Mikveh

The Jewish ritual bath, for purification and transitions.

A mikveh is a ritual bath in Judaism. It is filled with natural water, such as rainwater or spring water, and built so that someone can immerse completely. The word means gathering, after the verse in Genesis in which God calls the gathering of the waters sea.

Immersion in the mikveh, tevilah, marks a passage from one state to another. Women immerse after their period according to the laws of niddah, brides before their wedding, and converts as the final step of their passage into Judaism. Many men go before Yom Kippur or even weekly before Shabbat. New metal and glass kitchenware is also traditionally immersed.

Importantly, it is not about physical hygiene: whoever immerses is already clean. It is about a spiritual passage, an image of renewal. Some interpreters connect the mikveh with the womb, or with the waters of creation, from which life came.

In the Netherlands mikvehs can be found in Amsterdam, among other places, and archaeologists have found old mikvehs all over Europe, as signs of centuries-old Jewish communities.

According to halacha a mikveh must contain a minimum quantity of natural water, forty seah, and may not be filled with water drawn by vessels.

For dreams the mikveh is a powerful image. A dream about immersing in clear water, about a fresh start after distance or mourning, or about a threshold you cross can be read in that light in the Jewish tradition: not as cleansing of dirt, but as renewal. On Dreamkin Jewish readings of water dreams sometimes refer to the mikveh.