Use Of Chametz In Pads Prompts Rabbis: No Menstruating On Passover

“If a woman is committed as she should be to upholding the Torah and the sanctity of her people, she should be capable of willing her body to comply with Halacha.”

Bnei Brak, April 8 – Jewish women must avoid having their monthly periods during the Feast of Unleavened Bread this year, ruled a group of authorities in Jewish Law today, following the discovery that several major manufacturers of feminine sanitary products include as a key component a substance derived from grain, benefit from which the Torah proscribes during the week-long festival.

Several prominent Rabbis in this mostly-orthodox city concurred Sunday that women must refrain from menstruating from mid-morning on Friday, April 19, when this year’s prohibition takes effect, until nightfall of Saturday the following week, lest the women resort to the use of absorbent pads, tampons, or related products that contain chametz, or grain products that have become “leavened” through contact with moisture.

“God-fearing daughters of Israel will forswear the use of such products during Passover,” stated a poster plastered all over the city and in several Jerusalem neighborhoods. “Because in their normal routine women are apt to reach automatically for such forbidden products, we hereby rule that women must refrain entirely from uterine bleeding while the prohibition against chametz is in effect.”

“We are aware that a minority of women employ alternatives to these absorbent products, but since the vast majority have become accustomed to seeing the products as the only real option, we cannot endorse those alternatives, out of concern that they remain unfamiliar and repulsive to that majority, a fact that will in turn cause women to resort to their standard methods, which, as stated above, is forbidden. Therefore we have ruled unequivocally that to avoid such sin, women must not menstruate until Passover has finished.”

In a subsequent telephone interview, Rabbi Lippmann Holder, one of the signatories, insisted that if a woman is committed as she should be to upholding the Torah and the sanctity of her people, she should be capable of willing her body to comply with Halacha. “Since as everyone knows birth control pills are forbidden, manipulating the cycle has to take the form of a commitment to fulfilling the will of God,” he explained. “A true daughter of Israel cannot fail to force herself not to bleed under these circumstances, considering what is at stake. Those who fear they lack the fortitude to handle this challenge must pray that the Almighty grant them such capacity. This is how our righteous women have handled adversity from time immemorial.”

One enterprising yeshiva student intends to gain Rabbinic endorsement for one of the alternatives, and then market the product as a “Yiddishe cup.”

Please support our work through Patreon.