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S8. Having Sexual Intercourse With a Woman During Her Menstruation.    [Make a Comment]

We are not to have sexual intercourse with a woman during her menstruation.

This precept is derived from His Word (blessed be He):

Key Scriptures

Leviticus 18:19 (Maimonides RN346; Meir MN132; Chinuch C207)
You are not to approach a woman in order to have sexual relations with her when she is unclean from her time of niddah.

Leviticus 20:18
If a man goes to bed with a woman in her menstrual period and has sexual relations with her, he has exposed the source of her blood, and she has exposed the source of her blood; both of them are to be cut off from their people.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-5
What God wants is that you be holy, that you keep away from sexual immorality, that each of you know how to manage his sexual impulses in a holy and honorable manner, without giving in to lustful desires, like the pagans who don't know God.

Commentary

This Mitzvah applies to the conduct of both men and women.

Under the Law of Moses, a woman (and all she touched) during her period of menstruation was ceremonially unclean. Although being ceremonially clean or unclean has little meaning today in the absence of the Tabernacle or Temple, I believe that this Mitzvah not to have sexual relations during a woman's period should be obeyed and the reason is twofold. First, a woman cannot become pregnant during her menses, and a prime purpose for sexual intercourse is to bear children. Second (which I believe is the better reason), all through the Bible, blood is very special to God, and Leviticus 20:18 says that if a woman and a man have sexual relations during her period:

he has exposed the source of her blood, and she has exposed the source of her blood; both of them are to be cut off from their people.

We see that in the importance of blood sacrifice, and in the prohibition of our eating blood. Leviticus 17:11-14 states:

For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for yourselves; for it is the blood that makes atonement because of the life. This is why I told the people of Isra'el, "None of you is to eat blood, nor is any foreigner living with you to eat blood." When someone from the community of Isra'el or one of the foreigners living with you hunts and catches game, whether animal or bird that may be eaten, he is to pour out its blood and cover it with earth. For the life of every creature - its blood is its life. Therefore I said to the people of Isra'el, "You are not to eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it will be cut off."

I do not believe that the similar penalty of being "cut off" for eating blood and for having sexual intercourse with a woman during her period of blood is coincidental.

Classical Commentators:
Maimonides, Meir, and HaChinuch each wrote a mitzvah that prohibits having sexual relations with a woman during her menstruation.

NCLA: JMm JFm KMm KFm GMm GFm

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