Why do Sepharadi keep a minimum of four days and Ashkenazi keep a minimum of 5 days before hefsek tahara? What is the underlying reason behind this difference?
Answer
The difference of minhagim is already mentioned in the Remah himself, see here. Rabbi Wosner in Shiurei Shevet Levi mentions that Yemenites wait 7 days.
The reason for waiting before doing a hefsek taharah is because there is a halacha that a woman who discharges live semen is considered tameh (just like any man who emits semen) and that such a tumah disrupts her counting of seven clean days. Therefore, since any semen that is older than three days is not considered viable, a woman must wait at least three days before beginning to count her seven clean days. This is true even if she did not have relations with her husband before becoming a Niddah (and even if he was out of town and couldn't have relations with her, but if he was forbidden to her, then some hold that those days of abstinence can count for these three days). In order to ensure that there were three full days (i.e. three periods of twenty-four hours, not calendar days), we make her wait four days according to the Shulchan Aruch. The Remah adds that since if they had relations during bein hashmashos one might make a mistake in counting the three days, one should be stringent and wait five days before counting the seven clean days (unless she became a niddah through virginal defloration, in which case even the Remah agrees she could wait a mere four days).
I hope I made this clear enough.
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