Pause after menstruation

If a woman menstruated for one day only, how long does she have to wait before she can begin counting her seven “clean” days?

Dear …!

According to the Remo, and this is the custom of the Ashkenazim and some Sephardim, a woman has to wait five days, counting the first day, after seeing any amount of blood. At the end of the fifth day (that is, before sunset of that day), she does hefsek taharah (the first check, which commences her “clean days”). Then she starts counting her “clean days” that evening. The only exception is a new bride, who bled because her hymen was broken. She only has to wait for four days, instead of five. A woman who did not engage in intimate relationships with her husband since her previous menstruation, doesn’t have to wait at all; she can begin counting her “clean days” right from the evening of the day she bled (that is, if she only bled during the day, she can start counting her “clean days” after sunset).

According to the Shulchan Oruch, and this is the custom of some Sephardic communities, a woman should only wait for four days (instead of five), counting the day that she actually started to bleed. And she doesn’t necessarily begin counting those four days on the day she bled, she can count the four days from the last time she was physically intimate with her husband. Thus, a woman who knows that she was not physically intimate with her husband for at least four days before she saw blood can begin counting her seven “clean days” on the day that her bleeding stopped.