Orange County Joins Revival of Jewish Ritual : Religion: Four area synagogues have plans to build mikvahs, where Jews find renewal at traditional baths.

At a Jewish ritual bath in Long Beach, Michele Boldt of Irvine took off her clothes and removed her nail polish, jewelry and makeup. She walked down the seven pale steps and immersed herself--not only in the warm waters of the mikvah, but in centuries of Jewish tradition and her connection to God.

Boldt, an Orthodox Jew, has spent years schlepping to Los Angeles County for her monthly ritual bath. But with construction of four mikvahs planned in Orange County, the 27-year-old mother of two knows she won’t long be driving so far for her monthly immersion.

Three Orange County synagogues are planning to break ground on mikvahs this year: Temple Bat Yahm, a Reform congregation in Newport Beach; the Orthodox Beth Jacob Congregation in Irvine, and the Hasidic Orthodox Chabad of Laguna. A fourth Hasidic synagogue, the North County Chabad Center/Congregation Beth Meir HaCohen of Yorba Linda, also has plans for a mikvah.

Mikvahs are used by all branches of Judaism, most commonly for purification before a marriage and for converts to the faith.

Jews also have been known to use the baths as a point of renewal after experiencing divorce or physical abuse. Increased demand for mikvahs reflects a broader yearning for tradition seen in many Jewish congregations, rabbis say.

“As more Jews learn about their traditions, there’s a greater sense of loyalty to their ideals,” said Rabbi David Eliezrie of North County.

Starting Friday, many Orthodox Jews will seek the purification offered by the mikvah during the High Holy Days, which begin with Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year, and end with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. This is the time of year when men, bound by different rules than women, are most likely to use mikvahs as a way of washing away the sins of the past year.

In Los Angeles, thousands of people have immersed themselves in the warm water of the mikvah built 16 years ago at the University of Judaism.

The mikvah, set in a small white-tiled room on the ground floor off a courtyard, looks much like a square Jacuzzi, about 5 feet on each side. Users enter the blue-tiled bath one at a time, recite Hebrew blessings and immerse themselves three times in a ritual that is over in minutes. Each is alone in the room but for a witness who sits in a chair nearby and, occasionally, a rabbi who recites prayers from behind a curtain.

In an adjacent room, women shower before the immersion. Bottles of polish remover and lotions and shampoos line the shelves, which are stacked with clean white towels. Washing and removing makeup before entering a mikvah are important, so that nothing gets between a person and the water, rabbis say.

Lillian Zelcer, who has long served as escort and mother hen to people who are vulnerable and naked at the mikvah, has seen a surge in the numbers of people booking appointments for the ritual dunking--a ceremony that costs from $25 to $150.

“For women, this is a very special place,” she said. “It gives you a sense of healing and hope for the future.”

Though it may look like a simple bath, a mikvah must be built and operated according to strict rules. Among them is the requirement that its waters be natural--rainwater, spring water or ocean water, for example.

In addition, the waters may not touch metal and must not be transported from their source. This means many mikvahs must be equipped with a holding tank to catch rainwater, which is then funneled to the bath in clay pipes.

Where natural water is not abundant, some synagogues resort to a technicality to meet the requirements: They freeze natural water at its source and move it as ice. The ice is then thawed in clay containers.

The ritual is perhaps most important for Orthodox women, who are expected to go to a mikvah monthly. The ceremony follows menstruation and at least 12 days of abstinence from sex each month.

Rabbi Joel Landau of Beth Jacob said the ritual should be seen as a woman’s acknowledgment that she had not conceived a child that month. “She had the potential to nurture a human being inside of her, and that potential was lost.”

But the practice fell into disfavor in recent decades among many American women, who saw it as demeaning, said Rabbi Laura Geller, a Reform rabbi at Temple Emmanuel in Beverly Hills and founder of the Jewish Feminist Center in Los Angeles.

Now, Geller said, “as feminism has enabled us to reclaim our traditions and use them in different ways, you find many people using mikvah not for family purity but for healing and transformative ceremonies.”

In fact, mikvahs are seeing their greatest resurgence outside the Orthodox community, said Rabbi Alice Dubinsky, acting director of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations in Los Angeles.

“There is absolutely a mikvah revival,” she said.

The turnaround in part comes as a reaction to assimilation and intermarriage as well as intensive efforts at religious education, said Eliezrie of the North County Chabad. Jews who want to maintain their faith are motivated to renew their attachment to rituals that separate them from Christians, he said.

With the mikvah, Rabbi Mark Miller of Temple Bat Yahm said, “We are harking back to our spiritual roots.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Water Ritual

The mikvah is a ritual bath used by Jews for spiritual purification and renewal. Modern mikvahs resemble tiny swimming pools, but are constructed and used according to ancient Jewish teachings and traditions.

*

THE MIKVAH

The Pools

* Often built as two adjoining pools. One contains water from a natural source. The other is filled with heated, chlorinated water and is where the immersion takes place. Waters from the two pools touch through a hole bored in the wall between them.

* Must be built into the ground or as an integral part of the building. No portable or above-ground construction.

*

The Water

* Collection pool must contain 40 seahs (approximately 191 gallons) of water from a natural ource such as rain, a spring, river or ocean. It cannot have touched metal or be transported in liquid form from its source. Many utilize rainwater from a rooftop collection system or water that has been frozen at its source and melted into the pool.

THE RITUAL

* Participant showers in an adjoining preparation area. All clothing, makeup, nail polish, hair spray, contact lenses and jewelry must be removed.

* Participant steps into pool and immerses entire body at once, with legs, arms, fingers and oes spread so water can touch every surface of the body. He or she then surfaces to recite a prayer of purification before immersing two more times. An attendant is present to assure safety and correct performance of the ritual.

*

WHEN IS A MIKVAH USED?

* A bride and groom separately before their wedding

* Before major Jewish holidays

* As the final step of converting to Judaism

* By married women after their monthly menstrual cycle

Source: “Total Immersion” by Rivkah Slonim, Jason Aronson, Inc, 1996; Beth Jacob Congregation, Temple Bat Yahm.

Graphics reporting by JANICE JONES DODDS / Los Angeles Times