Page "Ritual washing in Judaism" Paragraph 68

Women experiencing uterine blood not part of normal menstruation was classified as a zavah in the days of the Temple in Jerusalem and remained in a state of ritual impurity for 7 days prior to immersion.

Today, the law of zavah remains in effect in Orthodox Judaism, in two respects.

Due to extreme conditions in Roman Palestine in the time of the Amoraim, women's periods became irregular, and women became unable to determine whether or not their discharges were regular ( niddah ) or irregular ( zavah ).

As a result, women adapted a stringency combining the niddah and zavah periods, refraining from intercourse and physical contact with their husbands for seven days of the zavah period following menstruation, for a total of approximately 12 days per month, which Orthodox women continue to observe today.

The laws of zavah are also applied, as in Biblical times, to uterine blood discharges outside regular menstruation.

Such circumstances are often interpreted leniently, however, and rabbinic stratagems have been devised to lessen their severity.

Women experiencing irregularities ( droplets ) are sometimes advised to wear coloured underwear to mitigate the detectability of evidence of zavah status and hence a need to determine that a woman is a zavah.