By Hannah Rothenberg, Mayyim Hayyim Intern
In two weeks, it will be Erev Rosh Hashanah. If you’re like me, you’re amazed at how fast the year has flown!
As a co-president of the Hillel at Colby College, my mind has been on the High Holidays all summer. July and August have been filled with emails, meetings, and planning so that all Jewish students on campus have an enriching experience. Only now do I realize that I’ve been so busy making it special for everyone else that I haven’t thought about my own needs.
As Mayyim Hayyim’s summer intern, I have seen people come through the doors to honor the upcoming holidays with a mikveh immersion. Each is here to separate from the craziness of life and pause to consider this season. Immersing during Elul, to prepare for the new year, is a longstanding tradition.
Growing up, I wasn’t exposed to mikveh. Now that I am, it’s become a beautiful and powerful practice for me. I’ve been told that a mikveh is like a womb: the mayyim hayyim “living waters” is the amniotic fluid and the person immersing is the embryo. This image helps me think about curling into myself and having the water surround me completely. In this sense, emerging from the mikveh it is like being born, rejuvenated, renewed. I can’t help but think of an ad: “New year, New you!”
My internship here ends in a few days. I will immerse to mark that ending and use my moment of calm to think about what the High Holidays mean for me this year. It will be a time to focus on myself and on all the new journeys that await in my junior year.
I invite you to schedule your own mikveh immersion. Give yourself a moment of reflection. Pause. Dunk. Honor. Acknowledge what you want to leave behind and what to carry forward. Shana chatima tova!
Hannah Rothenberg is an intern at Mayyim Hayyim for the summer of 2026. She will be graduating from Colby College in 2028 with majors in Jewish Studies and Religious Studies. Hannah also works for the synagogue in her college town of Waterville, Maine, which is a part of Mayyim Hayyim’s Rising Tide Open Waters Mikveh Network.