USCJ Review - Fall 2006
Mayyim Hayyim - Looking for Meaning in Living Waters
There used to be two mikvaot in greater Boston, and both of those ritual baths were run under Orthodox auspices. They used to be open to the wider community for conversions, but as time went by non-Orthodox rabbis found that it was harder and harder for them to find openings in the mikvaot's schedules.
Anita Diamant, the writer whose best-selling novel The Red Tent was a kind of modern midrash, a retelling of the biblical story of the rape of Dinah, spearheaded the construction of a new mikvah. Mayyim Hayyim - Living Water Community Mikveh and Education Center, is in some ways an entirely traditional ritual bath. It's built, run, supervised, and used according to halacha. But in other ways it's something new.
Rabbi Ilana Garber of United Synagogue-affiliated Beth El Temple in West Hartford, Connecticut, wrote the trainers' manual for both female and male mikvah attendants (who in more traditional mikvaot are more commonly known as mikvah ladies). The attendants in most mikvaot, she said, are not trained formally; their knowledge is traditionally acquired, passed down from woman to woman, "but we wanted a real curriculum; something meaningful and educational."
Although the mikvah is open to the entire community, the Conservative influence was strong, Rabbi Garber said. Its first rabbi, Ben Zion Bergman, is Conservative, and it is his rulings upon which the mikvah stands. In fact, Rabbi Garber said, there was a question about whether the mikvah could open as scheduled in April 2004; it had not rained for some time, but some of a mikvah's waters must be gathered from rainfall. Rabbi Bergman figured out a way in which ice could be used for the same halachic end.
Her congregation uses the mikvah in new ways, Rabbi Garber said; although she's been able to convince some brides to immerse themselves before their weddings, as is traditional, it's not generally used for niddah, the monthly post-menstrual visit. Instead, congregants - mainly women - use it to mark lifecycle events. "Women have approached me saying 'I'm turning 60, I want to go,' or 'I'm becoming a grandmother,' or 'I'm getting divorced.'" In each case, the mikvah's traditional role as a place where surrender leads to purity is maintained, but in a new context. "It's a way for people to find meaning in their lives," Rabbi Garber said.
The mikvah is right next to Temple Reyim in Newton, Massachusetts. The rabbi of the United Synagogue-affiliated congregation is Rabbi Scott Rosenberg, who is the bath's rav hamachsir - he supervises and makes sure that halacha is followed. (He does not handle any of the administrative details - that work is done by the rabbinic advisory council, a body to which he does not belong because "I want to be able to be objective and so must maintain a proper distance from it," he said.)
"Mayyim Hayyim has raised the consciousness about mikvah in the Conservative movement," Rabbi Rosenberg said. "It has opened up or deepened our members' understanding of what mikvah can be, about what it's all about. It's an available and welcoming institution, and it combined sensuality and spirituality. We are blessed to have such an open institution that maintains a commitment to halachic integrity."
Because the mikvah's openness is part of its reason for being, it serves to bond the community. Rabbi Carol Perkins of Temple Aliya in Needham, Massachusetts, another United Synagogue affiliate, said that this is possible "because the people involved from the beginning were community minded and understood the value of community. They understood that Mayyim Hayyim could serve not only as a location for ritual bath but also could serve as an educational venue and a place to build community." Today, the mikvah fields a committee that develops ceremonies and blessings for immersions that are not required by halacha; offers a seven-week training course for mikvah attendants using Rabbi Garber's "Guide My Steps," and offers monthly rosh chodesh group. Rabbi Judy Kummer runs three classes annually for United Synagogue's New England region's Jewish Discovery Institute.
To learn more about Mayyim Hayyim, go to www.mayyimhayyim.org or call (617)244-1836.
Elizabeth Pressman of Lexington, Massachusetts, chairs the Atid committee for United Synagogue.
