by Carrie Bornstein Just over four years ago I shared with you the exciting news that Libi Eir, Awakened Heart Community Mikveh in Raleigh, NC was nearing completion. They’d trained 22 volunteer Mikveh Guides using the Diane and Chester Black Guide My Steps training and since they opened Libi Eir has facilitated more than 500 immersions […]
Continue ReadingLeeann Simons, Mikveh Guide From the Mayyim Hayyim vaults, written almost 9 years ago. Last night I had the privilege of being part of one woman’s healing ritual. She had been sexually assaulted by a former “good” friend, and was coming to us as part of her moving forward with her life. What I want to […]
Continue ReadingGail Elson, Mikveh Guide It’s often night time when I enter to guide at the mikveh. I turn on the lights, lower the shades, and enjoy the stillness for a brief time until the first woman arrives. Sometimes there’s only one; other evenings there are four to six immersions. Most of the women I meet […]
Continue Readingby Rafi Spitzer Each person who comes to Mayyim Hayyim is offered a guide, a person trained to facilitate their immersion and to serve as a witness. The Mikveh guide is a representative of the community who acknowledges that a transition has taken place. As a Mikveh Guide, I have witnessed the immersions of grooms, Bar […]
Continue Readingby Lisa Berman, Mikveh and Education Director When I have occasion to mention to people that I work at a mikveh and also happen to be a birth doula (a trained labor and childbirth support person), some of them chuckle and say, “You certainly are drawn to individuals in transition.” And they’re right. I am […]
Continue ReadingNext week, Mayyim Hayyim will honor the authors of Blessings for the Journey: A Jewish Healing Guide for Women with Cancer. Since its publication this book has brought hope and renewal to women throughout the world. One of them is Rabbi Robin Nafshi, who also happens to be the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Jacob, the New Hampshire synagogue of the event’s other […]
Continue Readingby Jim Ball, Mikveh Guide New Hampshire’s loss is Massachusetts’ gain, two fold. Peter and Betty Shapiro, this year’s honorees at Mayyim Hayyim’s “Open Waters” benefit celebration on Monday, May 18th, are two folks we’re lucky to have in Greater Boston. They moved here a year and a half ago from Concord, where Peter practiced […]
Continue Readingby Lisa Dee Port White, Mikveh Guide Last week I was driving down Washington Street and decided to pull into the Mayyim Hayyim parking lot. I wanted to see if it might be possible to immerse. I have wanted to for months, thought about making an appointment, thought about dropping in, and each time, I’ve […]
Continue Readingby Gail Kazin With the big 6-0 looming in the wings I had considered how I might celebrate this meaningful birthday. Since neither of my parents had lived to be sixty, I looked forward to the day with tremendous gratitude and some trepidation. At some point I decided that immersion at Mayyim Hayyim was perhaps […]
Continue Readingby Andie Insoft, Mikveh Guide Just a “few” years ago, when I was a teenager, if someone had told me that I would someday be a mikveh guide, I would have said they were absolutely crazy. I grew up in a fairly traditional, Conservative, Jewish home. We kept kosher, attended services (at least 3 times […]
Continue Readingby Salem Pearce, Mikveh Guide This semester, as part of my rabbinic education, I am taking a class on the book of Exodus. Recently, we’ve been studying the account of the revelation at Sinai. In the complicated choreography of Moses (and others) going up and down the mountain in chapters 19 and 24, a question arises […]
Continue Readingby Alan Green, Mikveh Guide After 35 years of practicing as an OBGYN in Nashua, NH, I retired in April, 2012. So what did I do with all the free time that I thought I would have? Among other things, I became a Mikveh Guide at Mayyim Hayyim. I was accepted into the 8th cohort […]
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