Summation

Rabbi Henry Zoob

The mikveh is a very powerful Jewish ceremonial medium. Its power, as Dr. Chernick has written, stems from its capacity to mark change, to affect transition. On many occasions, I have witnessed this transformative power in the tears of new converts and in the smiles of parents of an adopted infant. Last spring, I saw its power dramatized on stage when the inspiring true life stories of some of the three thousand immersions since May of 2004 by men, women and children at Mayyim Hayyim were retold in a presentation entitled “The Mikveh Monologues” written by Anita Diamant and Janet Buchwald.

It is clear to me that the high level of involvement of Boston area  Reform Jews in the creation of Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh and Educational Center in Newton, MA as well as the renewed interest and use of the mikveh of Reform Jews throughout the country marks the beginning of another chapter in Reform Judaism’s recent effort to reclaim traditional rituals that were discarded in its youth.   Does this mean that monthly immersion for niddah or weekly immersion prior to Shabbat will become widespread in the Reform movement?  I doubt it.   With the construction of other urban community based mikva’ot modeled on the Mayyim Hayyim paradigm there is however, a strong possibility that a growing number of American Reform Jews will go to a mikveh for immersion prior to marriage, the High Holydays and at other important annual or life cycle events. 

There are numerous explanations for the success of Mayyim Hayyim. Among them are the physical beauty of the mikveh as well as the charisma, dedication and effectiveness of the Executive Director Aliza Kline and the five founding mothers Anita Diamant (President of Mayyim Hayyim), Paula Brody (Reform), Rabbi Barbara Penzner (Reconstructionist), Judy Greene  and Roselyn Garber (Conservative). It can also be said that its time had come, for Reform Jews as well as others from the different denominations in the Boston area were ready to embrace and reclaim the ancient institution of the mikveh for themselves.  In the Reform community, this reclamation has been abetted by the local Reform rabbinate. Rabbi Jonathan Kraus in Belmont, MA, for example, has written an immersion service to be conducted annually for new officers and board members of his congregation. In my own congregation a number of candidates in an adult Bat Mitzvah class decided that they wanted to immerse prior to their ceremony.  There are many other examples of area Reform rabbis providing innovative ways for their congregants to experience the power and the beauty of immersion.

When one takes an overall view of the renewed interest in Jewish ritual among Reform Jews, it is important to remember that the Reform approach to Jewish ceremonial practice is radically different from that of Orthodoxy.  In Reform, the first test is meaningfulness; in Orthodoxy, the requirement for observance is already prescribed by the sacred texts of the Torah and Talmud. In Reform there is a two-tiered understanding of mitzvot – the ethical commandments such as the pursuit of justice and peace, reaching out to the poor, visiting the sick, preserving the environment, etc. remain the primary requirements for living an ideal Jewish life; the ceremonial mitzvot  such as the kindling of Sabbath candles, the waving of the lulav at Sukkot and not eating leavened grain during Pesach are supportive to the ethical mizvot.  By “supportive” I mean that Jewish ritual observances in the home and at synagogue help provide the indispensable  foundation for the preservation of Judaism and the Jewish people, i.e., the necessary context in which the performance of ethical mitzvot of Judaism can be observed. When Jewish rituals are thought of as “unnecessary” as was the inclination of some of the Reform rabbis at the end of the 19th century, the entire fabric of Jewish life is in danger of disappearing. In Reform Judaism, ceremonial mitzvot differ from ethical mitzvot in that the individual Reform Jew, rabbi and congregation are free to make “informed choices” as to which rites they will observe and how they will be observed.  In Orthodoxy, there are no such distinctions. All of the mitzvot, both the ceremonial and the ethical are in effect, for all are the word of God and their observance is equally mandated.               

From a personal perspective I am somewhat envious of the Orthodox approach to Jewish ceremony.  To believe that you are fulfilling a divine command every time you recite the motzie or put on tefillin is very powerful indeed. Daily Orthodox observance of the ritual commandments has the effect of continually concretizing and reinforcing the covenantal relationship between the individual Jew and God.  Although observance of Jewish ritual can be very powerful for the Reform Jew, the internal sense of obedience to God’s will in the observance of a ritual may not be present.   I don’t think that it can be any other way, for Reform Judaism is based on the premise that the rituals of Judaism are not mandated by the revealed word of God but rather they are rites which our ancestors developed and which we continue to change and develop in our quest to draw close to God and each other. Although it is true that when we commit ourselves to a particular ritual and over time it takes on the sense of an actual mitzvah, as if it were actually commanded by God, it is important to remember that it initially attracted our attention because of its meaningfulness, its capacity to inspire us.

In the years ahead, it will be interesting to see if the current move towards tradition in Reform Judaism exemplified by this month’s Eilu v’Eilu topic, the renewed interest in and use of the mivkeh in Reform Judaism, continues.  My sense is that it will, because meaningful Jewish religious ritual connects us to God and our Jewish heritage and provides nourishment for our hearts and our souls in a way that cannot be replicated in any other sphere of life.