The Mikvah in Progressive Judaism.

The use of the Mikvah (ritual bath) was generally discarded by the early reformers of Judaism at the beginning of the nineteenth century.  This is because it was seen as discriminatory (used almost exclusively by women) and outdated (they rejected the idea of ritual impurity, especially because of a natural cause such as menstruation).

Over the past couple of generations it has re-emerged, mainly because of its part in the traditional Jewish conversion ceremony.  One of the components of conversion to Judaism was immersion in the mikvah.  In order to follow the traditional practices, and to remove the opportunity for anyone to say 'you can't really have become Jewish as you didn't go to the mikvah', it is now commonly included as part of the process of Progressive conversions.

It soon became clear, however, that there was a real psychological benefit for many candidates - aside from all the academic learning and experiencing Jewish life, and going before a Bet Din (Jewish court), here was a physical act - the moment of immersion - which made a powerful physical transition - going into the water as something else - a 'nearly Jew' - and emerging as fully Jewish.

It became equally clear that almost all mikva'ot (plural of mikvah) were owned and run by the orthodox, who would generally not allow their mikva'ot to be used by non-orthodox conversion purposes.

In Britain, when the Empire Games had been held in Cardiff, Wales, in 1958, the orthodox community had seen an opportunity to have a new Mikvah built for them as part of the Empire Pool.  And so, when the Reform Movement reintroduced mikvah as part of their conversion process back in the 1970s, people were sent to Cardiff - a two hour train journey away.  There, in the entrance foyer, behind a door marked 'Private', was a mikveh owned by the municipality and not controlled by the orthodox!

Taking a day trip to Cardiff and attending the Bet Din brandishing a swimming pool entrance ticket was not entirely satisfactory either to the candidates or to the rabbis, and when a new Youth and Education building was being planned for the Sternberg Centre in London, headquarters of the UK Reform Movement, it was decided to include our own mikvah.

Unfortunately, the building was already largely designed, and the space identified was originally intended to be a disabled toilet, and this was somewhat extended for the mikvah. The Rabbis of the Reform movement were given a deadline to submit designs, but no-one had picked up the challenge.  Although I was then working in the sister Liberal Movement, where we offered mikvah as an option for conversions but did not insist on it, I felt it was an important issue and too good an opportunity to miss.  So I picked up the challenge, checking sources and learning as much as I could about the requirements of a functional mikvah.

1983: The design was checked and approved by colleagues, including by Rabbi Louis Jacobs, head of the Masorti movement who also planned to use it, as they too were prevented from using orthodox mikva'ot.  It was submitted just in time and the mikvah built.  It has been in regular use since the early 1980s.  (Design features, operation and pictures of the Sternberg Centre Mikvah are found in the next post).

Progressive Judaism empowers people to make 'educated choices', and by building our own mikvah, where the operation and intention could be explained and seen, and it could readily be used, we made this very much easier.  An interesting and somewhat unexpected result of having this comfortable and accessible mikvah within our own Centre has been that some people have began to use it for other traditional uses.  For example, although men have generally been exempt from requiring the since the destruction of the Temple (some 1940+ years ago!), the Torah scribe (sofer) is supposed to go to the mikvah before writing God's name, and a sofer working in our community was using it regularly.  It is traditionally also part of the preparation prior to the High Holydays, and has been used by a few people (including me) for that purpose.  Of course there is the original 'post menstruation' use, and I know one or two women have started visiting for this, and also pre-wedding, where I believe some women (and a few men) have decided to use the mikvah for this purpose. 

In Melbourne, the orthodox community had got the municipal authorities to include a Mikvah as part of the Melbourne Baths in East Melbourne, opened in 1904, and though the community has largely migrated to the south, this mikvah was used for some years by the Progressive movement until around 2001, by which time it had cracked and was decommissioned.  We reverted to using the 'natural water' of Port Philip Bay and also utilised some hot natural springs on the Mornington Peninsula, especially during winter!

2011: In 2011 we secured a grant from Melbourne City Council and were able to renovate and update the Melbourne Baths Mikvah.  It is interesting to note that the design from 1904 did not appear to include 'natural water' - the mikvah was filled from taps.  We have taken the opportunity to incorporate a halachic device to return tap water to the state of 'natural water'.  The mikvah has been back in use since 2012, including by some local orthodox Jews.  (Redesign features, operation and pictures of the Melbourne Baths Mikvah are found in a subsequent post).

2012: The reconstruction of the Emanuel Synagogue in Sydney offers the opportunity to include a Mikvah for the Progressive and Masorti Community (and anyone else who wishes to use it) in NSW, and I have been involved in advising on that development.

2013: A reconstruction of a synagogue in the South of England has similarly offered the opportunity for a mikvah and I am pleased to have been able to assist in advising on that project.

NOTE: This Introduction is dated 2023 to ensure that it remains at the top of the list as subsequent blogs are posted.

Thoughts on building a Mikvah

A new mikvah should of course be designed on environmental principles.  I am amazed each time I think about the first mikvah I built, back in the early 80's, that we didn't consider the amount of clean water taken, or the amount of energy used to heat that water, every time it is used.  

Just a couple of years later, I was thoroughly aware and concerned about the changes we were causing to the climate.  A new mikvah should have a small spa pump and heater and use chlorine tablets to keep the water clean, rather than use new water each time!

These things don't come cheap!  But we can take steps to minimise cost by good design - and sensible 'halachic' decisions.  For example, if you can keep the water in the mikvah as described above, then you only need one store tank, not the two I used previously: as long as the mikvah is full, you can empty the store tank, clean it and let it refill from subsequent rain - the mikvah water, once valid, remains so.  This depends on accepting the principle of the pump/spa system.  According to halacha, a pump is problematic as it counts as a 'chamber' and therefore water coming out of it is 'drawn'.  Yet where you have very orthodox mikva'ot (eg Chabad Hampstead Garden Suburb), one for men and one for women, the men's one at least utilises this system - basically, I believe, because a) they are not so serious about men (as there is no longer a Temple, so they don't have to reach a level of complete purity), so it is only 'custom' anyway, and b) the traditional approach tends to always be more lenient about men than women (probably because it is decided by men)!  From our point of view, I'd suggest that the water returning from the pump passes along the earthenware or concrete channel for 1 mt, thereby 'revalidating' it, using the legal fiction that we have relied on up to now (and which the orthodox also use, albeit only in a 'belt and braces' situation!).

The main cost issue (aside from the cost of the land and building) is that the two tanks need to be 'part of the building', which really means cast in concrete, and tiled (because a flat tile cannot be a 'container'), but really that is just a small built-in indoor spa, and a swimming pool installer should be able to do it at reasonable cost.

Kibbutz Chanaton's Mikvah

Masorti Mikvah in Israel

Apparently the only non-orthodox Mikvah in Israel paid for by state funds is that on Kibbutz Chanaton. Kibbutz Chanaton is the Masorti (Conservative) movement's kibbutz in the Northern Galilee, established in 1983.

To see website article: Click here

'John the Immerser' and the Mikvah

Baptism in Jordan River, Yardenit, Israel

Mikvah at the Sternberg Centre, Finchley, UK

Mikvah at the Sternberg Centre

The Mikvah at the Sternberg Centre is innovative in two ways.

1) First, it contains not one but two rainwater stores.

When one is full, it can be used to 'seed' the actual Mikvah immersion bath by running warm water into it - this warm water, which has been 'validated' by mixing with the natural rainwater, then overflows to fill the immersion bath.  This is common and normal procedure.

However, once the rainwater tank is full of rainwater, further rainfall automatically fills the second rainwater store.  Once the second store is filled, the first can be emptied and cleaned. This is very useful where the rain has fallen onto dirty London roofs, and despite the sand filter it passes through, is inevitably still grimy, with sediment settling at the bottom of the tank!

2) The second innovation is that, traditionally, you need a careful mikvah operator to ensure that no tapwater is allowed into the rainwater tank to overflow and fill the immersion bath) until the rainwater store is already full of rainwater.  If it is only half-full of water, a person could turn on the tap and fill the rainwater tank with tap water (invalid), which would eventually overflow and fill the immersion bath with INVALID water.  Technically, this would not be a 'kosher' immersion.  At the Sternberg Centre mikvah this cannot happen. Each rainwater tank has a float switch.  The tap water is controlled by valves.  When you turn the hot and/or cold taps on, the water only flows into a rainwater tank that is already full (valid).  If neither rainwater tank is full of rainwater, then no water will flow and hence the immersion pool cannot be filled.

The room is divided by a wall and translucent divider.  The first area has a toilet (the space was originally allocated to be a disabled toilet and still fulfills this function), a shower (it is a requirement to be completely physically clean before immersing to become 'ritually clean'), a wash basin, a storage cupboard, towel rail, clothes hooks, hair dryer and a seat, as well as steps up to the sliding divider, behind which is the immersion bath.  The second area contains the immersion bath with steps down into the bath.  There are two platform areas with different pastel coloured tiles (see below) - those who are short, children, or people with a fear of the water can be advised to go only to this step as it is not so deep.  One or two more steps take you to the full depth (note, in these pictures the immersion bath is not full, although well over 'kosher' amount of water).

Mikvah - meaning and origins

Mikvah - origins

The word means a "collection" – generally, a collection of water, as we first find in the creation story – ‘u’l’mikveh hamayim kara yamim – the collection of water [God] called Seas’ (Genesis 1:10).

So a mikvah is understood as a body of water including a natural, free-flowing source (mayim chayim – living waters’).  This might include a river or the sea but for privacy and convenience, a mikvah (pl. mikva’ot) is usually an indoor pool which is fed partially from ‘mayim chayim’ of some sort.

Torah contains many references to regaining spiritual purity after various sorts of bodily emissions: menstruation, ejaculation, discharges and weeping wounds.  Usually these require a physical cleansing (such as washing the clothes), and then a full immersion, sometimes, as in Leviticus 15:13, specifically in ‘Mayim Chayim’, ‘living’ water.   It is from these texts that the formal procedure of immersion was developed, and traditionally used by Jewish women after menstruation or childbirth and before marriage, by Jewish men to achieve ritual purity, and for utensils to be used for food, to render them ‘kosher’.

The Mikvah at the Melbourne City Baths

The Mikvah at the Melbourne Baths

The new Melbourne City Baths opened to great excitement on 23 March 1904. The design reflected the needs and architecture of the turn of the century and, to provide for the observant Jews of East Melbourne, included a Jewish ceremonial bath (Mikvah)!

Progressive reforms to Judaism date back to the establishment of the Seesen congregation in Lower Saxony by Israel Jacobson way back in 1810, when the belief that such ‘human emissions’ could render us ‘unclean’ was rejected, so for more than 200 years Progressive Jews have not usually used the mikvah for the above purposes.  However they have been used, and especially over the past generation, for the final stage of conversion to Judaism, since this is a powerful symbol of transition.

The various mikva’ot under Orthodox auspices are not usually available for use by the Progressive community, so we have had to find alternatives.  For some years, the Melbourne community used the mikvah at the Melbourne City Baths, until, some ten years ago, it suffered a structural cracking, after which we resorted to the most natural of mikva’ot, Port Philip Bay!  For reasons of privacy, comfort and safety, this was far from ideal, so we worked with Melbourne City Council and with the support of Lord Mayor Robert Doyle to complete a renovation of the City Baths mikvah which is now warm, attractive and carpeted, and complete with pictures, bath and shower.

As Progressive Jews we emphasise individual educated choice and encourage the use of any religious traditions that might help to bring God more into our lives; the mikvah has therefore occasionally been used as part of preparations for the New Year or marriage, and now that we have one available in Melbourne, it is being rediscovered by those seeking meaningful rights of passage symbols.

The Progressive Judaism Victoria office (03 9533 9930) can assist you with organising and booking the mikvah. 

The mikvah will be filled in advance, as it takes nearly an hour to fill!  We explored sending all this warm water into the main chlorinated pool system after use but it turned out to be unviable!  

When the taps are turned on, the water flows a metre along a terracotta pipe attached to the wall, before entering the mikvah.

This is a commonly employed legal fiction which is considered to have turned the water from 'drawn' tap water (invalid) into 'mayim chayim - living, natural water' (valid).

It derives from the question 'if a bucket of water is drawn water, but I tip it on the floor, when does it become natural water again?'.  The answer given is that once it has flowed a cubit along the ground, it is natural water.  The subsequent question is 'what sort of ground must it flow along' and the answer is 'ground that is absorbent' and absorbent is taken to mean that it shows the passage of the water.  Hence we use a terracotta pipe, which becomes darker (ie absorbs some of the water) as it flows along it.  Attached to the wall makes it part of (one with) the building.  Traditionally lean concrete has also been used for the purpose.

Heater and hairdryer make use of the mikvah more comfortable

                                                        Steps down into the mikvah

                                   The bath for physical cleansing.  It now has a shower 
                                  and shower curtain around it, and the area is carpeted.