Many Visits Later, Finally My First Immersion

Posted on:

by Rachel Bernstein I had been preparing for my first immersion for eight years. I didn’t know exactly when it would be, but I could guess why it would be. The first eight times I had visited Mayyim Hayyim, I went in my capacity as Academic Adviser for the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute summer internship. I brought […]

Continue Reading

My Big Move

Posted on:

by Molly Bajgot I knew I wanted to go to the mikveh for the first time when I made the decision to move out of Boston to Arizona. It was an amorphous transition with not much time to acknowledge it; I knew I needed a physical marker to help ground this enormous change, but I wasn’t expecting the […]

Continue Reading

De-fogging

Posted on:

by David Berman I’ve immersed at Mayyim Hayyim three times: once before my Bar Mitzvah, once before I left for a semester in Israel when I was a sophomore in high school, and once last September before a gap year program in Israel. Going to Mayyim Hayyim when I was 13 was my mother’s idea. […]

Continue Reading

The Mikveh is a Gift of its Own

Posted on:

by Laura Conrad Mandel Life isn’t about stuff, it’s about experiences. Between baby showers and wedding showers, adoptions and graduations, I find myself constantly in need of gifts for friends and family who tend to have just about all the stuff they need, and for whom I know that something off a registry doesn’t typically […]

Continue Reading

Where Working is a Delight

Posted on:

by Leah Robbins, Administrative and Marketing Assistant Almost two months have passed since I began working at Mayyim Hayyim. I have settled into my desk, built a challenging, but civil relationship with our computer systems and their quirks, and am actively growing as a member of this extraordinary team of women who keep Mayyim Hayyim […]

Continue Reading

My Journey to Recovery

Posted on:

by 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 Reading

Preparing for High School

Posted on:

by Eytan Weiner Due to the fact that I am a 14 year old boy going into high school, every decision affects my social status. Regardless of how big or small a choice I make, “life changing” things can happen, based on what table I sit at, what food I eat, and who I choose to […]

Continue Reading

My Red Sea

Posted on:

by 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 Reading

Everything Always Comes Back Around

Posted on:

by Rachel Eisen, Director of Annual Giving Some people think that life is linear, always moving forward in one direction. But I’d like to disagree. In this past year, life hasn’t felt linear at all. Almost a full year ago, I wrote my first blog post as an intern for Mayyim Hayyim. I wrote about […]

Continue Reading

A Bridal Bath

Posted on:

by Cantor Lori Salzman About ten years ago I was approached by a friend who was soon to be married. She told me she really didn’t want a traditional bridal shower and asked if there was some sort of simple Jewish celebration she could do. I was a little surprised, since she is one of […]

Continue Reading

Entering the Covenant of her Mothers, Revisted

Posted on:

As the Jewish world evolves, we will continue to create meaningful ways to welcome and honor women and girls within our tradition. Almost one hundred years ago, a Bat Mitzvah was unheard of. Today, a Simchat Bat (a baby naming ritual for a Jewish girl) is becoming more and more commonplace. When we share our stories about the way our […]

Continue Reading

A Day of Rebirth

Posted on:

by Daniel Goldberg December 8th, 2015: my first mikveh experience. I’ve been Jewish all my life, but up until a few months ago I didn’t even know this ancient ritual could be practiced by men, other than for the purpose of conversion. I met Rachel Eisen, then an intern at Mayyim Hayyim, at a Jewish event […]

Continue Reading