by Naomi Malka There is so much sechel, or wisdom, in the Jewish calendar. I love that our year ends with the conclusion of summer and the entry of fall. We’ve celebrated, davenned, and fasted, but this week we’re taking the party outdoors. Sukkot recalls the harvest season in ancient Israel, when the land was so […]
Continue Readingby Rachel Hillman Hineni, I said aloud. Here I am, marking today as a transition point from one part of my life to another. I removed my nail polish, which covered the discoloration due to chemotherapy on my once-beautiful (and soon-to-be-beautiful-again) nail beds. I appreciated my body as I undressed, remembering that even with my […]
Continue Readingby Lisa Berman, Mikveh and Education Director There’s a great scene from one of my very favorite movies of all time, Parenthood, with Steve Martin. At one point, seemingly out of context, the grandmother says to Steve, “You know, when I was nineteen, Grandpa took me on a roller coaster. Up, down, up, down. Oh, what […]
Continue Readingby Rabbi Sarah Tasman For the last number of years, preparing for the High Holidays has been full on. As most other Jewish professionals and clergy will tell you, preparing for the High Holidays is a whirlwind that includes creating service outlines, tutoring volunteer Torah readers, sermon writing, rehearsing with lay song leaders and so on. […]
Continue Readingby Carrie Bornstein One hundred eighty-one people have already scheduled an immersion at Mayyim Hayyim for the month of September. By the time the month is over, we’ll be pushing well into the two hundreds. Our guests are coming for all different reasons, of course, but more than anything now we’re seeing women, men, and […]
Continue Readingby Gary Waleik Front and center in the book of Leviticus, tractate Mikva’ot of the Talmud, Chasidic writings and throughout Jewish literature, is the idea that a mikveh is inherently and completely holy. But haven’t we always known that water is sacred somewhere deep in our souls? Water was a means of survival for our ancestors, and […]
Continue Readingby Sherri Goldman The High Holidays, or Jewish New Year, is a time for reflection. Every New Year gives us a moment to look back over the past year to see what was successful and what in our lives can use some improvement. It’s a time of year to give ourselves the opportunity to grow […]
Continue Readingby Ivy Helman Rosh Hashanah represents a return to God. Immersing in a mikveh renews my sense of purpose and grants me a sense of wholeness I just haven’t found elsewhere. Yet, it’s also so much more than this. Two thoughts come to mind that truly capture why I go to the mikveh before the […]
Continue Readingby Donna Leventhal “Vessels: Containing Possibilities,” now in the Mayyim Hayyim Gallery, emerged from the concept of the mikveh itself as a sacred vessel. Mikveh defines and creates a sacred space that is both physical and spiritual. The individual’s experience in the space is concentrated, intense, and multidimensional. As a person immerses, the water is […]
Continue Readingby José Portuondo-Dember It’s easy to think of going to the mikveh in terms of “washing away.” My very first experience with a ritual bath was my baptism in the Roman Catholic Church as an infant. It was couched in the language of washing away original sin. As I turned to Judaism and began learning […]
Continue Readingby Walt Clark, Office Assistant “And God saw that all had been made, and found it very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. The heaven and the earth were finished, and all their array. On the seventh day God finished the work that had been undertaken: [God] ceased on […]
Continue Readingby Ilana Sumka I’m a political activist by training, so I was as surprised as anyone to find myself teaching Tanakh, (Torah, Prophets and Writings) and Jewish law to a group of conversion students. A few weeks ago I had the profound honor of witnessing my students immerse in the mikveh after successfully appearing before the European […]
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