Jewish Community, Niddah

Mayyim Hayyim is making the hard things easier

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by Shira Cohen-Goldberg Mayyim Hayyim hasn’t let a pandemic get in the way of building a more vibrant, inclusive Jewish community. In fact, even while its doors were closed, Mayyim Hayyim found a way to make mikveh open and accessible for everyone, including me. Because of Mayyim Hayyim, I realized that I was not alone, […]

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Healing

Healing Waters and Wholeness

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by Dr. Gail Levine-Fried My mother first brought my sister and I to the water as children growing up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. She loved swimming and the ocean, and took us to swimming pools, public and private, in parts of Brooklyn far from our neighborhood. Mom didn’t drive a car, but she schlepped us […]

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Jewish Community, Niddah

Today I Did Something Hard

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by Shira Cohen-Goldberg Today I did something hard. No, it wasn’t homeschooling two children while keeping a toddler out of danger and trying to work my day job. That was today, yesterday, the day before that, and will likely be tomorrow, the day after that, and the day after that. While nothing during this pandemic […]

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Jewish Community, Mikveh Guides

I Miss My Rituals

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by Amy Fleming I’m doing okay during this COVID-19 shutdown. My geographically scattered family members are healthy. We’re aware that we are very fortunate. But like everyone else, I long for life to return “back to normal.” I miss the structure and routine of volunteering every Wednesday at Mayyim Hayyim, which I’ve been doing for […]

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Accessibility and Inclusion, National Network, Niddah

Mikveh in the Time of Corona: Reflections on immersion and alternatives

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by Rabbi Dr. Haviva Ner-David Originally published on the Times of Israel blog To immerse or not to immerse? That is the question. And if not to immerse, or if immersing becomes impossible, can (and should) we who have made mikveh our rabbinic pulpit offer an alternative in these times? Shmaya: A Mikveh For Mind, Body and […]

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Healing, Jewish Community

Mikveh in the Time of Coronavirus

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by Rosa Blumenfeld I am the daughter of a mother who was born during La Violencia, the Colombian civil war so bloody it was simply called ‘The Violence,’ and a father who survived the Holocaust as a 25 year old in 1939. I know what it is to be raised to be on constant alert […]

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Uncategorized

Ritual is What You Make of it

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by Rachel Eisen, Director of Development Who decides what ritual is and ritual means? I’m guessing you won’t be surprised if I told that here at Mayyim Hayyim, we believe the answer to that question is: you.   At Mayyim Hayyim, we focus on making it possible for you to own the ritual of mikveh immersion […]

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Healing

For Grief and for Joy

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by Lorie Holder-Webb As I left Mayyim Hayyim, my Mikveh Guide wished that next time we meet be for joy. I understand that, and thanked her for that wish, but I have to say that for me, this meeting was for joy. I know it must seem that immersing in the midst of a chronic […]

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Jewish Community

Mikveh: Something Purely for Myself

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by Lindsay Rosenfeld I recently – and quite unexpectedly – found a ritual that I absolutely never thought I would participate in to be part of my journey to reconnect body and mind spiritually and emotionally. Mikveh. Growing up, I knew what mikveh was, but it always seemed a ritual prescribed to a woman – […]

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Cancer, Healing, National Network

I became a cancer survivor at the mikveh

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by Rachel Hillman I first immersed at Mayyim Hayyim in September 2019, but my relationship with the mikveh in Newton began in Washington, DC five years earlier. I want you to understand how your support for Mayyim Hayyim touches lives far beyond Boston. I was 28 years old and undergoing treatment for breast cancer. After seven […]

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Accessibility and Inclusion, Jewish Community, Youth

Birthday at the Mikveh

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by Elisha Gechter My daughter, a party planner practically since she emerged from the womb, recently chose to celebrate her 7th birthday at Mayyim Hayyim. She got her party planning start in the months preceding her second birthday wherein she identified the book series, Lady Bug Girl, as the theme, which included the cutest Pinterest […]

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