This website, designed for health professionals, is a community service of Nishmat: The Jeanie Schottensteing Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women. The purpose of the site is to elucidate issues in Women's Health and Jewish law (halachah) to enable medical practitioners to provide optimal care to their patients who observe these rules.

This site is an outgrowth of the Nishmat Women's Health and Halacha Website, www.yoatzot.org, a website for the general public whose goal is to provide halachic and medical information about taharat hamishpachah (halachah pertaining to the physical relationship between husband and wife) and women's health. The rabbinic advisor to this site is Rabbi Yehuda Henkin. The medical advisor is Deena Zimmerman, MD, MPH, IBCLC, one of the first graduates of Nishmat's Keren Ariel Institute to be certified as a Yoetzet Halacha, a Woman Halachic Advisor. Dr. Zimmerman has authored the articles on this site unless otherwise noted.

Nishmat, established in 1990, offers women the opportunity to immerse themselves in Torah study at levels from beginners to the highest reaches of Torah scholarship. In 1997, Nishmat established the Keren Ariel Women's Halachic Institute to train Yoatzot Halacha, Women Halachic Consultants, under the direction of Rabbi Yaacov Varhaftig, Dean of the Institute, and Rabbi Yehuda Herzl Henkin. Yoatzot Halacha are women certified by a panel of Orthodox rabbis to be a resource for women with questions regarding taharat hamishpachah (Jewish family purity law - an area of Jewish Law that relates to marriage, sexuality and women's health). This role was devised to assist women who are more comfortable discussing very personal issues with another woman than with a male rabbinical advisor.

Yoatzot Halacha (who speak Hebrew and English) can be reached through www.yoatzot.org or via the following telephone numbers:

Nishmat's Golda Koschitzky Women's Halachic Hotline
In Israel: 02-640-4343
Outside Israel: +972-2-640-4343
Toll free from the United States and Canada: 1-877-YOETZET (1-877-963-8938)

The hotline is provided by Nishmat as a public service. The toll free call is a public service contributed by IDT Corporation, a multinational provider of telecom, Internet, and video services.

Hours - Israel time
Sunday - Thursday: 18:00 - 24:00
Friday: 8:00 - 12:00
Saturday night: ½ hour after Shabbat is over to midnight.

For further information about Nishmat's other programs, visit www.nishmat.net.