Zavah

 ( Book Of Leviticus ) 

In Jewish ritual law, a zavah (Hebrew זבה, lit. "one whose flows") is a woman who has had vaginal blood discharges not during the usually anticipated menstrual cycle, and thus entered a state of ritual impurity. The equivalent impurity that can be contracted by males, by experiencing an abnormal discharge from their genitals, is known as the impurity of a zav.

In the realm of tumah and taharah, the zavah, just like a woman who is a niddah (menstruant) or yoledet (postpartum), is in a state of major impurity, and creates midras uncleanness by sitting and other activities (, , ). Another aspect of her major impurity is that a man who engages in sexual intercourse with her becomes ritually unclean for seven days. Additionally, the zavah and her partner are liable to kareth "extirpation" for willfully engaging in forbidden sexual intercourse, as is the case for a niddah and yoledet.

According to textual scholars, the regulations concerning childbirth in Tazria, which have a similar seven-day waiting period before washing, and the sin and whole offerings, were originally suffixed to those concerning menstruation, but were later moved. Jewish Encyclopedia, Leviticus

Although the Torah explicitly enjoins women to count seven days of cleanness when they have seen irregular blood sightings (the irregularity occurring only from the eighth day of the start of her regular period and ending with the conclusion of the eighteenth day), the Chazal have required all women who have experienced even their regular and natural purgation to count seven days of cleanness before they can be purified.Babylonian Talmud ( Berakhot 31^a, Rashi s.v. )

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A female must be at least ten days old to be eligible for zavah gedolah status.Sifra to Leviticus 15:19 this is possible only in a case where the newborn experienced a uterine discharge of blood on the day of her birth, and again on the 8th 9th and 10th day consecutivelyRashi on niddah, 32b.

The ToseftaMegillah, ch 1: 14. stipulates that unlike a zav, who is required to immerse in a spring (as opposed to the standard mikveh bath) to obtain taharah, a zavah may complete her purification process by immersing in a either a mikveh or a spring. This is the halakhic position accepted by virtually all Orthodox authorities.Hilchot haRif, Shevu'ot 5a.

The zavah is commonly known as one of four types of tumah that are required to bring a korban post the purification process.Rashi on Makkoth 8b The korban consists of both a sin offering and a Korban Olah, each involving a dove.

Targum Yonathan describes the zavah state as a divine consequence to a woman who neglects the requirement to take adequate precautions involving the laws and nuances of niddah.Targum Jonathan on Ecclesiastes 10:18

In Orthodox Judaism nowadays, zavah (an abnormal discharge) and niddah (healthy menstruation) are no longer distinguished. A menstruating woman (niddah) is required to wait the seven additional clean days that she would if she were a zavah.

Conversely, Reform Judaism regards such regulations as anachronism; adherents of Conservative Judaism take a view somewhere between these views, with opinions in favor of returning to the Biblical distinction between niddah (ending seven days from the beginning of a normal menstrual period) and zavah (ending seven days after the end of an abnormal discharge).

• Zav