I was asked if the Harchakos of Niddah apply to Yom Kippur.
I initially just said “No, but use your judgment.”
He then responded with ,”I thought so but then I saw Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 615:1) How do we understand that?”
This is very true, so I thought it would be a good idea to clarify publicly here how those laws/rules work… especially in our current days where the lack of Torah knowledge has been causing all laws/rules to be a gezerat hakasuv. Black and white. Muttar or Assur. The Torah doesn’t work that way. There is a spectrum from Gezerat Hakasuv to Halachah LeMoshe MiSinai to Derabanan to Minhag to עצה טובה.
This was my response:
You are correct that Shulchan Aruch, OC 615:1, says: “ואסור ליגע באשתו כאילו היא נדה.” But I think you have to look at where this halacha actually came from.
There is no such rule in the Gemara that a wife becomes like a niddah on Yom Kippur or that all the harchakot of niddah apply. The actual prohibition discussed in the Mishnah and Gemara, Yoma 73b and 77b, is תשמיש המטה, as one of the inuyim of Yom Kippur. The Rif and Rambam bring that prohibition without creating a separate system of harchakot. The Rambam, Hilchot Shevitat Asor 3:10, even discusses the different customs regarding lighting a candle on Yom Kippur night and explains that their purpose was specifically כדי שלא יבוא לידי תשמיש המטה.
The additional harchakah appears later. Sefer HaAgudah, Pesachim, Perek Makom Shenahagu 52, quotes Rabbeinu Simcha:
“מכאן ראיה שירחיק אדם מאשתו ביום הכפורים שלא ליגע בה ובבגדיה כאילו נדה, שהרי החמירו להדליק או שלא להדליק ובנידה לא החמירו.”
Notice what he actually says: “שירחיק אדם.” He doesn’t say that Chazal made a gezeirah that one’s wife has the status of a niddah on Yom Kippur. His proof itself is from precautions that were taken כדי להרחיק מן התשמיש. In other words, the point is to create an environment that protects a person from coming to the actual issur of tashmish.
The Beit Yosef, OC 615, then quotes this in stronger language: “ליל יום הכפורים אסור ליגע באשתו כאילו היא נדה,” and the Mechaber subsequently writes in Shulchan Aruch: “ואסור ליגע באשתו כאילו היא נדה.”
But that does not mean that a new gezeirat Chachamim was created at that point in history. The later Rishonim and Acharonim could certainly instruct people how they should conduct themselves and strongly encourage or require a protective practice, but they could not create a new universal gezeirat Chazal hundreds of years after the Gemara. I therefore understand the “אסור” here as the Mechaber giving very strong force to this harchakah, as an עצה טובה, rather than identifying a new independent issur.
I think the Taz, OC 615:1, makes this especially clear. He says that at night one should not touch his wife because tashmish is normally at night, but during the daytime touching is not prohibited, “בפרט שיש אימת היום עליו.” In other words, he is looking at the actual concern of where this could lead, rather than treating the wife as technically having the status of a niddah.
The Aruch HaShulchan, OC 615:1, says it even more plainly:
“ולא יגע בה בלילה. אבל ביום אין חשש כמובן.”
He then mentions that the Magen Avraham is stricter during the day and adds:
“וכמדומה שאין המנהג כן.”
So even within the Acharonim you can see that this was understood in terms of חשש, what precautions are actually necessary to prevent tashmish, and not simply as a new formal status of niddah.
Later Acharonim, particularly the Magen Avraham, broadened it further and understood that one should observe all the harchakot of niddah. But that is already an expansion beyond the original language of Rabbeinu Simcha.
So that is why I originally answered you: “No, but use your judgment.” The actual issur on Yom Kippur is tashmish. The harchakot were introduced as safeguards to prevent getting there.
Practically, I think a person should use good judgment. If a couple feels that physical closeness could realistically lead toward sexual activity, then they should certainly use whatever harchakot are necessary. That is exactly the concern Rabbeinu Simcha was addressing. But if there is realistically no such concern, I don’t understand these harchakot as an independent prohibition comparable to the actual laws of niddah.