Q&A: Niddah
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Niddah
Question
Hello Rabbi!
I have two questions that I haven’t really managed to find an answer to:
1. Why doesn’t a positive commandment override a prohibition in all matters of niddah (the positive commandment of conjugal relations / “be fruitful and multiply”)? More generally—is this a rule that is actually applied, or is it like many rules that have more exceptions than cases?
2. How do rabbinic prohibitions and customs override the positive commandments of conjugal relations and “be fruitful and multiply”?
Answer
- Why should it override? Niddah carries karet, and a positive commandment does not override a prohibition that carries karet. Also, it does not override when both can be fulfilled. There are exceptions, and you can find surveys of them online.
- Each case must be considered on its own merits.
The question is whether the questioner means the niddah prohibition itself (= the first week), which is Torah-level, or the stringency of seven clean days that was adopted by Jewish women in the past so as not to make mistakes in calculating the days—in which case there really is some room for this claim.
See here: https://www.tehora.co.il/rav.html