Holy Water

Winter has begun in Israel and we are praying for rain daily. Because rain is seasonal here, it's crucial for crops and water sources.

This made me think further about the fact that mikveh, ritual baths, must derive from a natural water source (sidenote: it is only a small portion of the mikveh water but it must be present). Why is that?

First, it is important to understand what the mikveh was and is now used for. Originally, one immersed in a mikveh to purify one's self to visit, sacrifice, and interact with the Temple and within certain relationships. People's status changed constantly from 'tameh' to 'tahor' (translated as impure to pure) because of bodily emissions, seeing or interacting with a dead animal or body and more. But, following the destruction of the Temple, we only use the mikveh for a few reasons:

1. Family purity during which a woman goes into the status of niddah, not able to have relations or touch her husband. This does not affect a woman in any other way within Judaism, and after immersion in the mikveh can reunite completely once again.

2. Conversion - a person immerses in the mikveh in the presence of a beit din as a non-Jew and comes out as a Jew.

3. New dishes: When one purchases a new dish, it's typically immersed (depending on their material) following the tradition that dishes were once used for idol worshipping. The dishes are purified and can be used following their immersion.

In addition, there are men who have the custom to immerse in a mikveh on a daily, weekly, or annual basis but this is non-halachic (not required or sourced in Jewish law) following the destruction of the Temple. There are also non-halachic immersions for women too, though these are less common.

More fundamentally, what is the idea of the mikveh? What role does the rainwater play?

The Sefer Hahinuch, Mitzvah 173 notes:

"The explanation of why we use water to purify everything impure, I think that the simple understanding is that a man should see himself after immersion as if he was created at that time [just like the whole world was water before man was upon it]"

And Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan writes (in Waters of Eden, The Mystery of the Mikveh):

..."We see that water itself represents the change and flow towards God's goal. When a person immerses himself in a mikveh, he immerses himself spiritually...Thus, when he emerges from the mikveh, he is in a total state of renewal and rebirth..."

This is why we need natural water. We connect this spiritual transformation to Hashem's creation of the world. We pray to God for rainwater, we rely on Him to receive this natural source, and it is ultimately in the mikveh what transforms us spiritually to a 'total sense of renewal and rebirth'. From non-Jew to Jew, from impure to pure, from unusable to usable dishes. A rebirth, a reconnection to Hashem, rooted in the natural sources of this world.

So as you pray for rain, think also of the usage of its role in the mikveh, in our connection to Hashem, and its powers of renewal and rebirth for each and every one of us.

Thanks for being a part of the journey!

Netta

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