by Talya Sokoll, Mikveh Guide When I first decided to become a Mikveh Guide, I was nervous. I had been to a number of immersions for friends and family that were incredibly special and meaningful. There are many variables that go into a successful mikveh experience, but at that point, it was already clear that […]
Continue Readingby Cantor Jeri Robins The start of a new year – whether Rosh Hashanah or the school year – is always an opportunity to reflect on the past and look toward the future. One of the things I most look forward to at this time is visiting Mayyim Hayyim. I have been to Mayyim Hayyim […]
Continue Readingby Lisa Berman, Mikveh and Education Director Mikveh Guides: The Face of Mayyim Hayyim These women and these men have much to teach, But their pleasure is to learn and serve, Stepping forward or stepping back, Attending to the need, joyful or tearful, Face to face. –Anita Diamant More than 13 years ago, a few […]
Continue Readingby Karen Abraham, Mikveh Guide “A guest is coming to toivel.” “Toivel?” “To make new dishes ready for use. Take a look in the file drawer for more information.” I quickly set down the phone and opened the drawer. I found the two-page explanation about how to immerse kitchen items in the mikveh. It explained […]
Continue Readingby Carrie Bornstein, Executive Director Mayyim Hayyim is the home of new beginnings. After ten years of working at Mayyim Hayyim, I’ve seen a lot of joyful celebration. But I’ve seen a great deal of heartache, too: couples mourning miscarriage, grieving after stillbirth, weeping after failed IVF cycles, immersing month after month, trying to conceive. […]
Continue Readingby Rabbi Jamie Kotler As the month of Elul approaches, immediately preceding the High Holy Days, I am filled with trepidation. The rabbis understand it to be a joyous time. They traditionally interpret the Hebrew letters of Elul (אלול) as an acronym for Ani L’dodi V’dodi Li – “I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved […]
Continue Readingby Fern Remedi-Brown This is our family’s story: Before we adopted our now-12-year-old daughter, Maya, from Guatemala, we had decided on her name. Her biological mother had given her the name María Guadalupe, which means “river of black stones.” We are a two-mom, bi-cultural family. I was raised Jewish, and my wife, Ginny, was a […]
Continue Readingby Leah Robbins, Administrative and Marketing Assistant I don’t know about you, but Elul has me totally out of sorts. This is supposed to be a deeply reflective moment in time, a month to really sit with our struggles, reevaluate our behavior, renegotiate our values, and renew our commitments. There’s so much I’m itching to […]
Continue Readingby Elisha Gechter Last week my husband Sam and I endured a connecting flight from Boston to Knoxville, TN with our 5 year-old and 9 month-old. We were eclipse-bound and willing to make some sacrifices in the name of science. Aside from all the planning that went into the week we would spend in Great […]
Continue Readingby Amber Caulkins, Director of Rising Tide “I love the mikveh. The water is so warm.” These were the words of my five year-old daughter, Rebecca, as she sat at the breakfast table, a half-eaten bowl of cereal in front of her, looking at a picture she had drawn the day before. The picture, drawn […]
Continue Readingby Rachel Tali Kaplan An invitation and an ode: a rabbinical student’s thoughts on and encouragement to join Mayyim Hayyim for Knocking at Our Hearts, a High Holiday musical workshop with Joey Weisenberg, on September 10 at 3:30PM. water and music are healing to immerse and be immersed surrounded enveloped both mediums allow me to […]
Continue Readingby Rachel Eisen, Director of Annual Giving Jewish rituals and religious observance rely on community, and people are the backbone of communities. That’s what I walked away with after seeing the film, The Women’s Balcony. The film is about people from a small Sephardi congregation in Jerusalem, whose lives are disrupted when the upstairs women’s […]
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