Many Visits Later, Finally My First Immersion
Oct. 21, 2016
By Rachel Bernstein
Editor's note: This blog, written by Rachel Bernstein, HBI's academic advisor for the last eight years in our Gilda Slifka Summer Internship Program, is reprinted with permission from Mayyim Hayyim's blog, "The Mikveh Lady Has Left the Building."
I had been preparing for my first immersion for eight years. I didn't know exactly when it would be, but I could guess why it would be. The first eight times I had visited Mayyim Hayyim, I went in my capacity as academic adviser for the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute summer internship. I brought undergraduate and graduate students to Mayyim Hayyim each summer for an educational program. The focus of the internship is on gender and Judaism, so our annual field trip to Mayyim Hayyim always created a great conversation.
During my first visit to Mayyim Hayyim with the interns, I was completely bowled over by the concept of mikveh and seeing the space itself. As we did a mock walk-through of how an immersion might take place, I envisioned how I would approach the ritual, and wondered when I might visit Mayyim Hayyim for my own immersion. As we outlined the traditional reasons for using the mikveh, I decided that before my wedding I would immerse as a bride.
Every year afterward I would daydream during our visits about my eventual immersion. The space felt spiritual to me — so serene — and the power of performing a ritual that had been performed by Jews for millennia really struck me. Every year I would get goosebumps thinking about this sacred heritage and my place within it at Mayyim Hayyim.