Mikveh and the Mystery of the 7 “Clean Days”
Mikveh and the Mystery of the 7 “Clean Days”
It is stated in Shemot (Va'eira):
“Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, canals, and lakes, and over every body of water—and they shall become blood.”
According to Jewish law, when a woman’s menstrual period ends, she must count 7 “clean” days and then immerse in a mikveh.
Each of the Egyptian plagues lasted a month: three-quarters of the month was a warning of the plague, and the remaining quarter was the plague itself.
The plague of blood was measure for measure for the Egyptians, because they prevented Jewish women from immersing in the Nile after their menstrual periods. This caused great suffering to the Jewish people and prevented husbands from reuniting with their wives.
The 7 clean days are precisely a quarter of the month.
The plague was brought upon the Egyptians through Aaron—for he was the one who made shalom between husbands and wives.
Menstruation appeared as a punishment for the sin to which Nachash led. The Serpent was intimate with Chavah, seduced her, and the Zohar HaKadosh explains the word “seduced” as “married.”
Adam and Chavah were created on the sixth day, last of all, and had it not been for the sin caused by Nachash, they could have enjoyed the creations of all six days.
This lofty spiritual level and spiritual pleasure aroused Nachash’s envy, and he introduced his impurity—the source of all suffering—into all generations: envy, hatred, rivalry, and so on.
But the souls of the Jewish people, hewn from beneath the Throne of the Creator’s Glory, souls bound to the Torah even before the creation of the world, had to descend through Adam and Chavah.
Because of the sin, they were forced to pass through impurity.
But the impurity of sin, which spread throughout the entire world, affected only water.
Souls that have no connection whatsoever to the filth of sin must unite with the state that preceded Creation and sin—that is, with water.
In order to reach this state, one must wait 7 “clean” days. This relates to the concept of “Ohr Hozer”—(Returning Light)—because each of these 7 days corresponds to the preceding day in reverse order:
The 1st day of counting corresponds to the sixth day of Creation,
the 2nd day to the fifth day of Creation,
the 3rd day to the fourth day of Creation,
the 4th day to the third day of Creation,
the 5th day to the second day of Creation,
the 6th day to the first day of Creation,
the 7th day—the immersion—to the aspect of Shabbat.
During Creation, Hashem separated the “upper” and “lower” waters:
“And G-d separated between the waters below the firmament and the waters above the firmament”—this was the second day of Creation.
The place of immersion must contain both “upper” waters and “lower” waters.
For this reason, a bathtub is not suitable for immersion: it contains only “lower waters”, whereas a mikveh contains both “upper” and “lower” waters.
(Rabbi Menachem Menashe, “Ahavat Chaim,” Shemot, Va'eira)
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Tags: Number, Mikveh, The Secret of the Seven “Clean Days,” or Measure for Measure, The Secret of the Mikveh, 7 Clean Days
