Impression of the Grade 6 Visit to a Mikvah

When I was a child, I spent a lot of time hanging out in Emanuel Synagogue in Oklahoma City. I grew very comfortable with most of the synagogue building while waiting for my brothers to be done with Bar Mitzvah meetings or Hebrew School, youth group events, or even when I was bored during synagogue functions.  However, there was one part of the synagogue property that I never explored–the Mikvah. Often after Hebrew School we would wait just outside of the synagogue doors on the steps leading up to the Mikvah.  We would peer into the tinted windows to try to figure out what was inside. If I squinted my eyes really hard, sometimes I could make out a plastic pool chair.  The other kids and I would discuss what we thought was in there, and what you did. One authority in the group said that it was like a swimming pool that some people had to go into, and you had to go in naked, and then the rabbi would come in and bless you.  Someone else would say that it was holy water.  We would all come up with our own conjectures, building off of those.  The mikvah was a scary place, and seemed frightening and foreign.  Not even my parents knew exactly what went on in there, just that it was some sort of Jewish ritual.

Fast-forward a little bit less than ten years, and I am teaching at BJEP.  I bring up the idea of a mikvah in my 6th grade class.  All of the kids ask the same questions I asked ten years earlier, trying to picture what a ritual bath would look like. “Do you wear a bathing suit?”, “Is the water dirty?”, “Is it cold?”, etc. They may not have had the image of a building with a large Jewish star, steps leading up, and tinted windows, but they definitely had their own misconceptions, and the idea of a mikvah was very foreign.

Going to the Mayyim Chayyim Mikvah this week was a way to expel all of those misconceptions. Judging by the questions that the sixth graders asked at the beginning and the end of the fieldtrip, it seems to have worked.  When we first walked into the building, they all seemed very nervous, and  unsure about what was going to happen, and what we were going to do.  I was asked more than once if we were actually going to take a ritual bath (the answer was “no”). An educator from Mayyim Chayyim had them sit down, and write down all of their questions.  She then explained a little bit about the two mikvaot at Mayyim Chayyim.  She talked about how the water was heated, cleaned, and how they get the little bit of natural rain water into the mikvah every day.

Then came my favorite part of the tour.  She had the children go explore the mikvaot for themselves; she told them to open anything that they saw, touch stuff, and leave no rock unturned–she told them to be especially sure to feel the water. I followed a group of kids as they walked into the area, which also included several changing rooms.  ”Oh,” one of them exclaimed as they walked in, “it’s just a nice bathroom!”   They opened a door revealing a closet, and looked through a basket, finding a toothbrush and soap.  Finally, they walked into the mikvah room itself, discovering a clear pool of water with beautiful stone steps that wove their way down into it.  After letting them explore, the educator had them come back together as a group and discuss.  By the time we got to the end of the tour, the children were visibly more relaxed.  The mikvah was no longer a scary concept or a scary building.

I think everyone got something out of it, including the other teachers, the parents and I.  I was definitely more relaxed, and more knowledgeable by the end of the presentation, and the parents seemed to be as well. I have heard Mayyim Chayyim described as like a spa, and I must say that I agree. Hopefully, now everyone involved does not think of a mikvah as a strange, scary place!