by Becca Shimshak “For the Jews, there was light, happiness, joy and honor; so it should be for us.” ~Esther 8:16 with quote from prayer for Havdalah When I got married ten years ago, I chose this quote for our wedding invitation. For all of our friends, there were big, beautiful weddings. Hotels, tuxedos, cute flower […]
Continue Readingby Carrie Bornstein Last week I had the fortune of teaching a group of undergrads at Harvard Hillel and we spent some time looking at texts on the power of water. In addition to the waters of creation when God separated the heaven from the waters of the earth, we also explored waters of destruction […]
Continue Readingby Shira M. Cohen-Goldberg This has been a hard year. At this time last year my heart was a well of despair. Some of you may have read about how I emerged from having a miscarriage at 12 weeks gestation last year on this blog. Writing that post was extremely healing for me. Many of you reached […]
Continue Readingby Rene Katersky This letter was sent to us by Rene, a long-time mikveh guide and educator, following the “Get Ready: Releasing the Past, Embracing the Future” program that Mayyim Hayyim ran before the High Holidays this year: My favorite local beach beckons, with its sparsely inhabited sand, picturesque beauty, and crystal clear waves lapping the shore; a perfect […]
Continue Readingby Rachel Hillman Hineni, I said aloud. Here I am, marking today as a transition point from one part of my life to another. I removed my nail polish, which covered the discoloration due to chemotherapy on my once-beautiful (and soon-to-be-beautiful-again) nail beds. I appreciated my body as I undressed, remembering that even with my […]
Continue Readingby Rachel I ate a slice of pizza on Yom Kippur this year. I have not told anyone that. Well, of course my husband knows because he came into the kitchen and saw me sitting on our red linoleum floor eating the cold slice of pizza I found in the fridge. He did not judge […]
Continue Readingby Noreen Leibson It began in water. Floating, tumbling, supported by the nurturing fluids sent with love from my mother to me, her little embryo. Grew to love and fear the water. No longer able to able to breathe without emerging from its depth. The water, my first home, became a place I continued to love, but not […]
Continue Readingby Rabbi Emma Gottlieb It started with vanity. My friends and colleagues were shaving their heads and I didn’t think I could do it. I am told my hair is one of my best (physical) features. I couldn’t imagine being without it. I still can’t, to be honest, but in a matter of weeks I […]
Continue Readingby Carrie Bornstein In high school I spent six weeks in Israel, and snorkeled off the coast of Eilat. There was something about being in the warm water, looking down, and seeing a glimpse of the world we never get to see. I had an intense feeling of being reduced to just a tiny speck […]
Continue Readingby Shira M. Cohen-Goldberg You have to start somewhere. Everybody starts somewhere. But my little one started and never got there. Now I am here, crying inside. Here I am at Mayyim Hayyim. This water, this mikveh, lets me write my life, marking time with every visit. I remember immersing as my heart burst with joy, […]
Continue Readingby Carrie Bornstein My daughter is now 6 ½ years old. The same age as many of last year’s victims in the tragedy at Newtown. In the week leading up to its anniversary, I found my mind pulled in all sorts of directions. Thinking about that awful day, imagining the families’ goodbyes on what seemed […]
Continue ReadingThe author of this poem wished to be anonymous. This is what she read at the mikveh upon her immersion. I thought I said enough good byes. I have said good bye many, many times. _____After your last breath in our too-quiet bedroom, I said __________good bye _____As I wrenched the ring from your already-cooling […]
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