Niddah 36: Becoming a Zava During Childbirth

Today we learn about when a woman becomes a zava after childbirth.  A zava is a woman who experiences menstrual-type blood flow when she is not expecting menstrual bleeding.  Torah law says that she is a niddah whether she bleeds once or many times over a period of seven days.  After that time she immerses in the mikvah and is deemed ritually pure.  After that time, there are eleven days where she is called a yemei ziva.  If she bleeds during those days, she is called a zava.  

Being a zava is different from being a niddah.  Bleeding once or twice is called being a zava ketana, one who keeps watch a day for a day - she checks once each day for blood.  After bleeding on a third day, she is considered a zava gedola and must wait a full seven days without seeing blood.  After that period of time she can immerse in a mikvah and is allowed to be with her husband.  She brings a sacrifice the next day as part of her purification process which allows her to enter the Temple and consume sacrifices (reenter the community).  Proofs for this process are found in Vayikra (15:25-29).

Today's Mishna considers a woman in childbirth experiences bleeding.  If that bleeding occurs on days that she would be considered a niddah, she is called a niddah.  If it happens on days that she would be a zava, she would not become a zava.  This is because to be a zava, the blood would have to issue from her and not from the fetus.  It is impossible to determine whether the blood comes from her or from the fetus, and so she cannot be called a zava in such a case.

To imagine that a woman would be thinking about the stress of her status as a niddah or a zava while she is in labour is ridiculous.  To objectify her experience of childbirth to the external measurement of bleeding and counting days is insulting, as well.  Childbirth is the closest thing that human beings experience to G-dliness.  It is telling that the rabbis are able to reduce this experience to its relationship with states of ritual purity or status of the fetus, etc.