December 2022 / Kislev 5783
Dear friend,
A few months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, I opened my email to find this message:
“Mayyim Hayyim will always be a safe place to mark an abortion, whatever the circumstances.
Many in our community are righteously angry and ready to fight for our rights.”
My husband and I have been trying to have children. Last summer I got pregnant, but the fetus was not viable and I miscarried.
As a family medicine doctor, I’m usually the one performing medication abortions. This time, I was the patient. My body healed, but I was numb. I needed something to mark the pregnancy I’d lost. So when I got that email, I thought, “maybe I should go to the mikveh.”
I had immersed at Mayyim Hayyim once before, as part of my conversion to Judaism; it was a special experience but I didn’t know that I’d ever go back. Then that email called to me.
I waded into the waters of the mikveh with a heavy heart, alone with my grief. But I found comfort in the words of Mayyim Hayyim’s ritual ceremony for mourning a miscarriage:
“I mourn today for the one who could have been and grieve deeply for the loss of that potential life.”
The ceremony aligned with my hopes and dreams. I felt seen. The fact that Mayyim Hayyim is publicly in support of a woman’s right to choose struck me to my core and made me proud of my Jewish values.
This is why I support Mayyim Hayyim. Please join me in making a generous gift to this spiritually grounded and ethically responsible resource. 
Gratefully,
Rebekah R., M.D., Mayyim Hayyim Guest