Niddah 35: Zavim, Tameh and an Ones

Today's daf is concerned with being a zav or zava.  A zava is a woman who is ritually pure following the seven or fourteen days after childbirth until an offering is brought to the Temple.  A zav is a man who has discharged any white, pus like fluid from his penis.  If this happens once, he is ritually impure for one day (just like a man who has discharged semen).  If this happens twice, the second time on the same or the next day (or one long emission), he is called a zav, where he is considered ritually impure for seven days.  If there is a third discharge within 24 hours of the second discharge, he must bring a sacrifice to the Temple to be deemed ritually pure.  Proof can be found in Vayikra (15:1-15) and in Massechet Zavim.

Rav Huna tells us that the first discharge of a zav will make him tameh, ritually impure.  The second discharge is not meaningful if it came from an ones, an external circumstance beyond his control.  Zavim (2:2) teaches us the seven bedikot, things that are checked, to determine whether the discharge was caused by an ones.  These are:

• ma'achal - overeating food
• mishteh - drinking too much
• masa - carrying a heavy burden
• kefitza - jumping
• choli - illness
• mar'eh - seeing a woman (even without having sensual thoughts)
• hirhur - having sensual thoughts (even without having seen a woman)

Tosafot define mar'eh as seeing a couple engaged in sexual relations, while the Rambam defines mar'eh as seeing a woman and fantasizing about her.  Other rabbis suggest that mar'eh refers to a person seeing something that frightens him/her, which is not related to thoughts of sexuality.