|
August 2, 2002/Av 24 5762, Vol. 54, No. 46
The waters of Jewish lifeEditorialHistorically, when Jews build a community, they first purchase a burial ground.They then create a Jewish infrastructure for the living: a beit k'nesset, house of gathering; a beit t'filah, house of prayer; a beit midrash, house of study; and a mikvah, ritual bath. The necessity of a mikvah for the Jewish people is mentioned in Torah - for its spiritually purifying waters (Leviticus 15) and for its cleansing of new vessels. (Numbers 31) Records show that mikvot were common in Jerusalem during the time of the second Temple. When Jews migrated to Italy, Germany and Eastern Europe, they constructed mikvot wherever they settled. Recently, a mikvah dating from the 13th century was uncovered in London. According to the Museum of London, it is the only identifiable structure that has survived from the medieval Jewish community. Ultimately, the rabbis required a mikvah in every Jewish community based on the halachic laws of Taharat Ha-Mishpacha (family purity). Today, traditional Jews depend upon mikvah visits to maintain their religious lifestyle. For a woman to engage in marital relations, she must become spiritually pure following her menstrual cycle. To prepare for Shabbat and the holidays - especially Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur - men and women often spiritually cleanse themselves in purifying waters. The culmination of becoming a giyur, a convert, is submerging in the waters and surfacing as a Jew. Jewish life in Phoenix can be daunting. Jews in our large, sprawling metropolitan area are now served by just one mikvah, at Chabad of Phoenix. A longstanding community mikvah located adjacent to Beth Joseph Congregation closed in January because it was in disrepair. The mikvah's limited accessibility poses an issue for a Jewish community spread to the Valley's four corners. Another is conversion. Because the Chabad mikvah is not available for conversion, converts, including adopted children, must go to Saguaro or Roosevelt Lake or travel out of state to complete the ancient ritual. This community of 60,000 to 80,000 Jews surely warrants more. Mikvot in more than one neighborhood, open to men and women of various levels of observance and available for conversion ceremonies, would expand the Valley's Jewish infrastructure - increasing the ease of incorporating traditional practices in the lifestyle of every Jew who so chooses. A diversity of mikvot would bring various streams of living, spiritual waters to our desert Jewish community, nourishing our growth and enabling us to bloom fuller and brighter. |
