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•
•
•
•
Numbers 19:1-22 -- dead bodies
Leviticus 12:1-18 -- childbirth
Leviticus 13 and 14 -- leprosy
Leviticus 15 -- genital fluids
A.
B.
B.
A.
male abnormal flow
semen
menstruation
female abnormal flow
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• Leviticus 15:13
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• Mircea Eliade (1907-1986)
In water everything is “dissolved,” every “form” is broken up,
everything that has happened ceases to exist; nothing that was before
remains after immersion in water, not an outline, not a “sign,” not an
event. Immersion is the equivalent, at the human level, of death at the
cosmic level, of the cataclysm (the Flood) which periodically dissolves
the world into the primeval ocean. Breaking up all forms, doing away
with the past, water possesses the power of purifying, of regenerating, of
giving new birth... Water purifies and regenerates because it nullifies the
past, and restores -- even if only for a moment -- the integrity of the
dawn of things.
1
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• Genesis 1
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In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth
was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters. And God
said, Let there be light; and there was light.
• Deuteronomy 32:18
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You neglected the Rock that begot you,
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Rashi:!"#$%!&'()*%!+!&,,#%!,' “brought you forth from the womb”
• Isaiah 49:14-15
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Zion says, “The Lord has forsaken me, My Lord has forgotten
me.” Can a woman forget her baby, or show no mercy for the
child of her womb?
• Exodus 14
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The waters were split, and the Israelites went into the sea on dry
ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their
left.
2
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WOMB = MERCY
= THE MERCIFUL ONE
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• Mishnah Yoma 8:9
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Rabbi Akiva said: Happy are you, Israel! Before whom do you make
yourselves pure, and who makes you pure? Your Father in Heaven. For
it is written, “I shall sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be
clean,” (Ezekiel 36:35) and it is also written, “The mikveh of Israel is the
Lord” (Jeremiah 17:13). Just as the mikveh makes pure those who are
impure, so the Holy One makes Israel pure.
'"1#%-&+2&+&56+)%&/7&(%0"(,• Sefer Ha’Chinuch 173 (13th Century)
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As to the reason for water, why it should purify every defiled person, I
would think, by way of the plain meaning, that it is in order that a person should
perceive oneself after the immersion as though one had been created at that
very moment - just as the world was entirely water before there were people in it;
as it is written, “and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters”
(Gen. 1:2). Thus, he will ponder in his reflection that just as he becomes
renewed in his body, so let him make all his actions equally new for the good,
and let him make his deeds worthy, carefully observing the ways of God.
3
!"#$%&'%#%(&)*+",
•
Must contain at least 40 se’ah (about 200 gallons) of water
•
Must be constructed so that a person can completely immerse
in one act
•
Must be built permanently into the ground, making it an
integral part of the earth
•
Water in the mikveh must be “natural” water, it may not be
drawn by human hands.
•
Natural sources of water:
a.
b.
c.
d.
Rainwater
Springs, rivers, lakes and oceans
Snow
Ice
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•
•
•
•
•
Conversion
Laws of Niddah (Taharat Ha’Mishpachah)
Before a Wedding
Before Yom Kippur
Before Shabbat
0+!%-&$2#1'%3/-%$"+%(&)*+"
•
•
•
•
•
Marking the Transition from Cancer Patient to Survivor
Celebration of Menopause
Recovering from Surgery
Healing from Rape
Healing from Divorce
4
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The mikveh simulates the original living water, the primal sea from
which all life comes, the womb of the world, the amniotic tide on which the
unborn child is rocked. To be reborn, one must reenter this womb and
“drown” in living water. We enter the mikveh naked, as an infant enters the
world (p. 68).
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Rosh Hashanah is the day of expiation and kapparah, the beginning of the
process, the moment when I enter the mikveh waters of purification
endeavoring, through repentance, to repair my alienation from God as a result
of a momentary lapse of judgement.
On Yom Kippur, however, God guarantees that He will gladly conclude
the process, even for those personality-defining sinners who almost cannot be
expected to do it on their own. God Himself will become the mikveh, He
Himself will sprinkle us with the purifying waters and grant us renewed spirits
and new hearts.
%,>><'*2E/.'B,C0,73'I,D/29'@J'$1/78'')./'!E9D/2E'@J'D./'!<AK,.
Water represents the womb of creation. When a person immerses in the
Mikvah, he is placing himself in the state of the world yet unborn, subjecting
himself totally to God’s creative power.
We can see this from the etymology of the word Mayim, which is the
Hebrew word for water. When a person immerses in water, he is nullifying
his ego and asking, “What am I?” Ego is the essence of permanence, while
water is the essence of impermanence. When a person is ready to replace his
ego with a question, then he is also ready to be reborn with its answer (p. 13).
5
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The main spiritual concept of water is that of change and development. It
represents the growth and development of the world toward fulfilling God’s
purpose, and, in this context, the Garden of Eden was “watered” spiritually as
well as physically. As a result, it was an environment where man could grow
and develop according to God’s ultimate plan.
The waters of Eden therefore bring together a number of concepts. First of
all, these waters represent the “womb” of humanity, since it was with this
water that God “formed man of the dust of the earth.” Secondly, these waters
were the source of the “rivers” that left Eden, which gave man the ability to
connect himself with his ultimate source, even in his fallen state, and thus
grow toward God’s goals.
Most important, we see that water itself represents the change and flow
toward God’s goal. When a person immerses himself in a Mikvah, he
immerses himself spiritually in the basic concept of change itself (p. 66).
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Experts and rabbis seem to agree that, in general, the resurgence of interest
in the mikveh has little to do with the mikveh itself, and everything to do with
attempting to find meaning in Jewish rituals that already exist.
Dr. Shuly Rubin Schwartz calls this phenomenon “the second wave of the
second stage of feminism.” The first, she explained, was the movement to gain
equal access. “The second is [about] reclaiming women’s rituals.” She
explained that liberal Jewish women are using the mikveh now for a variety of
ritual purposes: when they are infertile, after a rape...
Dr. Anne Lapidus Lerner, among those interested in recovering taharat
hamishpahah, has her own vision of what the mikveh experience ought to
become. “I would like to see the transformation of the mikveh into a women’s
health center. If I could build it and staff it, it would have a nurse practitioner or
someone trained to do breast exams. It would be a real opportunity for
education and to pick up signs of spousal abuse. There could be referrals given
to social workers and there would be skin cancer checks. The mikveh of my
dreams would also be used for new rituals for healing after surgery or trauma. It
should be a center of support for women.”
6