Mikveh is a "ritual bath" used for immersion in a purification ceremony within Judaism. In contemporary times, it is used by Jewish women to achieve ritual purity. Immersion in a mikveh is also required during a traditional conversion to Judaism.
We visited a mikveh in Newton, Massachusetts--Mayyim Hayyim--with author Anita Diamant (The Red Tent), a member of a group of women who worked together to make the mikveh possible.
Mayyim Hayyim's mission statement sums up the rationale behind the creation of this mikveh:"To reclaim and reinvent one of our most ancient Jewish rituals - immersion in the mikveh - for contemporary spiritual uses and to make this new, sacred space open and accessible to all Jews in the Greater Boston area".
