Translation

A collection (of water)

Definition:

A body of “living water” which, when fully immersed in, changes a person’s ritual status to tahor, ritually clean or pure.

A mikveh can be any body of water, artificially collected or naturally occurring, that contains “living water”, water that is naturally occurring and replenished. This includes water such as spring, rain or sea water but excludes tap water. Some who wish to immerse for the purpose of tevilah, ritual immersion, will do so in a river or in the sea. Most people visit a constructed mikveh (such as the one found at the Sternberg Centre for Judaism in London). For purposes of comfort and cleanliness, these often make use of the halakhah, Jewish legal ruling, which allows for mikva’ot (pl. of mikveh) to be valid if they contain a minimum of 40 se’ah (approx 8.5-14L) of living waters. This volume can be kept in a second tank adjacent to the immersion bath so long as the two are connected by an opening so that the waters theoretically can flow freely between the two tanks. This allows for the bathing area to be kept to a sanitary standard and still contain acceptable living waters.

One should note that the purpose of the mikveh is not cleanliness in the sense of personal hygiene. The idea of ritual cleanliness or ritual purity, a spiritual cleanliness. There are a number of things which, according to halakhah, can render a person tameh, ritually unclean. These include contact with the dead and certain bodily emissions (including menstruation). However, the halakhah of ritual impurity no longer applies in the same way since the destruction of the Temple and, with it, the sacrificial aspect of Biblical Judaism. The main holdover is niddah, the state of impurity for a menstruant. Some women will visit the mikveh a week after the completion of their menstruation.

Another important use for the mikveh is as part of the conversion process. Once the proselyte is accepted by the beit din, they will immerse in the mikveh. This is an important step in the change of status. In addition, some people will visit the mikveh as an aid to spiritual cleansing. This usually takes place in anticipation of a holiday (e.g. Shabbat, Yom Kippur) or around an important life event (e.g. before a wedding, after a birth). Some people will immerse crockery and utensils before their first use.

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