Mishnah Niddah

Because most rabbis did not view ritual impurity as metaphysically real, they were willing to rule leniently when the laws of ritual impurity proved onerous or conflicted with other values or commandments, such as the obligation to procreate. They were aided in this by the adoption of lenient legal presumptions, legal fictions, and other strategies characteristic of a nominalist—rather than essentialist—orientation to law. In m. Niddah 2:4, the rabbis establish a lenient legal presumption that declares women to be ritually pure in certain circumstances so that marital intimacy may occur. In m. Niddah 8:2–3, R. Akiva employs an implausible legal fiction to declare a particular woman to be in a state of ritual purity.

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Because most rabbis did not view ritual impurity as metaphysically real, they were willing to rule leniently when the laws of ritual impurity proved onerous or conflicted with other values or commandments, such as the obligation to procreate. They were aided in this by the adoption of lenient legal presumptions, legal fictions, and other strategies characteristic of a nominalist—rather than essentialist—orientation to law. In m. Niddah 2:4, the rabbis establish a lenient legal presumption that declares women to be ritually pure in certain circumstances so that marital intimacy may occur. In m. Niddah 8:2–3, R. Akiva employs an implausible legal fiction to declare a particular woman to be in a state of ritual purity.

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