Siman 193

Blood of virginity is pure, for it is neither blood of niddah nor blood of zavah, but rather it is blood of a wound. However, it is not logical to say that all acts of intercourse he performs shall be attributed to blood of virginity. And behold, according to the law of the Mishnah [64b], it is as follows: A minor who married, whether she had ever seen blood in her days or whether she had not seen, she is permitted to her husband until the wound heals; and if she saw blood after the wound healed, she is a niddah.

And how do they know if the wound has healed or not? If she would see blood at the time she stands, but when she sits she does not see, and when she sits on the ground she sees, but if she sits on pillows and cushions she does not see, it is known that the wound has not healed. And if she sees in all of them, or does not see in all of them, it is known that the wound has healed; and when she sees in all of them, this is not blood of virginity but rather blood of niddah. And if she would see at the time of tashmish, this is due to the wound. And if at the time of tashmish she did not see, but not at the time of tashmish she saw, this is blood of niddah, for if there were still virginity, she certainly would have seen at the time of tashmish.

And if she married while she was a na'arah, if she had never seen blood in her life, she is permitted to her husband for four days, day and night, even though the blood is flowing, provided that the wound has not healed. And if she saw blood in her father's house and afterwards married, they give her one night. So we learned in the Mishnah according to the House of Hillel. And the Rambam in chapter 5, law 19, wrote that she has only the first cohabitation and he withdraws. And the matters are puzzling, for this is the opinion of the House of Shammai in the Mishnah, see there. And the Ra'avad already challenged him, see there. However, the Rambam interprets that which they said there in the Gemara, "The law is: he performs the cohabitation of the mitzvah and withdraws," as not referring to all of them as is the opinion of most of the poskim, but rather to one who saw while still in her father's house, as will be further explained in this with the help of Heaven [and see there in the Maggid Mishneh, and in the Beit Yosef, and in the Bach].

And a bogeret who has never seen [blood] in her life, we give her the entire first night, and if she saw [blood], it is obvious that she has only the biah of mitzvah and he separates. And know that the four nights that we give to a naarah who has not seen blood are not specifically four consecutive nights, but rather even if they are scattered. How so? He performs biah on the first night and waits even two months and performs biah on the second night, and so on, provided that the wound has not healed. And similarly a ketanah, to whom we give until the wound heals, even if he extended a year and it did not heal, this is blood of betulim, and he performs biah all year, whether intermittently or day after day.

A minor who was married and became a na'arah under her husband, and the blood is still flowing due to the wound, all the acts of intercourse he performed while she was a minor are considered for him as one night, and they complete for him the four days during the days of her being a na'arah. He is able to count the three remaining days even intermittently, every two months one night, as long as the wound has not healed. One who has intercourse with a virgin and blood did not emerge from her, and he had intercourse again and blood emerged, even if she was a minor, this is blood of niddah; for if it were blood of virginity, it would have come at the beginning. This is specifically when he initially performed a complete act of intercourse. And know that blood of virginity exists even in a minor less than three years old [Niddah 45a], and so the Rambam ruled there.

All of this is according to the law of the Mishnah, but the sages of the Gemara said: The halacha is that he performs the marital act of the commandment and separates. Rashi, the Tosafot, the Rosh, the Rashba, the Ra'avad, the Ramban, and all the great authorities of France and Germany explained that this applies to all of them, even to a minor who has not yet reached the stage of seeing blood. They were stringent in this matter because this thing is common to everyone, and who knows how to distinguish between a minor and an adult, or between one who has seen blood and one who has not? Therefore, they established a fence that is equal for all. This is what they said there in the Gemara [65b]: Ulla said: When Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish were dealing with the matter of young girls, they could not reach a conclusion etc. and they concluded it thus: He performs the marital act etc. and separates.

But the Rif and the Rambam interpreted this regarding one whose time to see [menstruation] had arrived and she saw, and this stringency—that with all virgins one performs the sexual act of the mitzvah and separates—is among the stringencies that the daughters of Israel adopted of their own accord, for so it is explained from the words of the Rambam, chapter 11, law 10, see there. And also in the Yerushalmi it is explained that in the days of the Amoraim this enactment was innovated, and perhaps it was at the time they adopted the stringency of Rabbi Zeira. And there are those who wrote that according to the Rif and the Rambam, this enactment was innovated in the days of the Geonim [see Beit Yosef]. And in my humble opinion, it appears as I have written [and so it is explained explicitly in the Bartenura, at the beginning of the chapter "Tinokot," see there].

However, regarding the first cohabitation, he completes it in his usual manner even if the blood is flowing and descending, and there is no prohibition in this to withdraw even with a live organ. The general principle of the matter is that the sages said he completes his cohabitation so that his heart does not trouble him and he withdraws. This is the wording of our teacher, the Beit Yosef: One who marries a virgin performs the cohabitation of the mitzvah and completes his cohabitation and withdraws immediately, even if she is a minor who has not reached her time to see and has not seen, and even if she checked and did not find blood, she is impure; perhaps she saw a drop of blood like a mustard seed and the semen covered it. Thus far his words. And this, that he does not state the reason "perhaps she saw a drop like a mustard seed and it was lost" as in the previous siman regarding the blood of yearning, is because there she is walking from place to place, and it is relevant to say it was lost; but here, she is lying in bed, and where would it be lost? Therefore, it must be said it is due to the covering of the semen [Taz, subsection 3]. Furthermore, here there is no need for the concern of loss, since there is a reason that appears openly, for presumably the semen is greater than the blood and covered it, and therefore the blood was not found on the sheet.

This is the wording of our teacher, the Rema: And there are those who are lenient if she did not see blood, and it is the custom to be lenient if he did not complete the cohabitation but only performed ha'arah upon her and she did not see blood; but if he cohabited with her with actual cohabitation, he must separate from her even though she did not see blood, and a pious soul should be concerned for himself not to play with children. Thus far his words. That is to say, he should see to cohabit with complete cohabitation, and in truth the great authorities were embittered by this regarding the permission of ha'arah upon her, for who can know and clarify, and every God-fearing person should see to be careful in this, as I wrote in the previous siman, section 17; see there.

And after the first cohabitation, she must perform a cessation of flow in purity like a complete nidda and examine herself all seven days, and she shall not begin to count until the fifth day of her cohabitation due to the concern of discharging semen, as will be explained in siman 196. And even those who are stringent not to count until the sixth day, as is written there, nevertheless regarding hymeneal blood one need not be so stringent [Taz, subsection 4]. And he conducts himself with her according to all the laws of nidda regarding distancing, except that with a complete nidda it is forbidden for him to sleep on her bed even when she is not in the bed, whereas with this woman it is permitted for him to sleep in that same bed after she has stood up from beside him, and even on the sheet that has the blood upon it.

It is a known, verified, and tested matter that the betulim are not exhausted in a single cohabitation, and there are many cases where even after her purification, she sees betulim during a second cohabitation, and sometimes even a third. Therefore, they must be careful to check the sheet even on the second and third times, for perhaps there is still blood of betulim. And even if it is not so red, nevertheless, one should be stringent and separate from her as on the first time. However, if the sheet is clean of blood, we do not fear the covering of semen except on the first time.