Mikva

The word " mikveh " is first mentioned in Genesis : "He called the congregation of waters ( mikveh ) the seas" ( Genesis 1:10 ) ( ולמקוה המים קרא ימים ). The word mikwe literally means "gathering, accumulation" of water.

The following situations are mentioned in the Torah when desecration occurs ( Heb. טומאה , tum'a ): touching the dead man, touching the one who touched the dead man, staying under the same roof with the dead man, touching the dead animal, ejaculation, excretion menstrual blood in women, infection with leprosy or gonorrhea .

A person who has become unclean ( Heb. טמא , tame ) cannot enter the Temple . Coenes (priests) should also not, being unclean, eat food that they received from the people by virtue of their office.

The methods of cleansing from each type of ritual impurity vary, but in all cases, without dipping in the mikva, purification does not occur. For cleansing from ritual impurities, dipping in water is required. The sages developed a regulation for such a dipping, in particular, established the size of the pool used, worked out the requirements for the source of water from the pool, and recorded the names.

Nowadays

Today, the laws of ritual purity are not observed as strictly as before. The only case when these laws are strictly enforced is the prohibition of a woman from having sexual intercourse with her husband before the completion of menstrual bleeding and subsequent bathing in mikvah.

It is considered indecent to meet in a mikvah of mother and daughter.

In men, it is customary to plunge into the mikvah after ejaculation, as well as before the holidays, especially before Yom Kippur . Many Orthodox Jews are washed in mikvah before the Sabbath , and some Hasidim - every morning before prayer.

Be sure to dip in mikvah with giure .

The bride visits the mikvah on the evening before the wedding.

Dishes belonging to non-Jews are also dipped into the mikvah, in particular new dishes not produced in a Jewish factory before being used.

In the USA

The almost complete disappearance of mikvah in the United States and the recent gradual return to it began is a miniature story of American Judaism. When the mass migration of European Jews to America began at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, they did not find ritual pools here; then the most pious Jews, having difficulty having accumulated some miserable pennies, began to build mikvahs for themselves, which were, of course, very unpretentious. But at the same time, in any quarter that was even a little more comfortable than slums, there was a sewage system in the houses and there were bathtubs - a thing that was still almost unknown to the poor in Europe, and indeed in any other place and in any other era, except perhaps ancient Rome. It was ridiculous to trudge somewhere and plunge into a cramped and neglected mikvah for the sake of observing the rite of purification, when there was plenty of water at home and its own bathtub, shining with white tile.

- Wook Herman . It's my god

• Mikve - an article from the Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia .
• Nebolsin P. I. Essays on the Private Life of Jews (Rus.) // Notes of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society for the Department of Ethnography : Journal / Ed. L. N. Maikova . - SPb. : Type of. Maykova, 1873 .-- T. III . - S. 253-321 .

• Voodoo (bath)
• Ablution