the world aside from Earth's Israel is Gibraltar so if you can't be in I'd say no academic so you might as well be in jib right so um with with that introduction um I want to give you an overview I know you've been studying in depth the harshak guys but what I would like to do uh with you this this evening instead of speaking about specific hackles I'd like to speak about uh the behind the guys and show you a little bit the interface between what I mean by that is as follows there's a gamara you don't have it on the sheet because why does the Torah say that Anita is forbidden for seven days and the gemara says you could become so accustomed to one's wife and you the relationship grows stale therefore lafica therefore the Tara says that the need does also for seven days to it enhances the love that a husband has for his life like the night of the khaba now this is a very important idea what it means as follows that means all of the restrictions is not for rehook the purpose of them is for kirov the purpose of them is to bring the husband and wife closer together so while we're studying the details of how to be Mirage the purpose the function of it is now obviously this is something that everybody is aware of but what I'd like to mention to you is that this hashgraph on this philosophy we may call it actually has halache ramifications so for instance in the very beginning of there's a commentary of the Taurus foreign makes the following argument he says if the entire purpose is to create uh closeness between husband and wife he says something very interesting he says then it would come out that a woman who's not yet married who had her cycle and now is getting married for the first time she could actually if she started her cycle the day before she could go to the Mikvah immediately without counting shivanakian without waiting seven days why he says the whole purpose of is to engender closeness between husband and wife but if they're not yet husband and wife then there would be no purpose in Waiting seven days halachically he passkins at least that a single woman if she experiences her flow if they're not yet married she could go to the Mikvah the next day she could get married without waiting now I'm not bringing this to your attention because this is specifically the halacha what I'm trying to show you is that the and the philosophy behind it actually make a difference that it spells the difference practically so what I'd like to discuss with you in the limited amounts of time that we have is to get an understanding of the background in terms of the following everyone could hear me everyone yeah okay so the we know that there are two possible reasons that a person would go to the Mikvah the typical reason is to make somebody tahar to make somebody pure it's impurity Tomah is a real thing it's a substantive it's an actual thing if you make your friends object Tommy you're considered a mazic you're a damager you have to pay them Tomo is an actual thing but there's another type of uh immersion in a mcflow which is for an entirely different reason and that is sometimes we would go to the Mikvah not to make ourselves tahar but to elevate for instance let's say if a non-jew wants to convert a Gare a girl goes to the Mikvah not for tahara not for Purity but as an Aliyah to elevate The Gather or for instance you buy a vessel from a non-jew to villas calim the purpose of this philos calim is not to purify the Klee it's because this CLI is now being elevated to a new status it needs to be immersed or the kanging immerses himself on Yom Kippur he's not immersing himself for the purpose of tahara he's pure he's been in the basement the entire day the purpose of his immersion is for Alias to elevate his status there's even an interesting Minogue if somebody has to shalom Shema somebody converts to another religion then wants to come back they go to the Mikvah it's not to purify themselves it's to elevate their status so the question then is what is the purpose what is the function of Hillcrest Nida is it to purify the woman or is it to elevate the woman and this is a you may not be aware but this is under attack the the reform movement the feminist movement they're not happy with Nida they feel that we're labeling a woman tame that we're saying she's impure you're interfering with the marriage are you saying this woman is like a leper she has to go what are these all about and uh sometimes a woman is waiting uh to get pregnant and then all of a sudden she experiences her flows so you're you're adding mental anguish to her you're adding insult to injury so it's very important to understand you know the mishna says in perkiava is know how to answer know how to respond to that because that I put on the sheet it doesn't say it doesn't say you should actually answer the appicarus we're not having ecumenical debates with the happy Carson but you every Jew needs to be aware what would you answer the apikairas interesting in the uh in the safe Air Supply you'll take a look at all the Marvel Comics maybe on your on your free time I just put many on the sheet he points out who is this apikairas the apikairus is the yitza haran side of all of us that sometimes we have these nagging questions but we should be able to address them what's the response how do we answer the the happy cars inside of us the yet Sahara and the answer is that it's important for everyone to be aware that as you're learning specifically they really have absolutely nothing to do with the laws of Tomah and Tara and they are merely a matter of Issa and had to her they are not laws of Purity and impurity they are the laws of what is permitted and what is prohibited I'll give you a very interesting example somewhat a humorous example there's a famous chuva in the night of Landau and in Maduro you have it on your sheeta number four was posed with a very unusual question their husband and wife they're asleep and the guy wakes up he says Mazel Tov the baby was born she said what are you talking about he said you didn't hear it I heard the baby crying though the baby came out the one said oh you're crazy go back to sleep he said no I I heard the baby actually the gamara discusses the case the rather rare case where a baby comes out sticks his head out and comes back in and the man was so troubled by his experience he went to the night to be Huda and he said Rabbi I think the baby was born is my wife Anita because we know that it's impossible for the baby to come out if the womb didn't open and the gamara says a rule that the womb will never open unless blood flows said well how do we deal with this case because there are two Realms of halacha there are there's a realm of Tama and tahara and there's a realm of in the realm of tumavatara there's a law that whenever you're misopic about something whatever you have a doubt about something if it's in a public domain we say top Suffolk Tama Bishop tahar if you have a doubt about Tomah in a public domain we say she's tahar on the other hand if you have a Suffic about whether someone is tame or tahar in or in a private domain we say tame so this doubt occurred in the in the private domain you would expect that the law should be a doubtful about and says no we don't apply that law this is not a matter of mutter and Asar this is a matter excuse me there's not a matter of of Tommy and tar it's a matter of Sir Hector and therefore we apply a completely different system of halacha the chef schmeitzer you know in the island Yeshiva it's in the Yeshiva World the classic safer of uh talmudic analysis the chef schmeitza he he enunciates in base you have it on your sheet number five that the laws of Nida are not laws of tame and tahar it's not that when a woman is Anita she is impure and when she is not Anita she's pure that has nothing to do with any of the halachas that we're learning the laws of Nida are yarodea there is kosher and not Kosher they're not laws of tame and Taro we're not labeling the woman we're not there's no Stigma on the woman this is merely and therefore it has the grammifications you know this is supposed to be a share about the guys I'll tell you one of the Haka guys what others is not only one cannot come into contact with one's wife when she's Anita that lock is one cannot touch the clothing of one's wife when she's Anita even if you're not actually touching one's life even her clothing you can't come into contact with it when she's a needle but that's only when she's wearing the clothing but what if you want to fold her clothing or you want to do her laundry are you allowed to handle the clothing of a woman when she's in here the answer is of course you are you have it on your sheet over here number six physical chuva discusses why you allowed to handle handle her clothing if her clothing are Tommy we know that whatever a woman whatever Anita carries or wears his tummy so if she wore it how could you fold her clothing how could you handle her clothing she's Tommy and her clothing are Tommy the answer is the laws of Nida are not connected in any way with the laws of Tama vatara they are merely Heather and isser and therefore when she's wearing that we're worried and this is also I just want to share with you a very important Insight you know sometimes people question the hakakas in general what's gonna happen if I hand something to my wife something's gonna happen it's an innocuous thing it's a pretty innocent activity it's very important to know that the same way that relations with a woman when she's Anita is an israelisa according to many shinam intimate contact is also necessary hugging and kissing is also darasa many of the hakakas are a distance not only from their relations themselves but from any interaction of of affection many of the hakakos are to distance a person from nishik and therefore they're not connected to tamavatara they are merely laws of Israel and therefore when the woman is wearing the clothing you can't come in contact with them when she's not a person's allowed to do the laundry or fold the clothing of ishtai Nida the truth is the vilnagine expresses this very clearly and this is a very important idea there's a posse comparison that sort of gives us the main branches of halacha it's talking about azuki mamre sucking mamre is an elder who feels that he could argue on the bezen hagada on you shall I am and the posix says if something is beyond you and then the pasta gives three branches of halaka being dumbledum bandin ladenegalonega these are the three main branches of halacha and the going defines what are these three branches so the villagoin says it's on your sheet of number eight Dam ladam are the various types of blood certain Bloods are permitted certain Bloods are awesome very important to be aware during the time that a woman is uh undergoing her Shiva Niki and Her Seven clean days she's performing an internal examination twice a day ideally at the very least on the first day and the seventh day and sometimes what she finds is permitted and sometimes what she finds is prohibited it has to be shown to a confidence Authority that is one branch different types of blood the next branch of halacha is um din ladin various monetary laws and then finally uve Nega La Nega are the laws of Purity and impurity says the villanuein the laws of dam ladam which are the laws of tamavatara foreign these are two distinct branches of halacha one branch is and one branch is and they have nothing to do with each other in fact the noise out very important to know we're in the Torah does it talk about the prohibition of living with Anita pasius we're in the toilet does it talk about the concept that Anita is tame the fact that the tar discusses these halachas in different parishes means they're not related to each other the reason for isuri Nida are not they don't stem from the laws of Purity and impurity they are merely laws of Israel and then finally the uh truth is this is enunciated very clearly already by the reshine him the kuzari rabihuda halevi um he writes in the safer kuzari you have it on your sheet at number nine that in mymer gimmel Iceman tests he says very clearly ma shleno hayoim May is that which we maintain the prohibition of living with Anita is not because of impurity says a black and white it's not a matter of Purity and impurity this is a matter he says it is a commandment of from all the laws of yoradea are not matters of of tumavatara they are matters of Israel and therefore it's important to realize that all of the hakaka is that we don't come to relations with ishta Nida and the purpose of them are what the gemara says that we started with that a mayor used to say my name the reason for the Issa of Nida the reason for all of the guys are to bring an elevation to the woman when Anita goes to the Mikvah the purpose is not to be Mattie of her the need to go to the Mikvah like the Korean godo goes to the next one the neither goes to the Mikvah to elevate her status with her husband so that the Ava between them should be elevated to the way it was so I would like to be Mubarak all of you have gathered here today I think we have about you know most of the the population of the country of Gibraltar here in the room just joking I want to give me my voice all of you that uh that through dedication to the study of the laws of Nidan dedication to The Observer to the Lord of Nida should Elevate all of our relationships with our with our spouses we should have all nachas from all of our children and the relationship should bless us all with paranasa with good health thank you so much for listening experience you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by torahanytime.com