מחזור בשבת Menstruation and Shabbat

Rut Lazare, 'A Daughter’s First Period,' in A Jewish Woman’s Prayerbook, ed. Aliza Lavie, trans. Kaeren Fish (New York: Random House, 2008), 140.

Blessed are You, Lord, for having made me a woman./ During the six days of Creation You formed woman/ And every month I recall Your goodness and Your wisdom./ Blessed are You for having granted me my beloved daughter/ Whose body You created in wisdom and perfection/ And within whom You implanted the power of fertility and childbirth./ You have joined her to our mothers and matriarchs/ In timeless merging of/ Pain and knowledge.

Shemirat Shabbat Ke-hilchetah 34:16

One who has a light pain, it is prohibited for him to take any medicine [on Shabbat]…but if there is a concern that if he not take the medicine the pain will increase and he will become sick, such that his halachic category would shift to that of a choleh she-ein bo sakana, like one who has a headache and has a tendency for migraines…it is permissible for him to take medicines.

Shemirat Shabbat Ke-hilchetah 34:18

One should not take on Shabbat any preparations for preventing pain or minor illness, and there are those who are lenient when one needs to take them for some days in a row, and Shabbat is among them.

Responsa Tzitz Eliezer 14:50

Sedatives that do not heal at all and are used only to calm nerves and tension, or [medicines] to relieve aches that disturb one, but do not heal, there is room to permit taking these types [of medicines] on Shabbat.

Shemirat Shabbat Ke-hilchetah 34:17

One who is obligated according to doctor’s orders to take medicines for some days in a row, and Shabbat is among them, there are those who are lenient to take them also on Shabbat.

Responsa Or Le-Tziyyon II 36:1

It is permissible to use a hot water bottle on Shabbat to relieve pain, and it is even permissible to fill up the bottle on Shabbat.

Shemirat Shabbat Ke-hilchetah 34:11

A choleh she-ein bo sakana, it is permitted for him to use a hot water bottle (and one should take care that the bottle be totally dry at the time that he fills it from a keli rishon [vessel directly on the heat], or that he fill it from a keli sheni [vessel not directly on the heat]) against a strong stomach ache…One who normally heats his bed with a hot water bottle even when he is healthy, or even if he himself does not normally do so but other people in his locale do, is permitted to place one in his bed or even on his stomach, even when he has a stomachache, so long as it is not recognizable that his intention is entirely for healing.

Shemirat Shabbat Ke-hilchetah 23:19

…If he needs the toilet paper, there is room to be lenient out of kevod ha-beriyot to tear the toilet paper in an unusual way…

Beit Yosef OC 326

My understanding is that “his face, hands, and feet” is not specific, that this is also the halacha for other limbs, that it is permissible as long as he does not wash his entire body…From what Rosh wrote in the last chapter of Nidda (Laws of Mikva’ot 37 97a) “She heats a flask of water to wash her hidden places and folds in accordance with Beit Hillel, who permitted heating water on Yom Tov for one’s feet but not one’s whole body.” Therefore, the meaning of “his face, hands, and feet” is not specific, for even though there it refers to Yom Tov and here to Shabbat, this is not one of the matters of halachic difference between Yom Tov and Shabbat…

Responsa Mas’at Binyamin 5

On Shabbat and Yom Tov, it is obvious that a woman can wear and make her bed with whites as she normally does on a weekday [in preparation for her seven clean days] and wash even her entire body with cold water or with water that was heated before Shabbat—or before Yom Tov—to wash a few of her limbs but not her entire body….And [she may wash] with hot water specifically her genitalia and between her thighs, and specifically with hot water that was heated before Shabbat or before Yom Tov. She should also take care with the prohibition of sechita [wringing], that she not wash with a cloth, just with her hands, and all of this is in accordance with the halacha. But it seems to me that women do not have the custom to wash or to wear whites on Shabbat and Yom Tov ….

Rosh Shabbat 22:4

A liquid which is absorbed within a cloth, one who wrings to extract [the liquid] from it [the cloth] is obligated [in a sin offering, i.e., violated Shabbat on a Torah level].

Responsa Har Tzvi OC 1:190

Regarding the question of whether it is permitted to wipe on Shabbat with paper wet with water, from the perspective of sechita…. One can say further that in our case it is not a Torah level prohibition even if he wrings it, because the water is not naturally absorbed within it [the paper]. Clothes, even though the liquids don’t originate within them, are still … often wrung out (as explained in Rosh 22:4), which is not the case with paper that has absorbed water but is not typically wrung. And since even if he wrings [the paper] it is only rabbinic, again one can say that we do not make a decree lest he wring, for this would be a decree atop a decree.

Shemirat Shabbat Ke-hilchetah 14:38

It is permissible to wet paper a bit, but he should be careful not to wring the water from the paper.

Responsa Shevet Ha-Levi 8:59

They pointed out to me again that given that today the wipes are made very wet, it is nearly impossible to follow the above suggestion of not applying a lot of pressure…therefore we should be stringent with this until we know that the facts have totally changed.

Responsa Minchat Asher 1:14

For in the many checks that I undertook, I was given to know that in standard use of the wipes that are found today in the market there is no sechitawhatsoever…And it further was further clarified to me by the owner of a factory for manufacturing wipes that they check that the material be non-absorbent in order that it not disintegrate and not swell…and further, isn’t it a clear halacha that one may wipe his face on Yom Kippur with a cloth that has slight dampness from before Yom Kippur…rather, since there are no liquids recognizable here, there is nosechita here and so it is in this case…in typical and standard use there is no sechita at all.

Responsa Iggerot Moshe YD 2:76

Regarding the matter of plastic tablecloths, it stands to reason that it is not similar to leathers, for this [plastic] is a substance that water does not penetrate at all, rather just [sits] on its surface like wood and metal, and even the soft [plastics] in this regard are like hard [objects], so therefore this is not a matter of laundering. And one should not compare conceptually different types [of materials] to leathers, check yourself for even with hard leathers there is he who says in Zevachim 94 that there is a prohibition of laundering, and many early authorities rule that this is the halacha, see Bei’ur Halacha OC 302:9 s.v. Aval. In any case we do not compare different substances to them [leathers], for it is permissible to wash dishes, even those that are no harder than hard leathers, thus, we only have [concern with] leathers. Still, in any case, since it would be impossible to find this halacha discussed explicitly, for it is a new type [of material] that the generations before us never saw, it is fitting to be stringent not to rub forcefully it with one’s hands, for this is like scrubbing its sides together. and one can be lenient according to all opinions only to clean it lightly with water.

Responsa Tzitz Eliezer 5:10

The reason for the matter is that regarding other clothes, we say that soaking them is laundering them, and we don’t say thus also regarding a leather garment, it seems we can explain that this is because with other garments there is already laundering action through rinsing in water alone, and this is insofar as the water is absorbed within the garment and inside the dirty area, and therefore this on its own is already considered laundering…In any case, with this we conclude with all that was said, that one should permit rinsing a nylon garment, similar to the permission with a leather garment.

Shemirat Shabbat Ke-hilchetah 15:7

A garment made totally of synthetic fibers with no mixing of natural fibers …, and it is also not sewn with thread made of natural fibers, it is permissible to soak it in water, when the intention is to use it that day. But when it is still wet, it is prohibited to rub parts of it against each other, or to rub it with one’s hand or with a towel; indeed, the use of a wet rag [on it] is prohibited in any event, as above 6. And it is prohibited to wring out this garment made of synthetic fibers to remove the water that is in it, or to shake the water out of it with force.

Shemirat Shabbat Ke-hilchetah 9:1-3

Le-chat’chila (from the outset), it is fitting and correct to open all sealed containers whose contents one wishes to use on Shabbat and on Yom Tov on the day before…There are those who are lenient to open boxes, drink cans, bags12, and packages such as one is not accustomed to reuse, if indeed it is not his intention to reuse them after removing their contents. And one opens them in a fashion that he does not intend to make a good opening for use. Note 12: And one normally uses a bag just for storing the contents, the milk or the juice, and for transferring it from place to place, and then discards it when one is done using it, and this is like a flimsy vessel like a musteki. And therefore one can say that this is permissible according to everyone, so long as one not intend to make a good opening, as described later. And so one should not open in the place it was sealed, but cut it open a bit in the body of the package, and also not cut it in the place of letters. So I heard from Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach…

Responsa Iggerot Moshe 2:84

For here Rambam wrote in 10:8: “one who twists rope from flax or from wool threads or from flax threads or hairs and the like, it is a tolada of kosher [tying] and he is obligated [in a sin-offering], and one who separates the strands, this is a tolada of matir [untying] and he is obligated [in a sin offering].” And on the face of it, what is the reason this is not also a tolada of tofer? For they were attached with a more lasting attachment than three stitches, and also it is an attachment that all the threads are made into a single strand, that even according to my reasoning is relevant to the attachment of tofer, like one who sticks papers together with glue, which is a tolada of tofer…And therefore one must say further that the melacha of tofer is only what creates a single entity to the extent that when one wants to separate them he needs to perform the melacha of tearing.

Chut Shani Shabbat I 17:9

It is permissible for a woman to stick a pad onto underpants in order to absorb bleeding, and there is no tofer or korei’a in this.

Shemirat Shabbat Ke-hilchetah 35 Note 67

Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach said further …regarding sticking on the paper that covers a band-aid, the adhesion is so that, when one needs the band-aid, the adhesive won’t be ruined, and it is all done only for the need of separating it later. And the paper that is stuck on the stickers of diapers is the same thing, and therefore it is not considered long-lasting…In any case, from the perspective of reasoning, it seems in my humble opinion that what one throws into the garbage is also considered not long-lasting….

Responsa Tzitz Eliezer 16:6

For if one removes the diaper by pulling it down [without opening it]…and the adhesive remains stuck, it comes out that the adhesive that he originally stuck remains as a long-lasting attachment …and if so, then only then does one stumble over the prohibition of tofer.

Shemirat Shabbat Ke-hilchetah 18 Note 43

I heard from Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach…that if it were not because one is embarrassed and in distress, we are not [otherwise] accustomed to be particular about [discomfort from] a little bit of wetness. And Rav Auerbach even added that this is also the case for all soiling (on the body) that a person cannot tolerate and is embarrassed by it, it is considered as one in distress…

Shemirat Shabbat Ke-hilchetah 18:20

A woman is permitted to go out with a tampon and with a sanitary pad in order to preserve the cleanliness of her body, as during her period.