Mikvah - Part Four: "The Spirit of Purity and Wholeness"

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor
February 23, 2001

Tonight I deliver the fourth and last of my sermons concerning our new mikvah which is well under construction on the main level of the Roseneath Building. It will be completed, God willing, sometime in March. With ample rain, it will be available for usage shortly thereafter. Every week I have indicated the impossibility of reviewing my sermonic development of the previous weeks. Again, I refer you to our web site and our email address located on the Shabbat brochure. Being on our listserv you will receive the sermon texts as email. Later they will be archived and attached to our web page.

Just to set the stage for my remarks: A mikvah is a pool into which one immerses to full a special ritual. This pool is attached to a cistern, called in Hebrew, bor, which contains at least 191 gallons of rainwater, which is channeled into it from the roof. After the bor is full, the mikvah pool is filled with tap water. When ready for use, a plug is removed from the pipe thus connecting the bor and the mikvah, making the mikvah an extension of the bor. Thus all the water is considered natural water. I have indicated in previous weeks that these waters really reflect the waters of God's creation of the world, as stated in Genesis. While H2O is always H2O, there is a powerful spiritual and religious difference between tap water and natural water, in Hebrew, mayyim chayyim.

Immersing in a mikvah has nothing to do with cleanliness.

It relates to holiness.

Immersing in a mikvah is diametrically the opposite of a swimming pool, a jacuzzi, or a hot tub. Those are recreational. This is ethereal.

I composed these series of sermons in a specific order with the express purpose of laying before our congregation and community the compelling religious reasons for the construction of our mikvah. My other goal is to inspire our members and all members of the community to use it for all its multiple purposes.

The first sermon explained the basics in building a mikvah and the use of the term. Conservative Judaism teaches the concrete practices and observances of our faith, components that are touched, smelled, seen, held, and embraced. There is a physicality that is authentic Judaism.

The second sermon explained that the original and core usage of a mikvah was and is for taharat hamishpacha, family purity, done on a monthly basis by a woman. This imbues her relationship with her husband with a higher holiness. It invests their bond with sanctity and elevates their marriage. It is intertwined with many teachings about the holiness of our bodies, which is one of the most important teachings of Judaism.

The third sermon referred to the use of the mikvah as the indispensable ritual in conversion. There is a direct connection between the waters being reflective of creation and a person creating a new religious identity. In a religious sense, they are newborn people, emerging from the waters of the mikvah even as a baby emerges from its mother's bag of waters. Throughout the millenium, people have been drawn to Judaism's message and strengthen our people.

Tonight I refer to other uses that relate to the core teaching that mikvah connects us closer to God. In these waters we attain a higher sense of spiritual holiness.

Traditionally men and women immersed in mikvah in order to attain spiritual purity. As God is pure, coming as close to Him would allow us to partake in His purity. This is done before Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur as part of our process of atonement and starting over in the new year. Far from the off handed and inappropriate remarks about Jewish guilt, Judaism gives us the most beautiful rituals to deal with responsibilities and obligations which we didn't fulfill, for whatever reason. In the mikvah we symbolically immerse ourselves in God's holy water and create a new life for the new year. As the waters touch our bodies, its message of spiritual cleanliness touches our souls. We emerge spiritually clean and pure, just as the new baby at birth.

Brides and grooms immerse themselves in mikvah before their marriage. In preparing them for their wedding I emphasize the commitment that they are making to each other. They are sharing more than the same address and the same bed. They are bonding two souls in sacred fidelity. They must do this b'temimut - in the purity. These are all ephemeral words. They are made real in the waters of the mikvah. They are purifying themselves to be ready for andworthy of each other. They are elevating the sanctity of their commitment.

On Fridays in Jerusalem one will see particularly men going to the mikvah in preparation for Shabbat. In contradiction to the common perception in the ancient world that time was evil, Judaism's brilliant teaching is that time is holy.Therefore one prepares for holy time by sanctifying themselves physically, by immersing in the mikvah.

Today I often read about people's quest for wholeness and healing. Whether it is from the stress and pressures of every day living and work, from life wrenching experiences, or from illness and surgery, people want to feel whole andwell. Initiated by women after mastectomies, then extended to men and women after any kind of surgery or invasive procedure, they find this by immersing in the mikvah. The waters of the mikvah are no substitute for a doctor's care.

The doctor deals with the body. The mikvah deals with the soul.

There is efficacious power, spiritually healing power in the mikvah because its waters symbolize God and moreover, symbolize His, and with the use of the word "Shechinah" God's Presence, also Her, God's feminine expression, love for us. When illness and surgery might lead us to ask questions like "why me?" and "where is God now?" the waters answer:

"I am here. I love you. I am with you, even now, especially now."

Our faith teaches us to believe that we are never alone. The Psalmist saw God in the blade of grass, in the drop of rain, and even in the flake of snow. The philosopher answered the question "Where is God?" with the question "Where is Godnot?" implying that God is everywhere. Particularly in painful times we want to be reassured that God still loves us, that there is meaning to life beyond what we understand. Just like our parents embraced us when we hurt our selves, though it didn't heal the injury, through the waters of the mikvah we believe that God embraces us too.

There are other times when we are bothered and troubled, that we seek wholeness and tranquility, that we search for God's transcendence, His power of the universe, coupled with His immanence, His Divine nearness:

When the last child moves out to college and the nest is empty;

When the last child is married and we have no more dependents for Form 1040;

When a friend dies;

When a parent dies;

When a marriage dies;

When a job dies.

We want to know, in our neshamas, that we are "okay," that our lives are still meaningful, that there is purpose in what we do, that the universe is still orderly, even when our lives are not. There is no other place, than perhaps private prayer in the quiet of the sanctuary, than the mikvah, to discover tranquility for the self and serenity for the soul. Because the waters of the mikvah are natural rainwater and not tap water, it is as if we return to and are embraced by nature itself and God its author. We want and need to feel this. We do, as the waters of the mikvah surround us like a Divine hug, a heavenly touch. In the mikvah, like no other place, in no other way, can we discover purity and wholeness.

That is where this subject ends. Yet I am compelled to add a postscript. I imagine that some people might think that I am a "bisttle meshugah" with all this spirituality of the mikvah. I assure you otherwise. I rhetorically ask the following questions: Why do we need turn to every drug and psychiatrist, with all due respect to science and medicine, when we have the potent power of our own religion? Why should this be any less believable? There are many things, which we can't see which we know are real, like the emotions of love and hate. Every study done shows that those who allow the power of faith in God to enter into their hearts heal better after surgery, live healthier lives, have less divorce, and live longer lives. Our faith translates words and ideas into concrete expression. We use the light of the candles, the wine of Kiddush, the challah of hamotzi, the white of Yom Tov robes, the scroll of the Torah, the kipah on our heads to make real in our eyes and hands our beliefs. Mikvah is part of that too. I hope that we will embrace in our arms the God to whom we have prayed tonight, and allow His metaphoric arms to embrace in the waters of the mikvah.