Mikveh


A mikveh or mikvah is a bath used during ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve ritual purity.
In Orthodox Judaism, these regulations are steadfastly adhered to; consequently, the mikveh is central to an Orthodox Jewish community. Conservative Judaism also formally holds to the regulations. The existence of a mikveh is considered so important that, according to Halakha, a Jewish community is required to construct a kosher mikveh even before building a synagogue, and must go to the extreme of selling Torah scrolls, or even a synagogue if necessary, to provide funding for its construction.

Etymology

Formed from the Semitic root . In the Hebrew Bible, the word is employed in the sense of "collection", including in the phrase "rtl=yes" in Genesis 1:10, as well as in similar usages in Exodus 7:19, and Leviticus 1:36. Ben Sira, in the Jewish apocryphal Book of Sirach 10:13, is the earliest author to use "rtl=yes" as a word for "pool", and the Mishnah is the earliest source to use it in the sense of "ritual bath".

History

There are no existing written records or archaeological evidence of specific Jewish ritual cleansing installations prior to the first century BCE. Mikvot first appear in the historical record in the 1st century BCE, and from that time, ancient mikvot are found across the Land of Israel and in historic Jewish communities worldwide. Hundreds of mikvot from the Second Temple period have been discovered so far across the Land of Israel, including in Jerusalem, Hebron, Masada, and Hannaton.
File:Double_entrance_Mikveh.jpg|thumb|A two-chambered mikveh at Bir ed-Duwali, a Jewish village in Judea destroyed during the First Jewish–Roman War
The lack of dedicated mikvot before the 1st century BCE is notable, especially since many early Jews did follow purification laws, as shown by the accounts recorded in 1 Samuel 20:26 and 21:5; 2 Samuel 11:4; and 2 Chronicles 30:15 and 30:24, as well as the Elephantine papyri and ostraca. One suggestion is that Jews used natural water sources such as springs for immersion, rather than building dedicated mikvot. Alternatively, according to many Halakhic authorities, the prohibition on using pumped water for a mikveh is rabbinic, not biblical. Prior to the creation of such a rabbinic decree around 100 BCE, Jews may have immersed in above-ground basins that were built as part of buildings, or affixed to the roofs of buildings, and filled manually. Such structures, dating to the First Temple period, have been discovered in ancient Ashdod and possibly in Dan. The reason for such a rabbinic decree may have been to distance the practice of ritual immersion from the culture of bathhouses, which spread through the region during the Hellenistic period.

Requirements

The traditional rules regarding the construction of a mikveh are based on those specified in classical rabbinic literature. Numerous biblical laws indicate that one must "bathe their flesh in water" to become purified from ritual impurity. The type of bathing is specified in, which states that "a spring, or a cistern, a gathering of water" is a source of purity. A mikveh must be built into the ground or built as an essential part of a building. Portable receptacles, bathtubs, whirlpools, or jacuzzis cannot therefore function as mikvot.
However, many Sephardic communities, as well as Ashkenazi Jews in America before World War 2, customarily allowed mikvehs to be filled using municipal water. Bans on such practices only became common in the US after an influx of European Ashkenazi rabbis, who saw the use of municipal water as too lenient. Some rabbis considered permitting spas to be used, but ultimately decided against it as it may encourage women to prefer warm water during immersion instead of prioritizing cold water. According to Rabbi Isaac Esrig, in 1957 most American mikvaot were filled using municipal water.

Water transport

Mikveh water must have collected naturally rather than by human action. Thus, mikveh water must flow naturally to the mikveh from the source. This essentially means that it must be supplied by gravity or a natural pressure gradient and cannot be pumped there by hand or carried. As a result, tap water cannot be used as the primary water source for a mikveh, although it can be used to top the water up to a desired level provided the minimum amount of ritually appropriate water is in the mikveh first; in practice, this means that for a pool of at least 80 seahs the majority of its volume can be tap water. The water is also forbidden to pass through any vessel which could hold water within it or is capable of becoming impure. Frozen water is exceptional in that it may be used to fill the mikveh no matter how it was transported.
Although not commonly accepted, at least one American Orthodox rabbi advocated a home mikveh using tap water, for those women who did not have access to a standard mikveh. As water flows through only pipes that open at both ends, the municipal and in-home plumbing would be construed as a non-vessel. So long as the pipes, hoses, and fittings are all freestanding and not held in the hand, they could be used to fill a mikveh receptacle that met all other requirements. The use of tap water for such a mikveh was controversial and was rejected by the majority of rabbinic authorities at the time and afterwards.
The laws for a mikveh are slightly different from those of a spring. Mikveh water must be at rest, while spring water can still be flowing. Thus, flowing rivers may only be used for immersion when most of their water comes from springs, rather than rainfall or snowmelt. Seas may be used.

Size and practical arrangements

A mikveh must contain enough water to cover the entire body of an average-sized person; based on a mikveh with the dimensions of 3 cubits deep, 1 cubit wide, and 1 cubit long, the necessary volume of water was estimated as being 40 seah of water. The exact volume referred to by a seah is debated, and classical rabbinical literature specifies only that it is enough to fit 144 eggs; most Orthodox Jews use the stringent ruling of the Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz, according to which one seah is 14.3 litres, and therefore a mikveh must contain at least some 575 litres. This volume of water can later be topped up with water from any source, but if there were less than 40 seahs of water in the mikveh to begin with, then the addition of 3 or more pints of water that did not meet the strict requirements would render the mikveh unfit for use, regardless of whether more water from a natural source was added later; a mikveh rendered unfit for use in this way would need to be completely drained away and refilled in the prescribed way.
Inasmuch as water that collects naturally according to halachic prescriptions is hard to come by in urban areas, various methods are employed to establish a valid mikveh. One is that tap water is made to flow into a kosher mikveh and through a conduit into a larger pool in which users actually bathe. A second method is to create a mikveh in a deep pool, place a floor with holes over that and then fill the upper pool with tap water. In this way, it is considered as if the person dipping is actually "in" the pool of rain water. Additionally, the hashoko method involves using two pools: one filled with at least 40 seahs of natural water and one filled with tap water. A hole at least wide on the wall of the pool filled with tap water connects it to the pool filled with natural water. When these two collections of water touch, the tap water pool is okay to use for ritual immersion.
Most contemporary mikvot are indoor constructions involving rainwater collected from a cistern and passed through a duct by gravity into an ordinary bathing pool; the mikveh can be heated to make the experience of bathing more comfortable, taking into account certain rules, often resulting in an environment not unlike a spa.

Background

Laws

Traditionally, the mikveh was used by both men and women to regain ritual purity after various events, according to regulations laid down in the Torah and in classical rabbinical literature.
Cases where Jews commonly immerse in a mikveh nowadays, in order to fulfill a requirement of Torah or rabbinic law, include:
  • a woman who wishes to become purified from the status of niddah or the related status of zavah. In particular, a married woman must immerse in order to resume marital relations with her husband after menstruation or childbirth.
  • one who is converting to Judaism, regardless of gender.
  • Newly acquired utensils used in serving and eating food must be immersed.
Other cases where immersion in a mikveh would be required to become pure, but have not generally been practiced since destruction of the Temple, include:
  • a man who has experienced keri. Immersing due to keri is required by the Torah in order that one should be allowed to eat terumah or a sacrifice; Ezra instituted that one should also do so in order to be allowed to recite words of Torah. The latter case is known as tevilath Ezra. In modern times it is no longer considered obligatory, but some perform it as a custom or act of piety.
  • one who has come into contact with a niddah or zavah, or their clothes or articles
  • after tzaraath
  • a Kohen who is being consecrated
  • the Kohen Gadol on goes to Mikvah five times on Yom Kippur;
  • the Kohen who performed the red heifer ritual;
  • one who has contacted a corpse or grave, in addition to having the ashes of the red heifer ritual sprinkled upon them;
  • one who has eaten meat from an animal that died naturally.
  • one who wishes to visit the Temple Mount

    Customs

exist to immerse in a mikveh in some of the following circumstances, with the customs varying by community:
  • By a bridegroom, on the day of his wedding
  • By a father, prior to the circumcision of his son
  • Before Yom Kippur, sometimes including married women as well as men
  • Before Rosh Hashana
  • By a kohen, prior to a service in which he will recite the Priestly Blessing
  • Before a Jewish holiday, either as an extension of the custom of kohanim to immerse before holidays when they would recite the priestly blessing or in order to purify oneself before a holiday as was required in the times of the Temple.
  • At some point during the ninth month of pregnancy
  • Before each Shabbat, especially prevalent in Hasidic custom
  • Every day, in Hasidic custom
  • Some Jewish funeral homes have a mikveh for immersing a body during the purification procedure before burial.
  • In recent years, some members and leaders in Non-Orthodox communities have promoted the idea of immersing in a Mikveh in special circumstances. There are reports of women immersing after a miscarriage, rape, divorce, menopause, graduation of a child from school, retirement, etc. The idea behind these new types of reason for immersion is to help people cope with either traumas or major life changes and transitions, and to show how they can incorporate in their life old Jewish traditions even if they are not committed to the details of Jewish law.
Immersion for men is more common in Hasidic communities, and done rarely in others, like German Jewish communities, where it is generally done only before the High Holidays.