Niddah

Niddah 67a: Using the toilet before tevilah

Niddah 67a: Rabbi Yochanan said: If a woman opens her eyes too wide, or shuts them too tightly, her tevilah is not effective.

Rema Yoreh Deah 198:43: Some say that a woman must go to the bathroom before immersion in the mikvah, if she needs to, because if she holds herself back, her insides would not be accessible to the water.

נדה סז ע”א: א״ר יוחנן: פתחה עיניה ביותר, או עצמה עיניה ביותר ־ לא עלתה לה טבילה.

שולחן ערוך יו”ד קצ”ח מ”ג רמ”א: יש אומרים שהאשה צריכה להטיל מים קודם טבילה אם היא צריכה לכך גם צריכה לבדוק עצמה בגדולים ובקטנים שלא תהא צריכה לעצור עצמה ולא יהיו ראויים לביאת מים.

On one of the Satmar Rebbe’s trips to Eretz Yisroel, he passed through Switzerland, and Rav Mordechai Yaakov Breisch zt”l, rav of Zurich and author of Chelkas Yaakov, accompanied him on the train. In the course of the conversation, the Rebbe asked him, “What have you accomplished in your city?”

“I had toilets installed in each room of the women’s mikvah,” replied Rav Breisch.

“And why was that so important?” asked the Rebbe.

“Because if a woman feels the need to use the bathroom, but holds herself back during her tevilah in the mikvah, according to the Rema (Yoreh Deah 198:43) it is a chatzitzah. But if there is a toilet in every room, she can go whenever she wants, so she will be less likely to hold herself back.”

The Rebbe thought deeply for ten minutes, He was clearly very impressed, and his face was aflame. “Ah!” he exclaimed. “Every little piece of gashmius that you put into a mikvah is completely ruchnius!”

Source: Rabbi Yissachar Ber Teitelbaum, supervisor of the mikvah in the Zupnik Building in Williamsburg, who heard it from Rav Breisch’s grandson

Succah

Succah 6b: Is nail polish a chatzitzah?

Succah 6b: By Torah law, a chatzitzah only invalidates if it covers most of the body and the person does not want it there. But the Sages forbid the case when it covers most of the body and he does not mind, as well as the case when it covers the minority of the body and he does mind.

סוכה ו ע”ב: דאמר רבי יצחק דבר תורה, רובו ומקפיד עליו ־ חוצץ, ושאינו מקפיד עליו ־ אינו חוצץ. וגזרו על רובו שאינו מקפיד משום רובו המקפיד, ועל מיעוטו המקפיד משום רובו המקפיד.

Rabbi Yisroel Reisman told the following story to illustrate how people don’t always tell the rav the whole story. An experienced rav knows he may need to ask questions to get the information needed to answer the shailah.

A young man who learned in the kollel of Torah Vodaas came to Rabbi Reisman and said, “My wife went to the mikveh last night, and then in the morning she realized that she had missed removing nail polish from one nail.”

Certainly women do not want to be seen with just one nail polished, so this would seem to be a real chatzitzah. Rabbi Reisman couldn’t believe that the woman did not catch such a glaring mistake during her preparations for the mikveh, so he pressed the husband, “How could that be?”

“Well,” he said, “she was in a cosmetics store and wanted to try out a new color, but didn’t want to mess up her fingers, so she took off her shoe and sock and tried it on one of her toenails, and then a week later, when preparing for the mikveh, she forgot about it.”

“Ah, so it was the toe, not the finger. Does your wife wear sandals or open-toed shoes?”

“No,” he said, “her toes are always covered in public.”

“In that case,” said Rabbi Reisman, “her tevilah was fine. The nail polish was not a chatzitzah because she didn’t mind having it there.”

Source: Shiur on Yoreh Deah 198:1