USCJ Review - Fall 2001
Coming of Age: The Growth of the Conservative Mikveh Movement
All Conservative Jews have witnessed the candle flames that transform the week into Shabbat. Fire is a familiar symbol to Jews, an agent of ritual separation and spiritual transformation. Less familiar is Jewish ritual involving water, specifically, the ancient ritual of mikveh -- total immersion in the "living waters" of the mikveh pool.
According to the Bible, immersion is required both for married women after menstruation and for men after nocturnal emissions. Mikveh was widely practiced in Second Temple times to render priests and pilgrims fit for Temple access. To this day, it remains an essential element in the halakhic conversion of adults or adopted infants. Traditionally observant men immerse before Shabbat and holidays, and scribes go to mikveh before writing a Torah scroll, as do members of the hevra kadisha (burial society) after preparing a corpse for burial. In fact, throughout Jewish history, mikveh was considered of such importance that a community was obliged to build a mikveh even before constructing its synagogue.
Conservative Jews, while continuing to adhere faithfully to mikveh as part of conversion, have not widely observed this mitzvah for other purposes. Few modern Conservative Jews have ever been inside one. Women's monthly immersions, especially, have taken on negative associations. Some older women remember reluctantly being taken, just before their wedding day, to a shabby building of dubious cleanliness, to be quizzed and inspected by a tactless mikveh lady. To many feminists, mikveh seems to stigmatize menstruating women by implying that a menstruating woman is physically unclean. In any case, Conservative Jews have generally relied on Orthodox-run facilities to provide for their needs in this area.
What factors would then explain the recent burst of mikveh construction within the Conservative Movement? Of eleven new Conservative mikvaot in the U.S., the oldest, at the Los Angeles Center for Conservative Judaism, dates from 1981. The rest have opened within the past ten years or are presently under construction. They are located at the following synagogues: Adas Israel Congregation, Washington, DC; Beth El Congregation, Baltimore, MD; Beth Hillel, Wilmette, IL; Emanuel Synagogue, Oklahoma City, OK; Kol Ami Congregation, Salt Lake City, UT; Park Synagogue, Cleveland, OH; Temple Beth El, Ithaca, NY; Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El, Wynnewood, PA; Temple Beth Sholom, Las Vegas, NV; and Temple Israel Center, White Plains, NY.
These congregations supply many reasons for the recent flurry of Conservative mikveh projects. They cite the need for nearby facilities for Conservative conversions and mention unhappiness with existing Orthodox-run mikvaot, which limit access to Conservative rabbis or sometimes prohibit Conservative conversions entirely. Unattractive physical surroundings are also noted, as are insensitive mikveh staff and prohibitively high fees. While it is true that rivers and oceans are kosher alternatives for ritual immersion, weather conditions and the demands of modesty make indoor settings necessary for most communities.
According to Rabbi Neil Cooper of Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El in Wynnewood, PA: "When there is a commitment to the mitzvah of mikveh, we Conservative Jews should not rely on others to provide our facilities. The existence of our own Conservative mikveh actually establishes better relations with other streams of Judaism in our community."
Rabbi Jeffrey Wohlberg, spiritual leader of Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, DC, points out that "we no longer have to meet anyone else's standards; we are free to follow our own rabbinic authorities, yet we can be generous in making our facilities accessible to the entire Jewish community."
A kosher mikveh is built to exacting standards. The mikveh structure itself must be as part of the ground, not a movable structure. It must be completely sealed from seepage from the ground or leakage from other sources. No metal may be used in the tank or piping. A mikveh involves at least two containers: the bor, or collecting container, and one or more adjacent pools for immersion. Water must be collected on mikveh premises from rain or snow runoff, not drawn or transported. Dry places, such as Las Vegas, use melted ice to fill the bor. Through a tube, a small amount of "living water" collected from rainwater or melted ice is allowed to mix (a process known as "kissing") with the filtered, warmed, chlorinated water in the immersion pool.
A modern mikveh resembles a clean and attractive spa or health club. One bathes, washes one's hair, and trims the nails before entering the mikveh pool. To ensure that an individual is completely surrounded by water, all physical barriers to the water, such as jewelry, makeup, contact lenses, and nail polish must be removed. After emerging from a private dressing room, one enters the mikveh chamber, descends several steps to a tiled pool approximately five feet square, into warm water about shoulder height. The person submerges completely, lifting the feet from the floor, opening the eyes. A witness, called variously a shomer (fem. shomeret), mikveh volunteer or the traditional designation, "mikveh lady" (still cheerfully in use by some), must be present to ensure a "kosher dunk." Complete immersion is required, in which not even a hair floats above the water. After the first immersion, a blessing is said, and several more immersions follow. The witness then leaves and allows the person to immerse again if they wish, then to exit privately to dress.
A word should be said about the new breed of mikveh lady. Rabbi Wohlberg proudly states that his past three mikveh ladies included two attorneys and a Ph.D. Mikveh staff are well-educated, articulate proponents of mikveh who do a great deal of community education. Lisa Kleine, mikveh lady at Adas Israel, explains to visitors that mikveh has always been a religious ritual, never an issue of hygiene. Among ritually observant Jews, she says, married couples refrain from sexual relations throughout menstruation and for five days afterwards, and resume relations only after the woman visits the mikveh. Mikveh is then a separation or punctuation between two equally valid spiritual states.
Other mikveh staff offer the theory that menstruation requires immersion because it involves a brush with death -- of the potential child that was not conceived. Carol Schnitzler, shomeret at Beth Hillel, Wilmette, IL, says that "being in a mikveh is a state of suspended animation between the past and the future. We are asked to trust that the water, as the symbol of the source of life, offers an opportunity for spiritual regeneration."
Some common threads run through most mikveh building projects. First, construction of a kosher mikveh is expensive. Most communities that have engaged in this endeavor have benefited f rom the generosity of a large single donor and have done additional fundraising as well. Communities generally expect to subsidize the project, or to barely to cover operating expenses.
There are a variety of ways to house a mikveh. Temple Emanuel in Oklahoma City built a free-standing brick building on synagogue grounds. In the Chicago area, several congregations got together to build a mikveh at onecentrally located synagogue. Some new mikvaot are part of a larger renovation project, as at Temple Israel Center in White Plains, NY. The Charlotte Goldberg Community Mikvah at Park Synagogue is run by an association of local synagogues who each pay a membership fee based on congregational size. The structure includes a community room with kosher dining facilities for 50 people. Says Sanford Weinberg, Chair of the Mikvah Association, "We encourage people to visit the building. Just walking in breaks a barrier."
In addition to securing financing, mikveh advocates generally have had to enlist community support. Rabbis have spoken from the pulpit on the subject, synagogue bulletins have published articles, and mikveh building plans have attracted coverage in the local Jewish press. The next hurdle -- finding mikveh experts to assure halakhic standards – is not always easy.
Says Rabbi Mark Loeb of Beth El Congregation in Baltimore, MD: "Ironically, those with the expertise, who most practice the mitzvah of mikveh, were not eager to help us build ours, and they agreed only after community pressure was applied." In 1981, at the Center for Conservative Judaism in Los Angeles, Rabbi Ben Zion Bergman, Professor of Rabbinic Literature at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles (who happens also to possess a degree in civil engineering), was called upon to design the mikveh. He studied the relevant Jewish legal sources, drew up designs, and then found a willing Orthodox expert who approved the plans. Since then, Rabbi Bergman has traveled across the country as advisor to many Conservative mikveh projects.
So far, the most prevalent use for mikveh is still in conversion ceremonies, but new trends are discernible. Observance of the mitzvah is growing in popularity among Conservative brides and grooms. Stuart Garson, president of Park Synagogue during the planning of their mikveh, notes that his committee's mantra became, "If you build it, they will come." Experience all over the country is proving him correct. Men and women are seeking mikveh as a means of healing. They may go before or after surgery, miscarriage, fertility treatments, or sexual abuse. People go to mikveh after divorce or on concluding shivah. It has represented closure for concentration camp victims. Rites of passage, such as graduations and ordinations, are increasingly marked by mikveh. In Los Angeles, customs imported from the Mexican and Persian Jewish communities include joyous celebrations for a bride and her female family members who accompany her to mikveh.
There is definitely a new, open atmosphere at Conservative Movement mikvaot. We have moved away from the hushed tones formerly used to speak of the subject, when mikveh buildings were unmarked and women were required to go after dark. Our new mikveh facilities are a community resource designed to complement synagogue life. Rosh Hodesh groups, synagogue sisterhoods, men's groups, Jewish communal organizations, even religious school children regularly tour and hear explanations of the traditions around mikveh. Visitors are encouraged both to observe the mitzvah and to adapt traditions to meet modern spiritual needs. Lillian Zelcer, mikveh lady at the Los Angeles Center for Conservative Judaism, reports that there are now youngsters who include mikveh in their bar/bat mitzvah preparations.
In the words of Rabbi Stuart Altshuler, spiritual leader of Beth Hillel in Wilmette, IL: "The Conservative Movement is coming of age. It's a very positive development, showing a higher comfort level with traditional observance. We have stopped trying for Orthodox acceptance."
The author, a freelance writer living in New York City, writes frequently on topics of Jewish interest.
