Prophetic Tumah

There are two major halachic ramifications when a woman became a nidah. The one that is relevant today involves the relationship between a man and his wife. However, in ancient times it also affected her in terms of tumah and taharah. Terumah and sacrificial meat could only be eaten by someone who was tahor and could not be touched by someone who was tamei.

The first topic in Mesechta Nidah deals with this second ramification. There is a special rabbinic stringency that food touched by a woman immediately before she became a nidah is tamei. The Gemara discusses how long this time period is. The Chachamim’s opinion is that in ancient times we considered a woman as a nidah retroactively 24 hours once she became one. However, the Rishonim clearly stipulate that this stringency is only in regard to foodstuffs she touched in the past day. We must now treat them as tamei. This had no relevance even in ancient times to her relationship with her husband.

The Maharsha says that based on the above we can understand a problem in a biblical story that had baffled many scholars. One of the angels that came to visit Avraham Avinu informed him that he would be blessed with a son. Sarah Imeinu overheard this conversation. She did not realize that an angel was speaking to Avraham. The Torah therefore records that Sara laughed and said, “After I have aged, will youthfulness return to me?” Rashi in one explanation says that the youthfulness referred to is her regular nidah cycle. Earlier, Avraham Avinu had instructed his wife to prepare rolls for the guests. However, we never find that Avraham actually served his guests these rolls. Rashi, quoting a Gemara in Bava Metzia, says that in fact he did not serve them. Avraham Avinu was careful to treat all his food as if it were sacrificial food. Therefore, if his food became tamei he would no longer eat it. He would either burn it or discard it. Sarah Imeinu’s regular cycle returned that day. Therefore, the rolls she baked became tamei when she touched them. He did not want to serve his guests food that he himself wouldn’t eat.

This seems to contradict the later comment from Rashi. Sarah Imeinu expressed disbelief that she could mother a child. She specifically questioned whether in fact her regular cycle would return, according to one explanation in Rashi. If her regular cycle had already returned, why was she so incredulous?

The Maharsha suggests that Sarah did not actually become a nidah until after the malachim informed him that she would have a child. This explains her incredulity. So why didn’t Avraham serve the rolls? When Avraham Avinu was about to serve the rolls, the angels informed him that Sarah would become a nidah within 24 hours. As explained above, there is a rabbinic stringency to treat all food a woman touched in the 24 hours immediately prior to her becoming a nidah as tamei. Generally speaking, we have no way of knowing the future. So this rabbinic stringency is only relevant if there is food that is still around after a woman becomes a nidah. However, in this situation, the malachim informed Avraham what was going to happen in the future. Sarah was going to become a nidah. So Avraham, who treated his food with the highest degree of sanctity, would not eat from food that was touched by his wife now, since after she became a nidah this food would be retroactively tamei.

The Sifsei Chachamim asks, if Avraham Avinu was so stringent with only feeding his guests food that met his exacting standards, why did he feed them milk and meat together? The pasuk states that he served them butter, milk, and meat from a calf. The Sifsei Chachamim answers simply that he served them the milk first and the meat afterwards.

Bezras Hashem the same way we kept the separation of milk and meat especially over Shavuos, we should merit to be able to fulfill the precept of keeping the laws of tumah and taharah when Mashiach comes speedily in our days.