The Meaning of the Mikvah
The Meaning of the Mikvah
Rabbi Akivah said:
“Happy are ye 0
Before Whom do you purify yourselves?
And Who purifies you?
Your Father in Heaven.”
As it is said:
“And I will sprinkle pure waters upon you and you will he purified.”
And it is said:
“The L-rd is the hope of (‘Mikveh’)
“As the Mikvah purifies the impure, So does the Holy One blessed he He purify
The Mikvah
‘Mikveh’ means a gathering of waters which can cleanse the impure through complete immersion. The forty Saah (measures) of the Mikvah must not have been contained in vessels, and must be connected to the earth. ‘The number forty represents rebirth. (The initial formation of the embryo lasts forty days according to the Talmud; all stages of the Deluge lasted forty days — Gen. 7-s; the new generation in the desert was formed and prepared for the Holy Land in forty years — Num. 14; Elijah fasted forty days before Divine revelation — Kings 1, 19;
Jonah prophesised the destruction of Nineah in forty days; Ezekiel was commanded to lie on his side for forty days to atone for the sins of Israel — Ezek. 4; many parts of the Temple measured forty cuhits; thirty-nine categories of creative work plus the positive rest of Shabbat bring about the weekly renewal of the Jew.)
Water in our literature stands for Torah, like the earth a Divine creation; vessels are a product of mans creativity. One’s whole body needs to he immersed in water without anything intervening: this means submersion in, and acceptance of the whole Torah without reservation. In this way one can attain ‘Devekuth’ and renewal. A proselyte becomes like a ‘newborn child’, in part through the act of immersion, which removes impurities from men and vessels. On Yom Kippur, G-d becomes the Mikvah of Israel; the nation is puried and reborn.
The Family
The Mikvah is essential as a means of upholding the purity of the Jewish home. Husband and wife should keep apart during the monthly feminine indisposition, and for seven days afterwards, at the end of which the wife should immerse herself in a Mikvah. (The seven days represent a period of perfect preparation and renewal. ‘l’he world as created in seven days, upon which is based the holiness of Shabbath; seven days of festivals; Israel counted seven times seven days before they were ready to receive the Torah; seven days of purification for the Temple and all holy activities; the High Priest was prepared for his task seven days before Yom Kippur.)
In Jewish tradition the wedding-day is regarded as an individual Yom Kippur. ‘The laws for married life are mentioned in Leviticus just before and after the regulation of the Yom Kippur service; they occur in the Scriptural reading of Minchah for that day; and the penalty of ‘that soul being cut off from its people’ imposed upon those who eat and work on the Day of Atonement also applies to those who unite whilst the woman is impure (Lev. IS. 19; 20. I S.)
Jewish and non-Jewish medical experts have been astounded by the manifold hygienic effects of the Jewish pattern of married life, both for parents and child. By affording periods of relaxation and preventing overindulgence, as also from many other points of view, these regulations safeguard the health and vigour of the Jew. They bring true emancipation to the woman. This discipline is a ‘hedge of roses’ that guards against waste of physical and emotional energies. The rhythmic renewal (in Hebrew ‘Chodesh’ also means ‘month’) of love, makes man and wife as desirable to one another throughout their marriage as upon the ‘day of the Chupah’, and brings such freshness to marriage that it can never grow stale. The purpose of marriage, namely: procreation, companionship, and the completion of ones own being through another, is ever fulfilled.
Yet all this is not SO much a reason as a by-product of the Divine design of living, which is good for body and soul:
for its main purpose is the sanctification of the physical human in the service of the Almighty. The strongest passion of man loses its arbitrary character and becomes G-d-villed. Husband and wife are asked to choose, freer and consciously, to become partners in creation with their Maker, Who then brings harmony and holiness to the home.
Those born from such a marriage are healthy in body and pure in soul: the preparation for them has begun before birth. The example of patterned living of the parents strikes deep and firm roots inside the children. It is the strongest protection from delinquency and the evil influences of material civilisation, and ensures sane, good living. This is the secret of the physical and mental vitality of the Jewish people. Whatever special gifts those that no longer follow this path may have, are largely built upon the stock of the past. The unit of the nation is the family; the cement of the family is the regulation of purity.
Religious Revival
Religious revival must, like all good things, begin at home. We must restore a feeling of responsibility for the forces of purity that have been placed within us by our forbears. The marriage regulations rank extremely high, and a Jew is expected to court the greatest danger in upholding them. We must learn not only to eat kosher, but also to live a kosher married life and to bear kosher children. A Scroll of the Torah and a synagogue may be sold in order to build a Mikvah, which is the first duty of a Jewish community .Many have ably fulfilled this by building modern and even luxurious Mikvaoth.
Gan Eden
Adam and Eve lived a life of inward and outward harmony in the bliss of Gan Eden: there was no enmity between the beast and man and the beast in man as long as they kept to the Divine command. So the home of husband and wife can be a miniature Gan Eden if the Word of G-d rules their conjugal life.
The
Then mankind will be ready for the final Redemption when ‘the wolf shall dwell with the lamb . . . and the suckling shall play on the hole of the asp (harmony between man and beast) . . . They shall do no evil nor destroy (inward and outward peace of man) . . . For the earth (material things) shall be full of the knowledge of the L-rd as the waters cover the bed of the sea (lowest places)
— rich and poor, materially or spiritually, will gain equality by subjection to the Will of the L-rd (Is. 11).
The Mikvah spells hope for man,
