Niddah

Abstract: Notes on Contributors Acknowledgments List of Figures Introduction: 'Talking your body's language': The Menstrual Materialisation of Sexed Ontology A.Shail & G.Howie PART 1: SCIENCE AND MEDICINE Menses in the Corpus Hippocraticum L.Arata Menstruation in Aristotle's Concept of the Person G.Hiltmann The Art and Science of Menstrual Balancing in Early Medieval China S.Wilms Flowers, Poisons and Men: Menstruation in Medieval Western Europe M.H.Green The Secrets of Women (c. 1300): A Medieval Perspective on Menstruation B.Bildhauer Menstrual Knowledge and Medical Practice in Early Modern France, c. 1555-1761 C.McClive Menstruation and Sexual Difference in Early Modern Medicine M.Stolberg 'I believe it to be a case depending on menstruation': Madness and Menstrual Taboo in British Medical Practice, c. 1840-1930 J-M.Strange Embryological and Agricultural Constructions of the Menstrual Cycle, 1890-1910 H.Blackman Of Sex, Nationalities and Populations: The Construction of Menstruation as a Patho-Physiology Z.Meghani PART 2: MYTH AND CULTURE Menstrual Misogyny and Taboo: The Medusa, Vampire and the Female Stigmatic M.Mulvey-Roberts The Swan Maiden's Flight Over Time: Rituals, Fairytales and Matriarchy J.K.Thomas Menstruating Women/Menstruating Goddesses: Sites of Sacred Power in South India D.E.Jenett Medieval Responsa Literature On Niddah : Perpetuations of Notions of Tumah H.Ner-David 'Let Him Pass for a Man': The Myth of Jewish Male Menstruation in The Merchant of Venice A.M.Balizet A Menstrual Lesson for Girls: Maria Edgeworth's "The Purple Jar" H.Robbins 'A rag and a bone and a hank of hair': The Menstrual Background of "the Vampire" A.Shail Masking Menstruation: The Emergence of Menstrual Hygiene Products in the United States S.L.Vostral Blood, Laughter and the Medusa: The Gothic Heroine as Menstrual Monster R.Munford PART 3: APPENDIX A Guide to Bibliographical and Archival Resources for the Study of the History of Menstruation A.Shail Index

Abstract: In Judaism, the ancient laws of impurity in regard to menstruation are known as the laws of niddah , and their realized form as the ritual of impurity, niddah . These laws continue to retain their symbolic power, with a shift in meaning from a state of impurity related to sacrificial rites to a state of impurity related to sexual prohibitions in the private family sphere. This means that, during a period of 14 days, the Jewish woman must avoid any sexual contact with her husband. Based on textual and contextual analysis of manuals which teach and explain to women the practice of niddah , we claim that, with the establishment of the modern state of Israel the meaning of niddah has been expanded to the public national domain. Religious Zionism in Israel has enlisted the experiences of menstrual defilement and purification to the Jewish struggle over national boundaries and collective identity. Women are told that by practicing niddah , they take on responsibility not only for purity of the family, but also for the people of Israel, the Land of Israel, and the preservation of the holy scriptures, the Torah. This rhetorical linkage politicizes both the body of women and the practice of niddah . In fact, the practice has become a discourse of national revival.

Abstract: Concerning the Jewish laws of purity and impurity, including hilkhot niddah, the laws pertaining to the menstruating Jewish woman, the twelfth-century rabbi, philosopher, and physician Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides, also Ram-bam) wrote the following in his legal magnum opus, the Mishneh Torah: “It is clear and manifest that the laws of purity and impurity are Scriptural decrees, and they are not among the matters which human understanding can judge; for lo they are included among the ḥukkim [inscrutable God-given laws].”1 Closer to our own day, the Orthodox Jewish writer Kaiman Kahana introduced the manual Taharat BatYisroel (The Purity of Israel’s Daughter)—a summary of hilkhot niddah aimed at the Jewish married couple—with a similar remark: Man cannot fully understand the reasons for these restrictions, just as he cannot fathom completely the reason for any of the divine commandments. Indeed, the motivation for the observance of mitzvoth [commandments] is never the knowledge of their full meaning, even if this were attainable. The basis for mitzvoth is, rather, the realization that they are the manifest will of the creator. Man’s only goal on earth is to fulfill, for as long as he breathes, the will of the creator of the whole universe.2

Abstract: Cohen develops a critical approach to menstruation and religion by showing how in both Judaism and Hinduism menstruation is part of larger purity systems concerned with defining the boundaries of identity and community. In so doing, Cohen moves beyond the question of how religious women meaningfully navigate compliance with menstrual practices and restrictions to draw attention to the ways religiously motivated menstrual practices create gendered roles and expectations and channel women’s sexuality for specific reproductive purposes. Through a comparative discussion of how the laws of Niddah in Judaism have evolved and a discussion of the different ways menstruation is linked to communicative states of being in Hinduism, Cohen explores how studying the intersection of menstruation and religion can contribute to better understanding how religious communities and cultures define and (re)produce themselves.