Last week at Limmud I went to a session about going to the Mikva that was led by a cool woman rabbi. She was all about "reclaiming" the Mikva so that it isn't just something we do because some dead white guy compelled us to. I was thrilled, but the truth is, when I asked her some only slightly off the beaten track questions--What to do if one's partner isn't Jewish? What if you're afraid of being seen naked by strangers?--she seemed like she wanted a place to hide.

I think going to the Mikva would be awesome, but as a single girl in a town with a very small Jewish community, I don't think I could get away with it without causing a lot of fuss. Which is sad, because it seems like a great way of sticking it to the Man, so to speak.

I think we need to move away from the whole "purity" themed language that surrounds the Mikva. It's not really about that. When you go to the Mikva, you have to be completely submerged in the water. That can be scary, but it can also be a pretty nifty reminder of how our lives (or my life, anyway. I don't want to speak for anyone else) are dependent on God, and Torah, which is often sylboized by water. You know that moment when you're falling in love with someone and you realize you have the choice to fall or run away? I think going to the Mikva is about embracing the fall.

Things being menstruated by the little anime girl: A sheep. A bunny. A bear. A kitty.  And she looks so happy!  Please tell me this is all part of Playtex's next ad campaign, in which the Power Tampon Girls fight crime and promote justice with the help of their magical menstruation spirit animals. 

many religious men go before shabbes every week, and many more go before the high holydays. According to tradition men are also required to bathe in the mikveh after "nocturnal emissions" before they can enter the holy temple, but since we don't make sacrifices anymore, that tradition has fallen by the wayside.

lynn harris wrote a great essay on nextbook about going...

http://www.nextbook.org/cultural/feature.html?id=251

As a married religous woman, I HATE going to the mikvah. I wish it was abolished. My problems are not so much as men telling women what to do; it's about having a strange woman wathing me naked. I've had one mikvah lady who was so obvious about it, she just stared at me while I walked down the steps to the mikvah. I was so embarrassed and came home in the worst mood ever - no passion happened that night. To me it is extremely degrading to have some strange woman see me naked,someone who is clearly looking at my flaws and imperfections. This mitzvah would be so much more special and meaningful to me if I could have privacy while in the mikvah. But knowing someone is watching me naked makes me anxious and just want to get out of there as soon as possible.
It wouldn't suprise me if this mikvah lady was comparing our bodies. What kind of "mitzvah" is mikvah anyway?? Every month is a nightmare.

I can't get one single straight forward answer on this. I converted, and was sleeping with my boyfriend for about a year before this. When my conversion was completed, I thought that I should go to the mikvah, but backed out when I saw "open for brides and married women only". What's the deal with this? I'm in no way looking to get married, so I'm not supposed to have sex, ever? Every rabbi has the same answer, that you shouldn't be having premarital sex. Ok, fine, I'm not 16, I'm hitting 40 - let's be realistic. Anyone know what the answer to this is?

You should ask yourself why you want to go to the mikvah. If you're going because it's mandated by your faith, then you're holding a double-standard for premarital sex. If you're going to affirm tradition, you could try using the mikvah somewhere with less orthodox rules for access.

i've never been to a Mikvah. i've never even seen one upclose, just in photos. i'm not sure how i'd feel about going in one, because i'd be a little sketched out by the fact that there's another person in there just sitting and watching all the naked people entering the Mikvah. but i'd at least like to actually see one upclose. my local Chabad house organized a tour of a Mikvah in Crown Heights a few months ago, but i unfortunately missed it because i was away that weekend.

Mikveh in Beijing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoZzD0VPfeM&mode=related&search=

In the time of the Temple, mikvah was a part of everyone's life. If a little kid played with or merely touched a dead rat s/he had to go to the Mikvah. There was plenty of occasion for all kinds of impurities, especially for people who lived in Jerusalem and ate Ma'aser Sheini all the time.

Today, Mikvah for women, in general, is reserved for three things - to prepare for sexual relations, to prepare for Yom Kippur, and to prepare for the Temple Mount see http://www.hamikdash.com/AliyaIntroenglish.htm and http://www.hamikdash.com/Aliya_English.html both in English and http://www.hamikdash.com/UnmarriedGirlsAliyaHebrew.htm in Hebrew

In some communities, it is/was customary for everyone - men, (separately but also) women and children to go to the Mikvah on erev Yom Kippur. In the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, the women's Mikvah is open to all females on  erev Yom Kippur.

The issue here should not be whether dead white guys should tell you what to do, nor whether unmarried women should use the mikvah.

The significance of going to a Mikvah (and by the way, under certain circumstances you can use a natural spring or the ocean) as a purification rite as distinct from a cleaning or washing act is really only there if somehow you believe that this is a fulfillment of G-d's commandments. And G-d is not dead, nor white, nor a guy.

Once one accepts that G-d's will is that women who have menstruated must not have sex until they immerse properly in a mikvah (or spring or ocean as noted above), the question is not should she toivel (immerse in a Mikvah) but should she have sex.

If she is happily married, this more or less goes without saying. if she is single, then to say the least, official Judaism officially frowns on this. But if she has made the decision to have sex (or she thinks it is likely to happen without much advanced planning) then she should very definitely go to the Mikvah.

I am saying this as an orthodox rabbi of the hareidi (ultraorthodox) type. Saying that unmarried women may not or should not go to the mikvah is only an acceptable statement if the result is that those unmarried women will not have sex. The custom or edict or whatever it was that unmarried women not go to the mikvah was to discourage nonmarital sex, not to doom those who have unmarried sex to the highest spiritual punishment which Judaism has.

So once again, I am not encouraging nonmarital sex, but if you are going to do it, go to the mikvah. This is not (neither for me, nor for the woman doing it) being hypocritical. This is saying that in the real world we have to do the best we can and limit our sins as much as we can.

If anyone wants to contact me about this or anything welse, I am available at emeslyaakov@yahoo.com