by Judy Tsafrir MD I came to Mayyim Hayyim to consecrate, by ritual immersion, the ending and beginning of a 30-year astrological cycle, the Progressed New Moon. My wish for this upcoming cycle is to embody the Goddess, to remember and honor my Feminine Divinity as well as the Sacredness of all of Creation. I set […]
Continue Readingby Leah Robbins, Administrative and Marketing Assistant This Passover has me thinking a lot about what liberation looks like to me. I wish I could say that the poignancy of our own liberation narrative, from slavery to freedom, have inspired in me words of transformation and moments of comfort and hope. But to be honest… […]
Continue Readingby Terry Rosenberg, Board Member My personal, direct experience with ritual immersion happened many years ago, and my memory is sweet. But the felt, lived, embodied experience has faded. I love Mayyim Hayyim for the same reasons as so many others – its inclusivity, beauty, and ability to empower me to enact an ancient ritual in […]
Continue Readingby Wendy Handler, Mikveh Guide A friend recently sent me an email that said, “Keep calm and carry on…spring is coming!” with a beautiful picture of budding flowers in my favorite colors. The message did little to soothe my nerves. Spring is coming…translation: Passover is coming, too…heavy sigh…already I anticipate the back-breaking cleaning. The signs […]
Continue Readingby Rene Katersky, Mikveh Guide As I approach another significant birthday, one ending in “0” (aren’t they all significant at this age?), I have been thinking a lot about the self-imposed benefits of turning another year older. I am mindful of my desire to say “no” more often…no to things I no longer feel passionate […]
Continue Readingby Nadav David Just over a year ago, my grandfather, Abraham Gittelson z”l, passed at the age of 87. Three days beforehand, I sat next to his bed at the Rehabilitation Center in North Miami Beach, reading the morning’s sport page to him and discussing the upcoming Shabbat’s parasha (weekly Torah portion). I fed him […]
Continue Readingby Lisa Berman, Mikveh and Education Director I feel bombarded… by the news, the noise, the anger, the anxiety. I know we are all struggling to adjust the volume of our interface with our world. Sometimes we need it to be loud and in our face, to wrestle with it, move our bodies with it, […]
Continue Readingby Sophie Hyman I was a little apprehensive about coming to the mikveh. My sister’s girlfriend, Leah (Mayyim Hayyim staff and mikveh enthusiast), encouraged me to explore this area of Judaism that I had very minimal exposure to. I was afraid that I would enter into this beautiful, Jewish experience and feel indifferent, like it […]
Continue Readingby Cassie Seinuk One night I went out to walk my dog, placed my foot on the step outside my door, and tripped, stumbling down four concrete steps, landing heavily on my left arm. The pain was sharp, and loud, and I knew something was broken, especially when I tried to stand and couldn’t. After […]
Continue Readingby Lisa Berman, Mikveh and Education Director Unsettled, energized, anxious, fatigued –we are all experiencing a panoply of emotions at this time of decision-making in our country. This has been a time of political transition unlike any most of us have known in our lifetimes, unprecedented in its fraught nature. Transitions are not new to […]
Continue Readingby Ronna Benjamin A little over a year ago, just after a “clean” mammogram, my primary care physician found a lump in my breast during a routine physical, and insisted on the ultrasound that saved my life. Countless women who have been through this sort of thing know what happened next: the biopsy, the agony […]
Continue Readingby Esther Sadie Brandon In so many ways, water is our medium for transition and change. Immersing in the mikveh at Mayyim Hayyim was my medium to mark the transition from being in treatment to healing. I am now a breast cancer survivor. In early spring of 2015, I was diagnosed with an early stage carcinoma […]
Continue ReadingSearch
