Written by Carrie Bornstein I remember the first time I ever drove by myself. As soon as I got my license, the deal was that if I drove my father to the train station, I could use the car for the day. My alarm went off early – 6:30, to be precise – plenty of […]
Continue ReadingWritten by David Levy For theater lovers, there’s only one place to be tonight: the Loeb Drama Center in Cambridge, where the American Repertory Theater will begin previews for their new version of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. Although tonight will be the first time this production unfolds before a paying audience, its advantages and […]
Continue ReadingWritten by Aliza Kline In just a little over a week my family and I will embark on a big adventure – a 10-month sabbatical in Israel. This will be the year that we look back on; the myth that shapes our family’s story. I will return next summer to a strong and healthy Mayyim […]
Continue ReadingWritten by Rabbi Margaret Frisch Klein What does mikveh have to do with becoming a rabbi? Even before Mayyim Hayyim existed, I had explored mikveh. After spending one Omer soul searching, I gathered some very close friends at Freeman Lake to witness my own mikveh ceremony. The night before I wondered what was next. An […]
Continue ReadingWritten by Elisheva Baskin Tisha b’Av, the ninth day in the Hebrew calendar month of Av, is Judaism’s “dark day.” Ironically, it comes in mid- to end of the summer, when the days are long and the sun shines bright. This makes the matter of fasting, not drinking liquids, and not bathing as especially difficult […]
Continue ReadingWritten by Rabbi Emma Kippley-Ogman A few months ago, a well-meaning hasid from Jerusalem was trying to figure out what it meant for the woman he’d just seen lead a traditional mincha-maariv service to be both Jewishly observant and a rabbi. He asked me: Do you keep shabbes? Yes, I responded. You don’t drive? Right. […]
Continue ReadingWritten by Madeline Mayer As I peered for the first time at the glistening waters of the mikveh at Mayyim Hayyim, I felt as if I was truly seeing inside my own soul—this time with a renewed, lucid state of mind. With its beautiful blue stones and tranquil waters, the mikveh enveloped me with spirit and […]
Continue ReadingWritten by Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin The mikveh has been part of my life for 35 years. I have “taken the waters” in Manhattan, Beer Sheva, the Atlantic Ocean, New Jersey, Baltimore, and just this past spring, at Mayyim Hayyim. I have written healing rituals for post-partum ceremonies, victims of abuse, rape, illness, infertility, separation […]
Continue ReadingWritten by Carrie Bornstein Apparently, they tell me, not all mikvehs are on Facebook. Or Twitter or YouTube. Nor do they have blogs, for that matter. So why do we? And honestly, isn’t mikveh all about privacy anyway? Is this really something we should be blasting all over the internet? At our spring benefit this […]
Continue ReadingWritten by Carrie Bornstein It’s not every day that a mikveh is born. So when a picture like this arrives in our inbox: you can bet it makes us smile. “Libi Eir” (Awakened Heart) at Beth Meyer Synagogue in Raleigh, NC, is nearing completion. What’s even better? This is not just any mikveh. There are […]
Continue ReadingWhen a person immerses in a mikveh, s/he does so in as close a state to what s/he was like when he or she was born: no make up, no prosthetics, no jewelry, no clothes. When someone comes to Mayyim Hayyim, that person always has the option of having a guide with him or her. […]
Continue ReadingMy first mikveh experience took place in early Elul. Shabbat was approaching at my first week-long Jewish Renewal retreat at Elat Chayyim, and I decided to join the group which was going to do “spiritual mikveh” in the swimming pool. Rabbi Phyllis Berman explained, beforehand, the ways in which our mikveh would be atypical: we […]
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