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Halachically, you transgress a biblical commandment if you knowingly have relations with a niddah, and the punishment is karet. See this answer, which cites Rambam Laws of Prohibitions on Relations 4:3. According to Rambam Issurei Biah 1:1 (h/t DoubleAA), punishments for forbidden relations apply to both except in a special case not applicable here.
By ...
18
I am impressed by the gravity of your inquiry and your care in the matter in that you are seeking real answers to a complicated question. May Hashem help the two of you and anyone else in need of this post.
First let's address some issues your question raised in this case, and then let's address the Halachic ramifications.
The OP states that your wife is ...
18
I have no time to read the article - and therefore do not endorse anything they write.
The Rabbis instituted that Holy Books like a Sefer Torah would defile the hands.
Why?
Because people would keep their Teruma (tithes to be given to the Cohen) with their Holy Books.
This was to prevent their Teruma from becoming Tameh (impure).
The rationale was the ...
14
Quoted from the book Healing in Halacha By Rabbi Micha Cohn (page. 245-247 Mosaica Press 2016)
Rav Moshe Feinstein (Iggros Moshe Yoreh Deah 1:230), wrote on the
opinions of a contemporary Rabbi Yitzchok Isaac Leibes, who wrote a
Kuntres called Rofe Kol Bassar where he asks this very question.
One of the issues that Rabbi Leibes and Rabbi ...
13
Excrement and urine of a live animal (and in fact anything except an entire limb from a live animal) are not ritually impure, and thus don't affect your hat. (Rambam Avot HaTumah 2:3)
As an aside, excrement and urine of a deceased animal (as opposed to its flesh) also are not ritually impure. (ibid. 1:15)
10
In an article titled "The Study of Medicine by Kohanim," Dr. Edward R. Burns concludes:
The overwhelming majority of authoritative rabbinic scholars prohibit
the study of medicine by a kohen in any school where the dissection of
human corpses is required. If a student is given permission to learn
anatomy by observation of dissection without ...
10
Chayim K'halacha question 223 - Rabbi Boruch Shlomo Blizinsky - says a Kohain may go on the paths that lead to Auschwitz however may not enter the area where the incinerators are.
9
While this isn't exactly what you're looking for, it's close: the Rama's Toras Ha'Olah, which does go through just about every mitzvah/halakha in Seder Kodshim and explains the reasoning for their details in a super-cool-scientific-mystical way. It's not an encyclopedia in that it isn't in alphabetical order, but it is ordered systematically, by topic.
...
9
Rabbi Yechezkel ben Yehuda Landau (known as the Noda Beyehuda) in his work Doresh Letziyon, Derush 5 (new print p.46-47) poses this question. He takes the view that Shmuel Hanavi was allowed to kill Agag because of the principle of 'Aseh docheh lo saaseh'. The mitzva to kill Amalek (particularly, as he was the last living Amalekite at the time,) superseded ...
8
ABSOLUTELY NOT.
Recall that a Cohen -- even a Cohen Gadol -- is obligated to contact a dead body if that's the only way it will receive a proper burial -- this is known as meis mitzva.
So in your hypothetical scenario, the Cohen is now in a position whereby he is the only one who can ensure this corpse remains intact for proper burial. Hence, halacha ...
8
This opinion is cited in the Taz YD 193 sk 4 and 196 sk 5. The idea is roughly that for hymenal bleeding, which only effects a Niddah Derabanan, there is no need to be stringent to add a 5th day. After any ordinary menstrual bleeding, this wouldn't apply. "Marriage" technically has nothing to do with it.
8
Shulchan Arukh (YD 201:1) writes:
אין האשה עולה מטומאתה ברחיצה במרחץ ואפילו עלו עליה כל מימות שבעולם
עדיין היא בטומאתה וחייבים עליה כרת עד שתטבול כל גופה בבת אחת במי מקוה
או מעיין שיש בהם מ' סאה.
A women does not remove her Niddah impurity through washing in a
bathhouse, even if all the waters in the world washed over her, she
remains in her ...
8
R Aryeh Kaplan in his beautiful book Waters of Eden (also part of his Anthology vol. 2) writes this is a chok and cites Bamidbar Rabbah 19:8
By your lives, a dead person doesn't make things impure, and the
water doesn't make things pure. Rather, God said: I have engraved a
rule, I have decreed a decree (chukah chakakti, gezeira gazarti), and
you ...
8
Once a hide is tanned, even a bit, it no longer conveys impurity (Chullin 9:2).
7
I actually had a discussion about this with someone this morning!
As noted here, this term is a very recent innovation. The conclusion of the person with whom I was speaking (a recognized Talmid Chochom who's name I'll leave out to preserve my own anonymity) was that it is a term that western sensitivities are more comfortable with. "Family Purity" sounds ...
7
This is discussed in Mishna Chagiga 3:8.
As seen below, most keilim could become tamei, at which point they would be subject to same purification process as a person -- sprinkling of ashes and mikvah.
כיצד מעבירים על טהרת עזרה, מטבילין את הכלים שהיו במקדש, ואומרין להם, הזהרו שלא תגעו בשלחן (ובמנורה) ותטמאוהו .
כל הכלים שהיו במקדש, יש להם שניים ושלישים, שאם ...
7
From the perspective of Jewish law, she can travel as long as her doctor is okay with it.
Leviticus was saying not to enter the Temple, because she's ritually impure. That status of ritual impurity wouldn't affect any other travel today.
7
First step what is the problem of the urine?
Gemoro Berachoth 22B
ת''ר היה עומד בתפלה ומים שותתין על ברכיו פוסק עד שיכלו המים וחוזר ומתפלל להיכן חוזר
But it is during the micturition: and in 25A
"לא אסרה תורה אלא כנגד עמוד בלבד"
"The urine prohibits the Kriath Shema and Tefila during micturition only" But Miderabanan the urine puddle also ...
7
Such an idea is found in a passage in Pesahim (112a) which states that a ru'ah ra'ah rests on food and drinks placed under a bed. Elsewhere, ru'ah ra'ah is explained by Rashi as meaning a malevolent spirit. However, Rambam, who did not believe in demons, always omits demon related rulings, or somehow presents them in a non-demonic way. In typical form, ...
7
The problem, as I understand it, is that your struggle is causing you to be distanced from normal, healthy mitzva behavior. Dr. Yocheved Debow writes about this phenomenon in her guide for educators.. While understandable -- and driven by a lot of negative emotions -- it's probably not the best track to take.
The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch actually writes (151:7)...
7
YD 373:9
אין הכהן מיטמא לאבר מן החי מאביו, ולא לעצם מעצמות אביו. וכן המלקט
עצמות אינו מיטמא להם אע"פ שהשדרה קיימת.
חסר ממנו כל שהוא -- אפי' הוא מונח אצלו -- אינו מיטמא לו; שאינו מיטמא
אלא לשלם.
ויש מי שאומר דהני מילי כשחסר לאחר מיתה אבל אם חסר ממנו אבר בחייו ומת
-- מיטמא לו אע"פ שאינו שלם. (וי"א שאינו מיטמא להרוג דמקרי חסר) (ונכון להחמיר).
...
7
According to Sefer HaChinuch (Positive Commandment 169) there is an obligation incumbent upon someone afflicted with suspected tzara'at to show it to a kohen:
שמצוה היא עלינו שכל מי שיהיה מצרע שיבוא אל הכהן לשאל על צרעתו והכהן יטמאנו או יטהרנו, והוא יתנהג על פי התורה הכתובה, כאשר יצונו הכהן
[T]hat it is a commandment upon us that anyone who is a ...
6
Here is a picture of the Zohar with the perush masok midvash on bottom. It is zohar charash yisro on daf lamed tes amud aleph in the original Zohar print.
6
The Shulchan Aruch 7:1 writes that, throughout the whole day, if one uses the bathroom (gedolim or ketanim) one recites asher yatzar every time, but al netilas yadaim is said only one time in the morning (upon waking up). There are more intricate halachos concerning if one has the runs what should one do about asher yatzer: see Mishna Brurah 7:1.
There is ...
6
Maseches Parah 3:11 points out that the ashes of each of the parah adumah were divided into thirds. One went to the temple (the Cheil, next to the ezras nashim), another to storage in har hazeisim (Mishchah, for use by the kohanim when they became tamei).
The third was divided among the 24 mishmarot for the kohanim, who lived with the levi'im in the 48 ...
6
This is a machloket in Chulin 31a.
נדה שנאנסה וטבלה אמר רב יהודה אמר רב טהורה לביתה ואסורה לאכול בתרומה ור' יוחנן אמר אף לביתה לא טהרה
A nidah who did not intend to tovel (will be explained later): Rav Yehudah said in the name of Rav that she is pure for "her house" (i.e. to be with her husband), but still isn't able to eat trumah. Rabi Yochanan ...
6
According to Nazir 4b, Samson, having a special form of nezirut (Nazirite status), was allowed to become tamei (ritually impure or "unclean") even though the typical nazirite vow would preclude such a leniency:
נזיר שמשון מותר ליטמא למתים שכן מצינו בשמשון שנטמא
A nazir shimshon is allowed to become impure via [contact with] the dead, for we find ...
6
Water in a Mikvah does not become Tamei. (Actually, Tamei water is the only food/drink which can become Tahor again, and this is by connecting it to a Mikvah (Mishna, Beitza 2:3).)
See the first chapter of Mishna Mikvaot (with commentaries) for more about exactly when a collection of water gains this property.
6
The Tosfos Yom Tov actually answers your question!
(Source from Sefaria.org)
ואינו לוקח ממנו לח. כתב הר"ב אבל יבש וכו' ונאמן עם הארץ לומר הפירות הללו לא הוכשרו וכו'. הכי תני בירושלמי. וטעמא דהא דאין עם הארץ נאמן לומר שלא נטמאו לפי שאינן בקיאין בדקדוק טהרות וטומאות ולפיכך אע"פ שהוא ישראל וישנו בתורה ובמצות אינו נאמן לטהרות כמ"ש הרמב"ם ...
6
Regarding attending prayer services, the issue is not the ritual impurity. The issue is that Ezra promulgated a decree that a ba'al keri (one who had an emission) cannot recite Torah, prayers, etc. However, the Talmud already mentions that the custom was to disregard this decree. This is codified by the great codes of law:
Rambam Hilchot Keriat Shema 4:8
...
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