Jewish women get banished to a shed during the period

amother

Burgundy

Sun, May 21 2017, 6:33 pm

According to this website LOL

My sister is a member here and texted me the link. There are some Jewish women there too explaining and most of the replies know this is not true but it's still funny LOL!

http://www.cafemom.com/group/1.....eriod

FranticFrummie

Sun, May 21 2017, 6:49 pm

Wouldn't that be lovely? I know other cultures do this, and I always thought it was great.

No cooking, no cleaning, no screaming kids, no grumpy husband. Just a bunch of crampy women, hanging out together, kvetching and eating chocolate! Very Happy

etky

Mon, May 22 2017, 2:32 am

Jewish women in Ethiopia were required to separate themselves from the community when they were menstruating and resided in a hut until sunset on the seventh day when they would immerse in the river and return to their families. Their clothing and utensils would also undergo purification.
Relinquishing these strict laws of purity and impurity were a source of great difficulty for Ethiopian Jews when they arrived in Israel and were required to adopt to normative, rabbinic Judaism.

amother

Olive

Mon, May 22 2017, 8:54 am

etky wrote:

Sounds like they were just still keeping halacha from the times of the beis hamikdash. Everything a nidda woman touches becomes tamei, the easiest way around that is have the nidda women in separate home while they are tamei

amother

Ivory

Mon, May 22 2017, 9:23 am

debsey wrote:

That thread is so amusing. Invincible Ignorance, meet the Internet. Internet, meet Invincible Ignorance. They have a baby, and the result is - that thread.......

Yes, this is ignorant, but it is based on Chumash. Who knows if we'll have to return to a system like that when the mikdash is rebuilt?

I have a relative married to an Ethiopian woman, and her family was horrified that she didn't move out of the house after her children were born.

etky

Mon, May 22 2017, 10:49 am

amother wrote:

To a degree yes, but AFAIK it was never the practice in normative Judaism for women to actually leave their homes while they were menstruating.

water_bear88

Mon, May 22 2017, 11:22 am

etky wrote:

To a degree yes, but AFAIK it was never the practice in normative Judaism for women to actually leave their homes while they were menstruating.

This. The only type of tumah that's transmitted through ohel (I.e. a shared roof) is tumat meit, and that's only directly from a dead body or part thereof (e.g. a human bone), not from a living person who just left a cemetery and who can transmit a lower form of tumah.

Separate kitchens/bedrooms I could see, to avoid accidental transmission of tumat niddah. That or we'll all get used to toveling all our silverware and linens along with ourselves every month.

Raisin

Mon, May 22 2017, 11:29 am

The only thing remotely similar to this is that some people have the custom that women who are nidda/having her period do not attend an upsherin or make the special honey cake that a little boy eats when starting cheder.

I was thinking of being makpid on this in my house and not cooking at all during the entire nidda period, I wouldn't want my family to eat impure food, would I.

tigerwife

Mon, May 22 2017, 11:37 am

water_bear88 wrote:

If you didn't think Mikva today was stressful enough!

I actually appreciated how most of the posters on that thread had such a positive view of Jews! I must be reading the wrong things because I usually feel sick to my stomach when I see the comments on other articles referencing a random part of Jewish life (and Niddah is a loaded topic!).

crust

Mon, May 22 2017, 11:45 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

That thread may be funny but the banning to a shed really happens in nepal. Beyond sad.
https://www.theguardian.com/gl.....sheds

Why do they take along thier newborn babies there? Sad.
And that imam there, I don't know his title... he's twisted. I felt like vomiting.

water_bear88

Mon, May 22 2017, 11:46 am

tigerwife wrote:

I don't think you'd necessarily have to do it yourself- I'd get dh to take them to the keilim mikvah the next morning if that were an option, which it might be. I might be remembering wrong, but is it harder to get rid of the tumah of having touched a woman who's niddah than it is to get rid of tumat schivat zera? Because remember, this is going to complicate fathers touching their teenage daughters and children touching their mothers. I'm pretty sure none of that is assur, unless maybe for a kohen who's on-duty that month.

debsey

Mon, May 22 2017, 1:22 pm

amother wrote:

My pediatrician is Indian. She says that in her culture, they isolate a mother and newborn baby for the first three months of life solely to avoid infection and allow the mother and child to bond, there are no visitors, and the grandmothers help out - bring food, wash the laundry, everything. The "kimpeturin" is not allowed to do anything but bond with her baby.

That sounds both incredibly nurturing and incredibly restrictive. I was back at work 4 weeks after my baby was born most times. Would have loved that nurturing. On the other hand, was also climbing the walls and wanted to just go out.

You can't really judge any culture based on the the standards of another culture. I'm sure some Indian moms find it incredibly nurturing and others find it intrusive.

Seas

Mon, May 22 2017, 3:05 pm

In the times of the BHM"K people would basically have tahor utensils and furniture, and tumah ones. Dinim of spiritual purity were a way of life.

As such, niddos and new mothers were very careful what they touched, where they sat and so on.

cnc

Mon, May 22 2017, 3:27 pm

etky wrote:

To a degree yes, but AFAIK it was never the practice in normative Judaism for women to actually leave their homes while they were menstruating.

I thought they had to go "chutz lamachaneh". Was that only in the case of tzoraas?

water_bear88

Mon, May 22 2017, 3:44 pm

cnc wrote:

I thought they had to go "chutz lamachaneh". Was that only in the case of tzoraas?

Yes- mishnayot Keilim perek alef mishna zayin: עיירות המוקפות חומה מוקדשות ממנה [מא"י], שמשלחים מתוכן את המצורעים, ומסבבין לתוכן מת עד שירצו, יצא- אין מחזירין אותו.

Or paraphrased, walled cities have a higher level of kedusha that EY (mentioned in the previous mishna), shown by the fact that metzora'im are sent out of them. The dead are not sent out in a hurry- you're allowed to hold a funeral and eulogize them properly still in the city- but they cannot be returned to the city if they've already been removed.

Niddah is mentioned in a later mishna, and is banned only from har habayit. They're/we're allowed in Yerushalayim itself so long as we don't go on Har Habayit.

debsey

Mon, May 22 2017, 4:10 pm

When Moshiach comes, we'll be living in an entirely different reality, so we can't really apply our attitudes from now to then. (Personally, I'd love a period tent, especially if DH has to do all childcare and work for me....)

Seas

Mon, May 22 2017, 4:18 pm

water_bear88 wrote:

That's true, however when the Yidden were in the midbar things were slightly different. Because neither a niddah or a baal keri is allowed in machneh levi, the Leviyim must have had tents in other places for niddos, new mothers, and indeed intimacy.