Posted on 04/30/2020 5:18:25 AM PDT by C19fan
As covid-19 spread rapidly in the first weeks of March, Esther grew nervous. It was nearly time for her monthly visit to the ritual bath that many observant Jewish women use to purify themselves after every menstrual cycle, and she worried she might catch the virus at the very place meant for physical and spiritual cleansing.
“I have a disability and many underlying health issues,” said Esther, 43, an ultra-Orthodox mother of seven. “Deciding whether or not to go was very, very stressful.”
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Not everyone agrees that the baths need to remain open in the midst of a pandemic. Rabbi Haim Amsalem, a former parliament member from the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, has urged that health and safety should always come first.
The baths are done for purification purposes and are for women exclusively. They get a break every month.
Can’t say as I blame the women for hanging on to that.
It seems as though sanitation could be managed. Israel is a modern country with a good understanding of how germs work.
To me, that’s like a window into ancient history where such things were good and home baths were unknown a couple thousand years ago — purification for religious reasons, as opposed to ancient Roman baths for cleanliness and social gathering,
True. There is a religious aspect to this, but also a social. There are some that are essentially spas for women, replete with pedicures and whatnot.
The main complainers are secular spas.
I’ve obviously never been to a female onlyMikva, but the men’s ones reek of chlorine and chemicals already, I suspect they’re quite safe.
Hopefully, there are 30 non-ritual baths in-between!!!
The pool and other facilities at our county recreation center used plenty of disinfectant even before this epidemic.
The other key feature is that the individual users need to follow good sanitation practices. It seems like the Israeli ladies would do that.
Getting into a Mikva is (from what I understand from movies) essentially the same as a baptism, although there is no preacher. Indeed, I believe the gentile practice is based on the Mikva.
It’s a solitary exercise by design.
There’s no question that the Jewish tradition of bathing for purification is the direct historical source of Christian baptism.
Specific practices and spiritual contents vary among Christian denominations.
And, again no expert in the female side, but men have to be extremely clean before getting into the Mikva. As in, a scrub down shower, nails and cuticles cut, etc.
I’m fairly confident it’s the same for females, but I will ask my wife.
Never asked. Seemed private to me.
That’s what I thought, too. (Read about it in a novel, I think.)
Like Japanese baths, you get clean first.
How are things in Israel? The other day, we looked at some photos of foxes hanging out in the streets of Ashkelon.
Sadly I don’t know.
I’ve been in the USA since before Passover. It’s too burdensome to fly, and there is a 14 day lockdown for returning people (either way), so we’ve been here.
I will say cheap fuel has opened up the flight budget for the USAF, so My students and I have been having a lot more stick time, which has been a blast.
Glad to know you have a bright side!
I’m buying as much $1.55/gal gas as I can, but that isn’t much since we don’t go anywhere.
My mom and papa were largely alone for the two required seders, which was sad and weird for a giant family. So we had a third Seder with zoom and laptops and far too much wine at all locations.
Not the same as home food, but it was lovely.
I’m glad to hear you were able to work out something festive! We had all but one of our children over for Easter. Even my oldest, who’s nervous about germs, couldn’t resist all the free food.
Why on earth would you think otherwise?
You might have read “The Ritual Bath” by Faye Kellerman (Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus series). Describes how an Orthodox woman prepared for the Mikvah before immersion, with a bath attendant who checks to be sure all is in order.
Yes, I might have. I read some of those novels.
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