The discussion today as was set up is concerning the inyan of טהרת המשפחה, and I think I will not really go into, maybe a little later some halachot, even though everyone is familiar with the halachot of טהרת המשפחה, nevertheless it's worthwhile to refresh the main points of the halachot. They say that, forgot about which one of the גדולי ישראל, one of the big rebbes that he used to review all of הלכות נדה every month because it's so important. So it is kedai, it's worthwhile to review it and to refresh your mind, but the main discussion I think will be on the hashkafah aspect of טהרת המשפחה. We know that it's a very, very important part of halachah. It is connected to a איסור כרת. We know that when we want to grade, so to speak, the levels of what's important and what's less important, more important, so the way in halachah we grade it is by looking at what punishment would be given. The truth is it doesn't mean that we have to weigh the mitzvot and do some more with more feeling than others. It says אל תהי יושב ושוקל במצותיה של תורה, it says do not sit and weigh the mitzvot of the Torah. קלה שבקלות כחמורה שבחמורות, the most lenient ones has to be as important as the most strict ones. So we can't weigh them. On the other hand, the fact that we do mention קלה שבקלות, חמורה שבחמורות, that we have to look at the lenient ones as much as at the strict ones, shows that there are lenient ones and there are strict ones. So as far as keeping them, we have to keep them the same way, but nevertheless we have to know certain things are more chamur than others. Now, those things which are connected to a איסור כרת, that the punishment for not keeping is כרת, those are from the most important ones. We always in halachah we say oh this we have to be very careful. If there's a safek you should be machmir or whatever, because it's a איסור כרת, because it's something that you get כרת for. And in this din, inyan of a נדה, there is a איסור כרת. So therefore it is a very, very important halachah to keep. So there is the halachah aspect of it, and it's very important to keep with all the details, especially that by the inyan of נדה we find that even a little bit, as we will see later, even a small drop, as small as it is, is also asur, which reminds us right away of Pesach with chametz where a mashehu, a little drop is asur, and that's why it's strict. But then we have the hashkafah aspect of it, what we find in sefarim concerning the meaning, the spiritual meaning behind the inyan of נדה. Now, at first glance, and fact it's mentioned actually in the Gemara that one of the reasons why Hashem gave us the mitzvah of טהרת המשפחה is that every month the ahavah, the love between the two should be renewed, and the expression is it should be as it is the day of the chuppah. Just like when they just get married, then it's new. When something is new, then the feeling is much stronger. We know that when you get used to something, then you lose feeling. There's an expression תענוג תמידי אינו תענוג. If you have a constant pleasure, then you don't really have pleasure from it. Something that you like to eat, if you eat too much of it, then you lose the geshmak, then you don't have the taste anymore. So the same thing here. In order for the feeling between the two should continue, and it should be as strong, always renewed, so the Torah gave us a certain amount of time when you are not allowed, you have to abstain, you have to separate. וממילא when it comes back, so then it's renewed with a new chayut, so then it's mamash like the לשון is כיום שנכנסה לחופה, it's the same as the day that she came to the chuppah. But obviously this is not the real reason why we keep the mitzvah of טהרת המשפחה. Why we keep it is because it's a mitzvah like all other mitzvot. But we don't keep the mitzvot because of the medical reasons, we don't keep mitzvot because of whatever other reason is, we just keep it because Hashem told us to. Just like we think about kashrut, and there are so many reasons given by kashrut, health reasons, there are even reasons given in the מפרשים that we shouldn't eat meat of animals that are wild animals because the Ramban says, because that will give into the person the same תכונות, the same characteristics as the animal that the meat is from, and therefore Hashem told us not to eat it. But nevertheless after we give all the reasons, this is not the reason why we keep kashrut. And the same thing here, the reason why we keep טהרת המשפחה is not for these reasons, even though they are side benefits, but it is because Hashem told us in the Torah that we should keep it. But even though we're not looking to explain Explain the mitzvah, but at least what we could take out of it. Now, this mitzvah of טהרת המשפחה is a continuation to the marriage. They get married, and then the mitzvah that's connected to their marriage is the mitzvah of טהרת המשפחה. So we have to look into the whole ענין of marriage. In order to understand what is the purpose of marriage, we look into what is said, the words that are used at the moment when the marriage is done. And that is הרי את מקודשת לי בטבעת זו כדת משה וישראל. He says, \"You are mekudash to me with this ring like the laws of משה and and ישראל, meaning the laws of the Torah.\" We use the word mekudeshet. And a simple translation of the word mekudeshet means set aside, you are specifically mine. From that moment on, after he gives her the kiddushin, she is אסורה לכולי עלמא, the Gemara says. She is now forbidden for the whole world. She is מיוחדת לו, she is set aside specifically for him. But the Gemara says that the word מקודשת also comes from the word hekdesh, which means holy, from the word kedushah. She becomes to him like hekdesh, that's what the Gemara says, like hekdesh, which is holy. In other words, the marriage is a holy connection between the two people. It's kedushah that is supposed to have, that is supposed to be between the man and the wife, and the wife and the husband. So this is a form, an ענין of kedushah. It's not like lehavdil the גוים, in their religions they look at this ענין of marriage and everything that comes along with it, they look at it as something that you have to do, but it's, but it's definitely not holy. But according to the Torah, this is, it's holy. And they're both equal. In other words, it's a holiness that combines from one to the other, and not one more than the other. You know, it's not like he is more holy than her, or she is more holy than him. It is a connection that the unit, it becomes one unit, together, this is a unit of kedushah. That's why there's some sefarim say the reason why Chavah was created, was taken from Adam Harishon's side, she wasn't taken from his foot, and wasn't taken from his head. Had she been taken from his foot, you might think that she's under him, she's like his slave, his maid. Had she been taken from his head, you think she is in control, she is his head. She was taken from his side. What? She is taken from his side to show that she is equal. They are both equal. They just have different functions. Yesterday, when I spoke to the women, I explained the different function of the man and the woman, and then what is... The Yud and the Hei. The Yud and the Hei, right, right. Oh, your wives told you? At least I know... So, but the truth is that they're both equal, and this is a union that brings about kedushah. And if the union is based on kedushah, then we know that this is going to be an everlasting union. Why? Because if it's based on other things, you could always have differences. And when you have differences, what happens later? And it's normal, only natural and normal to have differences, because every human being is different. The Gemara says that there are so many millions of people, דאין דעותיהם שוות, there are no two people who their minds work alike. So there are differences. And if there are differences, so then what could happen? One person wants one thing, the other person wants something else, and it doesn't last. The only thing that keeps it together is the kedushah aspect of it. Because when it comes to the kedushah part of it, then there are no differences. This is part of the reason why we see that the rate of divorce amongst frum yidden are much less, much, much less than among non-frum yidden, or lehavdil amongst גוים. It used to be ממש כמעט like nothing. Now, unfortunately, it's rising, but still, in proportion to what goes on in the world, it's completely, ve'ein aruch, there's no comparison at all. Why? Because the reason why there is a divorce, let's say, or separation is because I want this, you want this, and we can't come to an understanding, and then we have to separate. But that is if there is nothing in common that no matter what, they both look at it in the same way. In other words, there are no values that both of them look that this is very important, and then there are no differences. When there is no kedushah there, when there is no ruchniyut, no spirituality in the marriage, so then all it is is gashmiyut, the physical part. part, and so the physical part could start with a narishkeit, with a small thing. He wants the wall painted white, and she wants it pink, and then they fight over it and then and since it is an important matter, and the whole life is only based on such ענינים, such things, so then what happens? And they split. But even but if it's based on kedushah, so then even if there are differences of opinion in these matters, but they know in their mind that these matters are side things. That is not the most important part of their life. They both know that the most important part of their life is Torah and mitzvot, the ruchniyut part. And in the ruchniyut part, there are no differences. Because it's the same Shabbos for both, the same kashrut for both, there could be differences, fine, just small things, but they know that the most important part, the essential part of their life is is the same in both, which is ruchniyut, which is Torah u-mitzvot. And therefore, this is the only way that we could be guaranteed, as much as we are able to be guaranteed, that the marriage is going to stay. That's why if the לשון we say, \"הרי את מקודשת לי,\" which shows that the whole marriage should be based on kedushah. And then we go on, \"כדת משה וישראל,\" which means according to the Torah, because what is the kedushah of the home? That is the Torah. So if they both follow the Torah, which is תורה אחת, one Torah, so they both follow the same thing, and the most important part of their union is the same for both sides, and therefore they will stay together. Out of the ענינים of Torah u'mitzvot that we say that keeps the marriage or keeps the union together and keeps them together always always being happy, so those things which are important or are part of the home are more important than the others. In other words, that Torah u'mitzvot, putting on tefillin is part of Torah u'mitzvot. But that's something that the person, the man, as an individual, has to do. But then there are certain mitzvot which are connected to the home as a whole. Those mitzvot definitely are the mitzvot that keep them together, because they're done מצד the unit of a home. And that itself is divided into two parts. You have the revealed part, things that people see, people are aware of, it's something that's in the open, and then you have the part that's private. Now the revealed part is kashrut. Kashrut, I mean, everyone has to eat, and you always have to keep kasher whether you're married or not, but nevertheless this is a mitzvah that has to do with the home, the wife's cooking, and then other mitzvot that have to do with the home. The mezuzah, for instance, just give an example, the mezuzah on the door that has to do with the home, when they're married, and they move into a house, there is a mezuzah. So these are mitzvot that have to do with the home, and that is more important than the גשמיות, the kashrut of the mezuzah is more important to them than the color of the walls, and therefore since on the mezuzah there is no fight, so then even if they disagree, they disagree on the other things, on what car to buy, but they they agree on the most important, on the mezuzah and on the kashrut. But those are things that are open to the public, so to speak. But then there are the private parts, the private part of Torah u'mitzvot which is נוגע to the marriage. That is even more important in order for keeping together. And since they both agree and know to know that this is important part of their life, so therefore this is what keeps them together. So, the kedushah of the mitzvah of טהרת המשפחה, that is what keeps the family together. And I know from personal experience with families that what kept them together was טהרת המשפחה. I know that there were non-religious people who couples who very often they came to me, they had problems in the marriage, so I told them that they should start keeping טהרת המשפחה. Usually, the way it works, that טהרת המשפחה is the last mitzvah that they accept, it's the hardest of all. People will accept kashrut, people will accept even Shabbat, Shabbat is pretty hard because after all, you have to give up a day of work, going out. But to to give up the to accept the mitzvah of טהרת המשפחה, which מצד the nature of the person, and we would call it the ta'avah of the person, this is the greatest ta'avah that a person has, to give that up, that is hard. But still, I told them, \"You know what? If takeh the harder usually that's accepted as the last, take it as the first.\" And that and that worked, because when the their their private life was based on the way the Torah tells us, and they knew that this is something beyond their understanding and it's beyond their agr- agreement or disagreement, this brought them together, and based on that, they built a home, and then the home continued, and the children became frum, and they had a happy life. But it's all started with taharat hamishpachah because that keeps it together. So this is a very general concept that taharat hamishpachah, being that it's a mitzvah, and being that it's a mitzvah that's between them in their married life, this is the foundation in a successful marriage because this keeps it together.

But now let's get a little bit into the deeper meaning of what taharat hamishpachah stands for ברוחניות, there's an ענין, the ענין ברוחניות. We find a Chassidus that talks about it, we find in the שיחות, as a matter of fact, in the last רשימות of the Rebbe, that they're giving out now the רשימות that they found, the pamphlets that the Rebbe wrote for himself many years starting from 50, 60 years ago, and it was never printed, the Rebbe never gave it to print, but now after the הסתלקות, when they looked into the room, they found it, so now they started to print it, we get from time to time different parts of it. So the last one, which is the 12th pamphlet, so there the Rebbe discusses this whole thing of the רוחניות'דיקע explanation behind the ענין of נדה and זבה, as I will explain, kind of the whole ענין of taharat hamishpachah. But generally speaking, the general approach to this ענין is like this: this whole thing of נדה, of דם נדה, of a woman menstruating, started, the Gemara tells us, started with the חטא עץ הדעת. If not for the חטא עץ הדעת, if not for the first sin of אדם הראשון, this would have never been. So the Gemara says that בשעת she ate from the tree and Hashem cursed her, it says that Hashem gave the קללה to אדם, to חוה, so that brought about the ענין of דם נדה. And Chassidus explains it like this: the Gemara says that from the time of the חטא עץ הדעת, ירדה זוהמה לעולם, a certain טומאה, זוהמה means a טומאה, a certain impurity came into the world. Not only into the world as a whole, but specifically it came into the person, and there is a tumah that we have to get rid of. That tumah expressed itself in this דם נדה. That's why even medically, this blood is something that the body throws out because it's not healthy to keep in. So that's why every once in a while, every month, it has to come out because if it would stay in, it would contaminate the body, it's no good. Unless when she's pregnant and different things, but otherwise. So ברוחניות it says this is an expression of the tumah that came into the world. Now, why it was given to the woman? Because after all, Chavah was the one that started the חטא עץ הדעת. But really it's not only hers, the man also. So physically it came to Chavah, but this is a symbol of the tumah that came into the human being after the חטא עץ הדעת. Being that this is an expression of the chet, and a Jewish body is holy, not only a Jewish neshamah is holy, a Jewish body is holy, so what happens? Every month the body, so to speak, throws out this blood which represents the tumah that came from the חטא עץ הדעת. It's a natural thing, but it's a natural thing that came as a result of the רוחניות, because by Yidden, nature, even nature coincides, fits with the ways ברוחניות. So in truth, this whole inyan of דם נדה should only be by a Jew. There was no reason for a goyishe woman actually to have this menstruation and the blood should come out according to this explanation. The reason it's there by a goy also, because imagine if it would only be by a Jew, it would be obvious that there's a difference between a Yid and a goy, there would be no bechirah. There's no free choice. Similar to something else. It says in Chassidus that the reason why a human being is set up the way he is, because it represents שם הויה, that we represent Hashem's name. The head is like a יו\"ד, and then you have the two hands, each one has five fingers, is the two ה's, and then you have the וא\"ו in the middle. The body is like a וא\"ו. So you have יו\"ד, ה\"א, וא\"ו, ה\"א. That's why the person is like he is. That's why he stands straight, because that's the סדר: יו\"ד, and then the ה\"א and the ה\"א and the וא\"ו in the middle. But animals, they walk on four because they don't represent the י-ק-ו-ק. So then Chassidus asks, so how come goyim also walk like human beings if it's only because of the neshamah, because of the י-ק-ו-ק that we have? The answer is, imagine if the goyim would walk on four and we walk like this, there is no free choice. Everyone sees right away that this is godly, this is not, so then there is no free choice. The same thing with this. With many things it says that those that have spiritual explanations is only by Yidden, and the goyim are all because there is כלי החושים. But anyway, so the idea of having דם נדה is because the Jewish body is holy, and it got, it absorbed the tumah from the חטא עץ הדעת, and therefore, once a month it has to come out, it has to get it out. Since it was in the Jewish body, and this represents the tumah, the body becomes tamei. Because it did hold, it contained the blood that represents the tumah, so the body becomes tamei. What happens? Because of that, the din is that you have to go to the mikveh. What's the inyan of going to the mikveh? Going to the mikveh the Rambam says in the end of Hilchos Mikvaos. The Rambam says that you should know that when a person becomes tamei, it's not the the the body, the dead body for instance that you touch that makes you tamei, and it's not the water that makes you tahor. It's a chok, it's a gezeirah, the Eibershter said. But nevertheless, he says even though it's a gezeirah, it's a decree of Hashem beyond understanding, but רמז יש בדבר. There is a remez, there is a hint that we take out from the mikveh. The hint of the mikveh is, he says, that just like when you immerse yourself in the mikveh, in the water, till you're completely covered, so too a person has to immerse himself in the מי הדעת הטהור, in the waters of knowledge, the pure, clean water of knowledge, which means the waters of Torah. So going to the mikveh represents the inyan of a person immersing himself in the waters of Torah. We always know that water represents Torah. It says אין מים אלא תורה, the Gemara says, water is Torah. The Gemara learns it out from a pasuk. There's a pasuk that says הוי כל צמא לכו למים. Anybody who is thirsty, go to water. The Gemara says, what does that mean? If anybody is thirsty to learn, learn Torah. How does the Gemara know it? So the mefarshim explain, because if it would mean simply whoever is thirsty go to water, we don't need a pasuk for that. Every person understands that if you're thirsty, you drink water. So obviously the Gemara the pasuk means something else, and the Gemara tells it means that if you feel a thirst to Godliness, you have to drink water, which is Torah. So מים represents Torah. We find an expression מי התלמוד, even לגבי Gemara we find, a person who learns a lot of Gemara, we call him he is swimming in the sea of Talmud, the sea of the Gemara, because water represents wisdom, and if we're talking in a holy way, it represents the wisdom of the Torah. When a person goes to the mikveh, that's supposed to represent that he immerses himself completely in the waters of the Torah. And that washes everything off, because when a person learns a lot of Torah, it washes off any stain, any impure stain that might come, the Torah washes off. That's the quality of the Torah that has, it washes off. Just like, and that's one of the reasons why Torah is compared to water. There are many reasons, but one of the reasons is because Torah has this quality of washing off things, because by learning, it's an אריבערדורך, so to speak. By immersing yourself in the water, it means you're covered completely till over your head. I remember once on yechidus, I went into the Rebbe in yechidus, so the Rebbe told me different things, and one of the things the Rebbe told me was: דו זאלסט זיין, זיין אריינגעטאן אין לערנען, אריינגעטונקען אין לערנען, ביז איבערן קאפ. You should be involved in learning, be immersed in learning till over your head. And he explained, so that's the expression he used, which I imagine he took it that this is a לשון of the Rambam, that if you're over your head, it means that there is nothing left that's not involved in learning. Because if you're only swimming up till here, and it shows that part of you is not connected to the Torah, but you have to connect yourself to the Torah completely. So in order to wash away that stain that you, a person gets, in this physical case it's the woman, but it really means that the human, the Yid gets, because he had the tumah from the עץ הדעת that was there that expressed itself in this דם, so you have to learn Torah, and over your head. There's another thing here. The word tevilah, which means to immerse, is made up of the same letters as ha-bitul, which is juggle the letters around, ha-bitul, the bitul, self-nullification. That also means that in order to get rid of any impure stains, you have to be mevatel yourself, you have to be mevatel yourself to Hashem through being involved in Torah. And that's why the din by a mikveh is that it has to be completely. As long as you have your own metziut, as long as even you stick a finger out, you're not complete, you're still, there's still part of you that's not part of the water, the mikveh is no good, your tevilah is no good. You have to be mevatel yourself completely. It doesn't mean that you become, as we call in Yiddish, א יש מציאות, another being. You're still there, but your being is covered through the water. When there's something immersed in water, it's there. It doesn't get lost, you just can't see it, because all you see is the water that covers it. So the same thing here, you have to be mevatel yourself in a way that you're batal to Hashem, and mimela then you get rid of all the stains that are there. In which form do you show your bitul is through learning Torah, as the Rambam, the מי הדעת, is through learning Torah. So when you learn Torah, that, and if you learn it in a way that you're mevatel yourself, that is you learn in the proper way in the form of bitul, you learn it not like some people would learn שלא לשמה, you learn because I want to gain knowledge and you learn because I want to become something special, but you learn because Hashem said you should learn, that's learning through bitul. So then that wipes away the stain of the of the חטא עץ הדעת. That's another reason why בכלל, Torah is compared to water. We find Torah compared to many things. Torah is compared to honey, it's compared to milk, it's all kinds, it's compared to water also. So it says in Chasidut that it's not just we pick different words, different things to compare the Torah to. Each comparison represents another aspect of Torah. What is the aspect of Torah that is represented in the ענין of water? So this is again a Gemara. The Gemara says, why is Torah compared to water? מה מים יורדים ממקום גבוה למקום נמוך, just like the water flows from a high place to a low place, same thing with Torah, that Torah comes down to those that hold themselves low. In other words, water represents the bitul that you're supposed to have when you learn Torah. You shouldn't be a בעל גאוה. When you learn Torah you should be batel, you should be, shouldn't keep, hold yourself as a מציאות, you shouldn't, you know, have your own your own ego. That's what the water is. And that's the same idea as a bitul, when we say that when you immerse yourself, tevilah is a is a bitul, that takes care of the stain that comes through the חטא עץ הדעת. But then we have another thing here, that in certain cases, the דין is that you can't just go to the mikveh, but you have to have שבעה נקיים, seven clean days. The הלכה is that nowadays, it's in all cases. But originally it was only by a זבה, not by a נדה. And maybe I should just go into that just for a moment to explain the difference between a זבה and a נדה. When a woman sees דם, sees blood for the first time, the way it's from the Torah, מדאורייתא, for seven days she is טמאה. Whether she sees דם for all seven days, or she saw דם just for one second, she is טמאה for seven days. When the seven days are up, if she had stopped seeing by the end of the seven days, she's allowed to go to the מקוה. So a נדה is only for seven days. If she didn't stop, then you have to wait for her to stop, but you don't have to have any clean days before she goes to the מקוה. A זבה means, after those seven days there is a period of eleven days. Why eleven? That's how the Torah said, is a period of eleven days. And within those eleven days, if she sees דם within those eleven days, then she has a different דין, different status, she has a דין of a זבה. And the דין by a זבה is that she also has to go to the מקוה, but she can't go to the מקוה unless first you have שבעה נקיים, you have first seven clean days that pass. And they have to be seven consecutive clean days, then she's able to go to the מקוה. Because of the complications in the calculations that people might confuse it, so the רבנן said that from a certain time, no more difference between a נדה and a זבה, that even a regular נדה has to go, could only go to the מקוה after seven clean days. And that's the הלכה now. Anytime a person, a woman becomes a נדה, she has to wait seven clean days, and then goes to the מקוה. In order to be sure that you have seven clean days, first she has to have הפסק טהרה, that means she has to make that special בדיקה, and keep the cloth in, in order to be sure that the דם stopped. And then from then on you have seven clean days. After the seven clean days, then she's able to go to the מקוה. What is the idea of the seven clean days? Why must there be a חשבון, why is there a חשבון of seven? So again, the real reason we don't know, this is something is beyond our understanding, Hashem said so and that's it. But still, as we're saying, there is a רמז in this whole ענין of הלכות נדה. So the Rebbe explains, and he explains in Likkutei Sichos, explains it here in the Reshimos also. The idea of the seven clean days is because the טומאה by a זבה is much stronger than a טומאה by a נדה. Why? By a נדה is natural. Normal, normally a woman sees דם every month and she becomes a נדה. The Chinuch says that זבה, זיבה, is an unnatural thing. It's something that happens extra. To see דם within those eleven days is not natural. Normally she only has a cycle of close to about a month, and every time you see over, but after the seven days from when she saw is up, and then you have another eleven days, and those eleven days to see is not a normal thing. So if she does see, that means that he calls it, I think the Chinuch calls it a חולי. It's a sickness. It's something that it's sick, it's not natural, it's something wrong. But רוחניות, what does that mean? That as much as normally נדה represents the connection to the חטא עץ הדעת, זבה represents a stronger connection. There is more דם, דם that should not have come normally, and nevertheless it's there. So that shows that her connection is more than a regular case. The Rambam says that whenever a person goes too much to one extreme, the only way you could come back to the middle is if you go to the other extreme, that's the famous Rambam in Hilchot De'ot. So the same thing here. When there is a natural occurrence that she becomes a נדה, there is a certain process that you have to go through and you become טהור. Happens again every month, why? Even ברוחניות, because you go to the mikveh, you מבטל yourself and you're clean, you're finished with the stain, but after all we're normal human beings, as time passes it wears off. And what happens? The עץ הדעת starts coming up again. And therefore, again there is a דם נדה. But that's a normal thing, Hashem put it into the world, עם הטבע, so that's normal. So in order to get rid of that normal natural occurrence of this expression of the טומאה that comes from the עץ הדעת, all you need is going to the mikveh, and with that you get you don't have to do something that will be in the other extreme. But a זבה, being that that represents a person that is more טמא, has more of the חטא עץ הדעת, more of the קליפה that's there than normal, so in order to get rid of that, you have to go to another extreme. What's the other extreme? The other extreme is that you have to have seven clean days before you're even able to go to the mikveh. Seven clean days means seven days when you are completely away from any connection to this טומאה of the עץ הדעת. And what's the חשבון of seven? Because seven is a complete cycle. You know, the number seven is a complete cycle. Chazal says a lot of things are divided into seven. It's seven days in a week. Even though Shabbos is the holiest day, but it's still part of the cycle. We have seven heavens, we have seven years of שמיטה, but Chazal says that seven is part of the cycle. Eight, it says, usually is something that's higher. It says, אז ישיר משה, so we have אז, אלף זין, you have the אלף and the זין, the one and the seven, so it says אלף רוכב על הזין, that's the eight, which is beyond the seven, that's a higher מדרגה. That's why it says ויהי ביום השמיני, the eighth day, that's when the day the שכינה came down to the משכן. But seven is a cycle. You find by a brit, it says, why is a brit on the eighth day? כדי שיעבור עליו שבת אחת, so one Shabbos should pass, in order that it happens no matter which day of the week the child was born, you have seven days pass and you definitely have a Shabbos. But Chassidus says that means more than that. It means יעבור עליו שבת אחת, that the level of ברית מילה is higher than the level of Shabbos, because it's the level of eight, higher than seven. But seven is a complete cycle. So we have to go through a complete cycle of נקיים, a complete cycle of cleanliness, not being connected in any way to the קליפה of עץ הדעת in order to be able to cleanse ourselves from this special extreme type of טומאה. And then there's another thing: we find it says in in the HaAri zal writes that there are seven days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. עשרת ימי תשובה. עשרת ימי תשובה are ten days, but this includes the two days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but there are seven days in between. So the HaAri zal says an interesting peshat, he says, why are the seven days? He says, no matter which day it comes out, when you have seven days, you have seven days of the week, every day of the week, and therefore, you're able to do teshuvah for every day of the week. The Sunday of עשרת ימי תשובה is the teshuvah that you have to do for all Sundays of the year, the Monday of עשרת ימי תשובה all Mondays of the year, and if you pass all seven days, automatically you have done teshuvah for all the days of the week of the past year, and automatically it's the preparation for all the days of the week of the coming year. Same thing here also. The woman who became a זבה, that means that this person who has too much טומאה within him has to go to the other extreme, has to go through the extreme of טהרה, of נקיות, of being clean through a whole cycle plus that it should include all days of the week. So really it comes out like this, that the שבעה נקיים of the זבה is mamash similar to the seven days of עשרת ימי תשובה. This is the preparation for her going to the mikveh, becoming clean. Now nowadays, there is no difference between נדה and זבה, so nowadays every woman every month after she becomes a נדה has to go through the seven days. And part of the reason is, not looking at the halachic reason why now every woman that there are because of the calculations, but because of the רוחניותדיקע reason, the reason is because now we're in such a low מדרגה, that even under normal circumstances, the only way we are able to cleanse ourselves from the טומאה of the חטא עץ הדעת is if we go to an extreme and we do it much stronger, that means we go through the seven days, and to cleanse yourself, not, you prepare yourself, then you're able to go to the mikveh and become clean. In other words, if you want to look at it this way, we could say like this: that going to the mikveh, to a certain degree, for the woman, and like I said before, physically it's the woman, but it really is for the woman and the man, it's like a Yom Kippur. Going to the mikveh is the end of the שבעה נקיים. The seven days are the seven days of preparation, of getting cleansed and clean from the עבירות of עץ הדעת, the חטא עץ, the קליפה of עץ הדעת, and then when you go to the mikveh, that is the final cleansing, and then she comes out clean. So really, going to the mikveh is a very, very רוחניותדיק experience. And it's an experience that they're, for both. And this is to be able to prepare them that when after going to the mikveh and there is the union between them, the union should be a union של קדושה. The union between the husband and the wife is a קדושהדיק thing, is a, is a holy thing. In Kabbalah it says that when you have the relations between the husband and the wife, it's mamesh similar to the relations that we find between ז״א מלכות. In אצילות we have עשר ספירות, the ten ספירות. We have three of the intellect, חכמה בינה דעת, and then you have the seven מדות. But the seven מדות themselves are divided into two: the six מדות, חסד גבורה תפארת נצח הוד יסוד, and then מלכות. And Kabbalah refers to the six as זכר, and מלכות as נקבה, משפיע, מקבל. I'm not going to go into this, but it's all, and that's why. And it says that when there is the connection down here, this brings about the connection of ז״א מלכות למעלה. Just like in the beginning of davenen, like for ברוך שאמר, it says we say, some people say before every mitzvah, Lubavitch only say it here: לשם יחוד קודשא בריך הוא ושכינתיה. The יחוד, that that we're saying for ברוך שאמר, for the sake, לשם יחוד means for the sake of the יחוד, of the union between קודשא בריך הוא and his שכינה. Who's קודשא בריך הוא and his שכינה? Isn't it the same thing? קודשא בריך הוא, that's Hakadosh Baruch Hu. His שכינה, who's the שכינה? It's Hashem. Ask somebody who never touched a sefer of Chassidus, he won't understand. And takeh those people don't say it. What do you mean, what's קודשא בריך הוא, what's שכינתיה? There's only one Hashem, we know השם אחד. But if you learn Chassidus and Kabbalah, we learned that there is a מדרגה called קודשא בריך הוא, there's a מדרגה called Shechinah. So what's that Shechinah? It's ספירת המלכות. קודשא בריך הוא, that is the other six sefirot. And by saying this, we're מייחד, we bring a union between קודשא בריך הוא ושכינתיה. By every mitzvah we do it. So many people say it before every mitzvah. We only say it here not because we are against connecting it to a mitzvah, but that's because we say it once a day, and that's for the whole day. And the difference is because if you say before every mitzvah, that means that when you do a mitzvah you're doing a mitzvah. We feel that the whole day is a mitzvah. Everything that we do, there's no such thing as a mitzvah, well we're going to take some water now, that's also an avodat Hashem! בכל דרכיך דעהו. I heard a story, there was once a chasid of the Tzemach Tzedek who was also very close to the Kotzker Rebbe, and then later he was very close to the Chidushei Harim. His name was Simcha Bunim? Anyway, and he used to travel, come from one to another, and they used to get regards from one another. So once they say he came into the Chidushei Harim, the Chidushei Harim was walking back and forth, he says to him, \"You learn Chabad Chassidus, don't you?\" He said, \"Yeah.\" He says, \"Can you tell me, what is the reason why in Chabad you only say l'shem yichud before Baruch She'amar? Why don't you say it the whole day, by all the mitzvot?\" So he told him, \"Because בכל דרכיך דעהו, everything that we do all day we have to know Hashem. כל מעשיך לשם שמים, whatever you do has to be לשם שמים. So everything is avodat Hashem. So whatever you have יחוד קודשא בריך הוא ושכינתיה, every moment of the day you're able to have it. So what we do is we say it once a day, and that goes for the whole day.\" He stopped, he smiled, he looked at him and he said, \"Ah, how right they are.\" He didn't change his nusach, though. Maybe he personally did, because they say the Gerer Rebbes all davened of our, davened, and they still daven out of our siddurim, maybe they do, so I don't know. But לפועל, he understood, because this is... So, the whole idea is the לשם יחוד קודשא בריך הוא ושכינתיה. And it says that when you do a מצוה בגשמיות that is more symbolic, fits more, more coincides with the spiritual explanation, has a closer connection. That's why, for instance, it says that those mitzvot that are connected to light have more of the light of the mitzvah. It says every mitzvah is like a fire, כי נר מצוה ותורה אור. A mitzvah is like a candle. Those mitzvot that are connected to candles have more of the mitzvah, because there, the spiritual aspect of the light actually turns into a physical light, while by other mitzvot, we don't see the light that's there. We put on tefillin, there is light there, but we don't see light. By lighting Shabbos candles, we see physical light which represents נר מצוה ותורה אור, or Chanukah candles. Like it says, that's why these mitzvot are more important. The same with everything else. Same thing here: when we do this mitzvah, the union, that is actually the יחוד קודשא בריך הוא ושכינתיה that happens למעלה. So, you can imagine what kind of holy thing takes place at that time. That's הרי את מקודשת, which we know that the reason for the kiddushin is סוף כל סוף for this. That's the real kedushah. In order to prepare ourselves, if we look at it this way, the kedushah is mamash like the kedushah the holiness, like the kedushah like Yom Kippur. You can't just jump into Yom Kippur, you have to have Rosh Hashanah, you have to have עשרת ימי תשובה, you have to have הכנות to this ruchniyusdike thing. That's what this ענין is. That's why the Eibershter made it so that there should be, once a month, this going through the seven days of נקיים. And when it's during those that period there is an, you know, there is a separation between the husband and the wife, which gives them בכלל time to be able to think and prepare themselves. Because after all, we're normal natural human beings and when we get too involved, we could forget and the ruchniyusdike aspect that is involved here. So the Eibershter said like this: for these days, stay away, each one themselves, you know, meditate and think and prepare themselves. And you go through the seven clean days which represents the seven, like עשרת ימי, like the שבע, seven days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Then you go through the mikveh which is ויטבול במי הדעת הטהור, going through the waters and represents the bitul that you have. Then, you're able to reach the climax, which is the Yom Kippur and reach up to the ענין of the לשם יחוד קודשא בריך הוא ושכינתיה. So this is what Chassidus says and the Rebbe in the Reshimos explains it, not exactly in the words that I'm using, but explains this ענין of what is the ruchniyusdike explanation behind the mitzvah of טהרת המשפחה. A man is, as well, I mean there's there's a connection with a man with the עץ הדעת, also, isn't there? Yeah, sure, sure, but that didn't become a nature. What's the difference? By a man, we don't find that naturally it happens, so obviously it's not the natural expression of the חטא עץ הדעת. By a woman, it says that because of the חטא עץ הדעת, it became a nature that every month, she produces a blood and it has to come out. So that is a direct, you know, result of חטא עץ הדעת. So that represents עץ הדעת. The other thing, any tumah represents, any aveirah represents עץ הדעת, but here we see a direct representation because this is what the Torah, the Gemara says that if not for the עץ הדעת it wouldn't be. It says in the in Midrash: to Mashiach will come, there will be no more טומאת נדה. It's an interesting thing. It says certain things will change, so it says there will be no טומאת נדה anymore. Ai we know the Torah doesn't change, we have... So it doesn't mean that there won't the הלכות of נדה won't exist. The physical part won't be, the woman won't menstruate, so there won't be a טומאת נדה. But why will it be like that? Because the whole reason it's there is because of the חטא עץ הדעת. When we will be cleansed from the חטא עץ הדעת, because when Mashiach will come there will be the revelation of godliness and whatever was there before the חטא עץ הדעת will come back and even in a higher level, there will be no need for this טומאת נדה, so there won't be. But now that we have it, so every month we have to get rid of it and then we prepare ourselves to cleanse ourselves, and we come to the level of Yom Kippur and then we have this מדרגה of kedushah that comes at the union that takes place at that time. This is a Yom Kippur that you have every month under normal circumstances. Ein hachi nami, this is even stronger. It's Yom Kippur, that's a Yom Kippur that you have every month. The reason that happens every month, so it says, because the חטא עץ הדעת is connected to the מיעוט הירח. It says in the Gemara that this the moon became small. Chumash it says, first the Eibershter, Hashem created שני המאורות הגדולים, the two big lighters or lanterns. Then later, it refers to המאור הגדול, the big one and the small one. So the Gemara says, what happened? So the Gemara tells what happened. First Hashem created the sun and the moon equal. Came the moon and the moon complained: אי אפשר לשני מלכים שישתמשו בכתר אחד, can you have two kings wear one crown? How can we both be equal? So Hashem said to the לבנה, you know what, you're right. ולכי ומעטי את עצמך, go and make yourself smaller. Says the moon complained, וכי וכי בשביל שאמרתי דבר הגון? I said, I gave a good idea, so I should be the one to do it? So Hashem started appeasing it. He says, well, because of that, since you'll be the katan, the Yidden will be called katan, and Dovid HaMelech will be called Dovid HaKatan, and Yaakov HaKatan. Wasn't appeased. So finally the Eibershter said, you know what? Every Rosh Chodesh I'm going to bring a korban. One of the korbanot we find at Rosh Chodesh is a korban chatat. A korban chatat you bring for an aveirah. What aveirah was done here that we need a korban chatat? So he says, who brings the chatat? Hashem. It's a chatat for him for what he did to the moon. So it says that the fact that there was מיעוט הירח, that the moon became smaller, that was the reason, the the cause that later on there was חטא עץ הדעת. It says there's a whole cycle this this. In Kabbalah it says מיעוט הירח came from שבירת הכלים of tohu and came from tzimtzum, whatever, I'm not going into that. So it's connected to the moon. So since the חטא עץ הדעת is connected to the moon, so therefore it works by the moon cycle, not by the cycle of the sun every year. So that's why it's once a month. Plus, we know that the man and the woman, the man is compared to the sun, and the woman is compared to the moon, because the man is the mashpia, the giver, the woman is the mekabel. The sun gives the light. The moon doesn't have its own light, it's only mekabel, the sun is mashpia, that's mekabel. So the women are connected to the moon. So therefore, since Chavah was the one that started the חטא עץ הדעת, so that's why it was put into her, and it's connected again to the cycle of the moon because the women represent the moon. So that's why it's not once a year, it's every month. But the idea is that this is the way we're supposed to look at this whole thing. It's tumah, but a tumah that brings us to cleansing in a way that we are able to have the kedushah. So this is the the the hashkafah, the not hashkafah, the explanation behind ענין טהרת המשפחה.

Then there are more things that, you know, we tell people, especially, you know, when you're mekarev people, to to tell them that there are a lot of side benefits, like I said before, that the Gemara says that this brings back the ahavah, the love, like it was in the beginning. Plus, one of the things that we find in the הלכות נדה is the inyan of the harchakot, that during that period there are certain things that that they have to stay away. They can't touch each other, they can't hand things to each other, and then they can't even, you know, put down a plate, you got to make a change, a shinui. You have to have a heker, you have to have something on the table when you're sitting, all kinds of different halachot. Now on one hand, this makes it very hard. The simple reason for the halacha is because since it is forbidden for the husband and the wife to be together, usually we know there's a איסור יחוד. Whenever there is a woman that is forbidden to a man, you're not allowed to be privately in a room. That's where איסור יחוד comes from. You can't, not even with a a single woman, you're not allowed to be, that's halacha of יחוד. You have to leave the door open, you have to leave the window, whatever, all the halachot of יחוד. So really they should have made a איסור יחוד by a husband and a wife also, since during that period they're not allowed to be together, and the Chachamim felt if you're in one room who knows what can happen, so they should have made a איסור יחוד. They didn't make a איסור יחוד. Why? Because they felt that the Yidden are so careful with this איסור נדה because it's so strict that nothing will happen. But nevertheless, they said, no, even though we're we're confident that nothing's going to happen, we rely on them, but they gave certain restrictions in order to keep them apart. So that's the simple halacha reason. But the בפועל what comes out from here, that certain ways of behavior which have no meaning at all turn into something special. Since for two weeks, I'm just giving a very practical thing here, since for two weeks he couldn't hand anything to her, after the two weeks, when he hands something to her, that has a special meaning, because it's something special. If this wouldn't happen, if we wouldn't have these הרחקות, then the only expression of feeling that one would have to the other is when it's actually an expression of feeling. But normal behavior wouldn't have any special expression. By doing this, small things, just putting down a cup in front of him, also shows some kind of feeling there, which is a side benefit that we get here, and many other side benefits we get, so that's another thing that we are able to look at. But the base of everything is that this is a halacha of the Torah, and it's a גזירת הכתוב. This is what the Eibershter wants us to do. I don't know if we should go to some halachot, but we'll see, maybe you'll have some questions. I want to say one thing, that I'm here as a guest. One thing is, any halacha question, or any other questions that are that come up in this aspect, or any she'eilah that comes up has to be asked by the rav, and it's עשה לך רב. This is also part of halacha that you have to go along according to the rav of your community. So I don't want to get involved here, I'm saying what, you know, in any halachot or anything, because it's up to the rav here, and that's where you should direct all your questions just So, but we have to know that in this area, a lot of people are not so familiar that questions have to be asked, and I'll tell you why. A lot of questions come up in kashrut, come up in kashrut. But kashrut is something that's done in the open that people say, \"Well, this and this case, yeah, I know, I saw it happen in this and this guy's house, and I heard this, and I saw that, and my mother, I remember, my father this.\" So so many things that we are, even if a person didn't learn so much, but there are certain things which are seen. This is something that's private. No one could say, \"Well, I saw it happen here, I saw-\" No one knows. That's why a lot of times when there are she'elot, or say, \"What's our minhag?\" Some people ask me, \"What's minhag Chabad?\" or \"What's our minhag?\" So certain things it says clearly, מנהגינו, so we know it. But there are certain things where it doesn't say. So the truth is, I don't I don't know what our minhag is. In kashrut, you could still know what our minhag is. How do we have a minhag? Or what it says, or we see what most of the people in this community, most of Ashkenazim do, most Sefardim do, right? So you could That's how a minhag becomes. In here, there's no such thing as to say most, but who knows what most people do privately, how they keep this halacha? No one knows, it's hard to say. So therefore here, it's even more important to ask a shaila because, first of all, people are not familiar, and there is nothing that's handed down just by seeing the way it happens. So here, it's very important to ask a shaila. Plus, a lot of times, these are things that people are embarrassed to ask. So that's why you need more chizuk. I know women sometimes are embarrassed to come, you know, come with a mar'eh, come with a cloth, you know. In some plurals, come with underwear. I mean, who's going to come come to a rabbi with But they have to know, just like when you come to a doctor, there is nothing to be embarrassed, and that's his job. And you have to know that the Rav is, if he's a Rav then he's going to be confidential, no one's going to know, and it's private, and he doesn't tell anybody. But this is something that we have to stress always, that we have to always ask shailos, and a lot of shailos come up, whether it is in the הלכות נדה itself or in the mikveh part. The mikveh part, a lot of times shailos. I mean, it was a chatzitzah, it wasn't a chatzitzah, that's where we'll get to your part. Is this called a chatzitzah? Is this not? Because when you go to the mikveh, you have to have you're not allowed to be any separation, interruption between the person, the body, and the water. So sometimes you come and I found nail polish, people come show, \"Was that is it a chatzitzah or not?\" and other things, or in the case if it's clear about with the teeth, because even though the water doesn't have to come in, but it has to be fit to come in, so all these shailos, so you have to ask. And this is one of the most important things that we teach people: to know that do not rely on yourself, do not hesitate from asking shailos. But before I'm going to let you say concerning the Steve wanted to ask something here. Yes, two quick questions.

Number one, how do you understand when people get divorced who are keeping family purity with this holiness connection to their divorce? Because after everything, there is still free choice. I mean, it's still it's possible. This is just the formula that's going to make it work. Now it could be that even though they have the halachos, and still they're the exception. As long as it's an exception, we know we're going in the right direction. Now, even that period, there's an exception. You have sometimes even tzadikim who followed the right path and turned away. Yochanan Kohen Gadol, and you have Elisha ben Avuya. It's possible that doing the right thing and it doesn't work, because there is still free choice. And Hashem said that you have a choice to divorce, so a person has a choice to do it. A person has a choice to get angry over stupid things, even though he knows that those are side things, not important, and it's not worthwhile to get involved, but it still could happen. I mean, it's not But we do see that the rate is completely different. Why is it that a woman doesn't go to the mikveh usually when she's nursing or when she's pregnant? Why doesn't the sin take effect on her then? Because the zechut, according to the רוחניות the explanation, the zechut of carrying a child, bringing a child to the world is so strong that it doesn't allow the effect of the עץ הדעת to take place. That's what it is. And also by a nursing woman, if she is raising a child in a way that just in this mamash physically raising it and nursing it, so then that zechut itself doesn't allow the tumah of the עץ הדעת to stay in the person. This is such a holy thing. We're talking about chatzitzah, and maybe after you finish, I just want to add a few points בנוגע the mikveh itself because you tell me if you're if if you're interested in the difference between the מעלה of a מקוה על גבי מקוה where Lubavitch has, because some people just hear about it and they want to know, so I thought maybe So you you say just take your time as long as you Concerning dental work and appliances in the mouth, generally, if an appliance or something is placed in the mouth, if it's intended to be removed, usually that would dentist would explain to the person this has to be removed, you have to clean it, take it out. Usually things of that nature are dentures, removable partial dentures, appliances that are designed to accomplish some kind of therapy, such as move teeth or stabilize teeth. These things are generally removable, and they should, the person who has them knows that they should be removed. Those involve no, nothing unusual other than to take them out of the mouth, and and then the the mouth is in a natural state. There are things in dentistry which are placed into the mouth which are intended to stay there. Typically a a filling is something that becomes part of the tooth and it it is meant to stay in the tooth. It cannot be removed unless by drilling or destroying the tooth. For instance, a crown is placed on a tooth and it's meant to stay there for as long as a person keeps the tooth. That that's something which is not removable. There there are things which are placed in the mouth for a period of time and meant to be replaced, such as a temporary filling. Here too, the intent is for the filling to stay in the tooth until such time as the dentist chooses to remove it, but it's not a filling that the patient can remove by himself. For instance, a patient might be having a crown made, and during that period of time, a temporary crown could be made for the tooth, and a person could have a crown on the a plastic crown on the tooth which eventually will be replaced, but during the time the patient is wearing it, that is meant to be on the tooth, and What's the difference between temporary and permanent filling? What makes it temporary? Okay, a temporary filling would be generally a material which is used for an interim period of time. A temporary filling would be typically a a type of dental cement or medication which is placed in the tooth to accomplish something. In other words, if the tooth is very sensitive and and the nerve is irritated, this type of filling would be placed in the tooth to medicate the tooth to achieve relief of pain. And then after a period of time, generally six weeks, that would be replaced, or part of it would be replaced with a more permanent filling which would either be a silver filling, or what we have are composite resins which look more like a tooth, or even a crown. But during the period of time when a person has temporary in their tooth, that would be very difficult to to remove, even though we call it a temporary, for the period of time that it's in the tooth, it should be there without removal, from the dentist's point of view. I think we'll hear maybe some comments on on the halachic point of view. Temporary, you mean, in terms of your intent, but the bond is no less strong than the permanent bond? Less strong, no? No, mechanically mechanically the bond is as strong. The material is not as strong. But to take it off, you just give it a flip with something and it comes off. There are those, yeah. Yeah, there are cements which are soft that can be just flipped down. And then there are harder cements. I should remember from my own teeth. Yeah. I had a temporary crown and it just came I could just It flips out, and then Well, the intent of a temporary crown is that it can be removed, and yes, it it can be removed sometimes just by using a slight amount of pressure on the crown. For a person to take that out though, he'd have to be prepared, a patient himself. For a person to take that out himself, he'd have to be prepared to put it back. So if that were contemplated, let's say, if you considered that something which needs to be removed prior to mikveh, then you'd have to be prepared to either put it back on yourself or visit your dentist to have it put back on, because that that that would create problems for the person's dentistry later on not to have it on. There are things such as braces where a bracket is a metal bracket or ceramic bracket is cemented to a tooth, which really is permanent until that is removed, and it's a it's a very strong bond. It's not something you can just take off and flip that. It has to be actually broken off or drill or or you drilled drilled off the tooth. However, that bracket the intent of that bracket is to hold a wire. That wire can be removed because it's just held in place by elastics which can be removed. Those are not not, from a dentist's point of view, a permanent type of fixture in the mouth. They are meant to be changed. Now you have today you have things like implants, which are placed into the bone. Bone heals and holds this metal post in the bone. becomes part of the body. It's not in a tooth, it's in the bone. And that, of course, would be a permanent fixture in in the mouth. However, there would things which are placed onto that implant in some circumstances can be removed, in others not, depending on the type of replacement that is that is selected for that particular case. In certain cases, I would say the rule of thumb for a patient would be if the dentist tells you, \"This should be removed to be cleaned,\" then you know it's removable. It should be removed before mikveh. If if the dentist tells you this is going in permanently, I'm cementing it in, you cannot take it out without damaging the tooth, then that would that would be a very difficult thing to remove prior to mikveh. I tried to give just a dental perspective on these, maybe you can I'm going to just refine the halachah, just say the halachic ramifications. The din is, specifically concerning the mouth, water doesn't have to come into the mouth. It doesn't say open your mouth and let the water come in. So, we would imagine that there is no problem with chatzitzah in the mouth, because chatzitzah means that there should be nothing in between the body and the water. If the water doesn't even come in anyway, so what is the difference? Nevertheless, the Gemara says it has to be ראוי לביאת מים. Every place has to be fit that if the water would have to would have had to come in, it would have been fit. So, the mouth has to be clean, and you know, that's why she has to brush her teeth, make sure there's nothing in between the teeth. That's why there's even a halachah that a woman, the day she goes to the mikvah, should not eat meat. Shabbos is an exception, but not to eat meat. Why? Because usually pieces are left between the teeth, and it's hard to get out. I would like to add on my own not to eat corn, because that's even worse. I know when you eat corn, days you could have piece stuck between your teeth. Even with floss. Anyway, in Shulchan Aruch it says, it says you're not allowed to. So, on Shabbos is different, and on Yom Tov, and other she'eilot. But but, so the idea is you have to have it clean. Now, if you have something in the tooth that's a foreign matter, that's chatzitzah. What makes it foreign? So, if you put it in in a permanent way, so then it's not foreign anymore, it becomes part of the body. So, then there is no she'eilah if you have a permanent filling or a permanent crown, I mean, then that's definitely part of the body, and that's it. The question is on these temporary things. Since it's temporary, so it's still called foreign. So, I'm just going to tell you the different opinions. Some say that if, not some, this is a clear din, that if it's going to stay in there for thirty days at least, that's called already that it's not foreign. That's called kviut. If the plan is that it'll stay in for thirty days. In that itself, there are two opinions. Some say it means thirty days from when it was put in. Now, this could be a could be she's going to the mikvah three days before she's going to have it removed, but it's going to be there already, it's already there for twenty-seven days, that's one thing. The other opinion is it has to be in for thirty days from the day she goes to the mikvah. There is even an opinion, which some rabbanim, I'm not paskening anything here, against, it's not my territory, some rabbanim would rely on it b'shaat hadchak, that even if it's in for seven days, it's already considered in there that it's part of the body, kavua. There's even an eitzah, some say like this: that the doctor will tell the woman that, \"I'm going to keep it in for thirty days,\" and then she goes to the mikvah because it's in there, and then a week later he calls her up and says, \"You know, I think you should take it out,\" and he's allowed to do it. It's not called cheating because at that it it depends on what is the status of it at that time. If at that time it was kavua, it's like a person has a tooth and then after the mikvah it breaks. I mean, at that time it was kavua. But if she knows that chachmah beforehand, it doesn't count. I mean, then she knows it's going to be taken out. But if she doesn't know, then that's some people will tell you to do that. But this is the whole idea that what is considered foreign and what is considered not foreign. And always case like a a anything that could be taken out definitely should be taken out, there is no question about it. Some people who would wanna not want to rely on all these heterim, by a temporary, let's say, crown or filling, they would go to the dentist the day of the mikvah, have him take it off, go to the mikvah, and come back the next day, if it's possible. I'm not saying the dentist will tell you if it's possible or not. But have things like that, because definitely better without it. But if you can't take it out, then there are these different approaches that rabbanim would have. Is it assur to be mochel? Is there such a thing as mechilah? On what? In other words... On going to the mikvah? Yeah. That she should be or not he? Both, if they both agree. It says by mechilah, her mechilah helps. It means like this: the whole inyan of her going to the mikvah for the sake of having relations is like a chov, it's like an obligation he has to her. A husband has three obligations: שארה, כסותה ועונתה. He has to feed her, has to give her clothes and he has to give her the onah. So it's an obligation. Just like if someone owes somebody money, the person could be mochel, says, \"I don't he could don't,\" same thing she could be mochel. So al pi halachah, if there is a case where it's a big she'eilah and it would mean a big kula in order, so then if she's mochel she's mochel. Now it's not I wouldn't say it's it's it's encouraged. We don't encourage these things. Aderabah, rabbanim in these cases don't look for chumrot, look for kulot because you want the family life to continue the normal natural way. But if you're asking in theory, there is such a thing as mechilah. She could be mochel. Even by an עונה דאורייתא, see there are two types of onah. Onah means a time. What's the time a person has to give to his wife? So there are different depends what your job is, but the night of the mikveh that's called an עונה דאורייתא. So concerning the other times, then certainly she could be mochel. But even by this עונה דאורייתא when there's but because it's an obligation on his side to her, she could be mochel for her obligation, his obligation to her. Still need a good reason in general, though. Whether you both need a good reason to Yeah, yeah. You don't just like that, you don't push it off. Bichlal you don't push push off going to the mikveh is a different problem, you don't push off. And even for this you need a good reason. You need a good reason. It just doesn't A safek is a safek whether checking within the five days? Even after the five days. In the five days? You mean after the five days. Yeah well, it could be anything, so you mean Even before, like when she sees, it's like for four days, could be in No, for five days. But those five days there's nothing to check because she can't start her counting anyway. Oh, on the fifth day? Okay. So, there is a safek there. So, to be could be machmir and say, \"Give it another day\"? Yeah, sure, sure, sure, sure. But it's not kedai to be machmir. You know you don't just be machmir on your own, go to a rav to ask. Sometimes the rav will tell you, \"This is a safek, it's very you know, sometimes you have a borderline case that he says, 'It's kedai to be machmir'.\" But it's not to say, \"Well, I'll be machmir on my\" that's not kedai. You shouldn't say, \"I don't want to trouble the rav, just...\" No, no. No, no. You do trouble the rav. And you should you know you shouldn't you shouldn't be machmir on yourself. Like this just reminds me of a joke, that there was this guy who lived in a little village and whenever he had a she'eilah on his food, on his meat, he would come to the rav to ask in the city. For a long time he didn't come. Then finally he came, so the rav asked him, \"What happened?\" So he says like this, says, \"Someone told me, why ask the rav? It says in Chumash that any meat that's treifah, throw it to the dog.\" So he said, \"hakarat hatov, so anytime you have a she'eilah, just throw it to the dog. You'll see, if he'll eat it, you know it's treifah, if he won't eat it, it's not treifah. So, that's why I stopped coming.\" So then he asked him, \"So why did you start again?\" \"The rav is a The dog is a big machmir.\" So somebody a person himself you can't just be a big machmir, it doesn't work that way. Sometimes you know the rav could tell you, \"Yeah, this is something\" Even sometimes the rav might tell you, \"You could have a heter here, but it's taking a little too far, even though if you want you could\" There you could say, \"Well, I could be machmir.\" But just stam on my own, \"I don't want to bother the rav, I'll be machmir,\" that's not that's... Well, what when the rav tells you to come back the next day? Why does he tell you? Like with a mar'eh, let's say. No, no, why does he tell you to come back the next day? Because of I mean passing of time? Doesn't matter. The colors change? No, that's just because the piece of The air so it goes darker? No, it says that the רב פסקנ'ס according to the way he sees it. Right. Not to say it looked different, that's They purposely postpone it so that the next day it was a little darker? Purpose? Sometimes you make it worse. Purpose, you don't know if you're gaining. Sometimes when the what stays longer it looks worse. Sometimes it looks better. No, it just he does he looks at it when he can and that's it.

Should we get just into for a few moments into mikveh, hilchot mikveh, is it? I don't know to what time we need to Yeah, someone is about to close the סימן ר\"א doesn't bite itself. Oh, okay. Yeah, but that's The ט\"ז and the ש\"ך is very dense. Yeah, I know. You have to learn that's No, I just want to say the general idea. The whole problem here is it's based on the idea of question of נתנה סאה ונטלה סאה. The din is Like this: In order to have a כשר מקוה, you have to have 40 סאה of mei geshamim. You have to have 40 סאה, I don't know, let's say, let's say about 100 gallons of rain water. That makes the mikveh. After you have that 40 סאה, you could add thousands and thousands and thousands of סאה, makes no difference, it's kasher. What happens if you have the 40 סאה and you add more, so there's no problem, I mean that's definitely no problem, but then you take out some. Let's say you had 40 כשר סאה, you added one סאה of of sink water, so now you have 41. Then you take out one סאה. You're still left with the shiur of 40 סאה, it's a כשר מקוה. But you definitely don't you definitely don't have 40 סאה rain water. Because when you took out one סאה, you definitely took out some of the rain water. Since you had originally exactly 40 סאה of rain water, so now you're missing. So the halachah is it's good. As long as it started with 40 סאה and you added, then you could take out. There is one opinion, that's the Raavad, that says it's no good. So according to the Raavad, we have a problem with many of our mikvaot. Because when you, how do we make a mikveh normally? You have, like you said, a בור where you gather this rain water, and then you have another place where you tovel, the actual mikveh where you tovel. That's sink water, that's not rain water. You don't tovel in the original rain water. And then you have a השקה, you have the hole between that connects the two, and when you connect the two, it becomes like one mikveh let's say. But what happens when you change this water every day? And the nature of water is that when you connect water, some comes here, some goes there, and they even out. If you have a lot of water here and a little bit here, but then it'll come out. So eventually, some of the rain water goes away and some of the sink water goes in. So after a while, you're not left with the original rain water. So you don't have the original 40 סאה rain water, so what do we do? So usually, they didn't bother with it, because על פי דין it's kasher, what's the problem? But since we're dealing with mikveh, which is we can get to איסור כרת, plus yidden became more, I wouldn't say more yirei shamayim, adraba, maybe because we're so low, so we try to make everything better, because we need some, you know, something to hold on. People higher madrega, they could remain the way, and we always have to look for more. So they started being חושש for this. So the צאנזער, the Divrei Chaim, came with an עצה. The עצה was to make two בורות. Have two בורות. You have one בור of rain water and another בור of rain water. So even though this water, the sink water, will change with the rain water, but you have another בור yet. But some people even question that. All you did, you just pushed it off for a little longer. I think somebody made a cheshbon that after 15 changes of the mikveh, you've lost your original water. I remember we had to ask, you know, people. So if you have two בורות, it's going to be 30, it would be 50, so the rain water isn't changed in 10 years, I don't know what happens. So that's where the Rabbi Rashab came with an עצה. He said that you should make the rain water on the bottom. And what happens then, the further the the the least mixture of water is top and bottom because of the pressure of the water, especially if the top is warm and the bottom is cold, then they don't mix. I remember when they built the mikveh in Long Beach, California, the architect there, he didn't know, he just was talking to them, so he said from his point of view that the furthest way for mixing that you that's possible for us to make, is by having hot water on top and cool water on bottom. And since the top mikveh is usually warm, so that mixes the least. Mixes the least, so you're usually they are left with the bottom, and that's what this תקנה was. Those that came and came on to say against, maybe because this... There's a דין that if there's a flow of water, it doesn't make a connection, so not השקה. They bring a Divrei Chaim, a תשובה Divrei Chaim, which is not talking about this case at all, if you look at it. He's talking about two floors. You have a mikveh, the rain water on the bottom, and you have a mikveh on the second floor, and there's a pipe in between. That's a different case. That's where he says that you shouldn't do it. But we're talking about just being in the floor, the hole, the same hole like you had on the side, especially the way it's done is when you fill up the bottom hole, they let it overflow and then on top of it, so really it becomes one mikveh. This is the מעלה of the מקוה על גבי מקוה. And Rabbi Rashab said it, this is the best way to, and this is the way to do it. But some people want, so they have both. They have a mikveh under and then they have under they have on the side so you have both. And then you have a third, then you have a זריעה. No, the location is not the problem. The problem is the תשובה Divrei Chaim, where they claim according to him this is not called a connection. The they connect that The mixture is the least? Yeah, that's right. That's true. No, no, no, no, from גשמיות, no, you're not Yeah, yeah. That's why the mikveh should be I guess the mikveh here is like that, so if you look into the mikveh you will see. Yeah, like this, if two holes on the sides for השקה. Why do you have two holes? If you have השקה on the side you only have one, because you don't need two. But since it's on the floor you might cover it with your foot. And there is an opinion, even though it's not הלכה, but there is an opinion that it there has to be השקה during the time you're טובל. So that's why always it's open on the side. So here you might close it, so you have two, two far apart so that you can't stand with both feet. That's one thing. Then in the middle you have a big flap that you could pick up and you could crawl there. So if you ever have to clean it, so you pick it up, and you empty the water, and you crawl under there to clean it, and then you close it and you seal it up again. Yes. You could you could do it, I mean you could do it. I know there is there is a mikveh in Yerushalayim that they actually always טובל in rainwater. In a big Yeah, they have it on the side of the building. They have a big thing probably four stories high, they keep and then it stores, and then whenever it rains they open it up, and then whenever I don't know, but It could, I mean, probably could be, I mean, you know, then you'd always have to wait for the rain, and it's it's not so פשוט. There's a pipe, like you say. First of all, the pipe also is standing this way and not this way is different, so you got a pipe through, so to say. It's not so simple. I wouldn't dare to say it. The only advantage they have is because of this תשובה that they claim of the Divrei Chaim and that's all. There's no other advantage. There's no We know once it's already you want because of being in the bottom, except if we're not חושש for this problem, there's no advantage in the side. The next thing the Rambam tells us, we spoke about this the other day, you have to be careful with the way you eat. לעולם לא יאכל אדם אלא כשהוא רעב, a person should never eat unless he's hungry, ולא ישתה אלא כשהוא צמא, and a person shouldn't drink unless he's thirsty. And even when you eat, לא ימלא כרסו, a person shouldn't fill his stomach completely, אלא יפחת כמו רביע משבעו, like 25% empty, so don't eat fully. And he shouldn't drink in the middle of eating. You drink before, you drink after. Even water, not to drink too much.