- Who’s behind the camera?
Members of the Jewish religious sect of the Pharisees provided the prototype for the Talmudic rabbis and scholars who compiled the Talmud, which provides the law for the rite of immersing women naked in a mikvah or taking a Jewish ritual bath. The Pharisees were a sect in Jewry evidently founded by elders of the tribe of Benjamin, which had been destroyed almost down to a man by the other tribes of Israel in the days of the judges in Old Testament times, because it had become so depraved sexually that it threatened to seriously compromise the testimony of the entire nation of Israel before God (Jgs. 19; 20).
Like the Benjamites, the Pharisees were characteristically sexually depraved, and evidently even indulged in the pornography of viewing couples copulating, so that they could either use that to control the Jews in a hypocritical religious way or for certain unholy ulterior reasons. For in the eighth chapter of John’s gospel a woman was brought to Jesus by the Pharisees, who had been taken “in the very act” of adultery; as if to indicate that the Pharisees had either walked in on, were watching, or had participated in the event to use it against her at a later date.
In the light of the foregoing, it’s hardly surprising to find that Talmudic scholars of the ilk of the Pharisees, who were doubtless largely of the tribe of Benjamin, sat down one day ‘in Sanhedrin’ to decide how a woman with “some uncleaness” upon her should wash and be made ritually clean; and rather than come up with the idea that she should simply either wash in water or perhaps be immersed clothed and in a dignified manner like Christian baptism, decided that she must strip naked and be led into a ritual bath (mikvah) by another woman who would by that uncover her nakedness.
- Is this nude Jewess in a mikvah a thing of beauty or a dupe of rabbinical sexual depravity and fantasies?
There is no biblical precedent for a woman or a man stripping naked to be made ritually clean before God – even Naaman the Syrian was told by the prophet Elisha not to strip but to “wash” in the Jordan, and he went and dipped himself seven times and came out cured of leprosy.
If anything, the Talmudic rite of a ritual bath, which is, among other things, a requisite for conversion to Judaism, has affinity with the Mosaic requirement that a “beautiful woman” taken captive by an Israelite had to “shave her head, and pare her nails”; and had to “put the raiment of her captivity from off her”, and remain in the Israelite’s house a full month before being taken as a wife in a sexual way (Deut. 21. 10-14); and if it does, it would seem to be more of this business of the Jews having an obsession with sexual bondage, as outlined in the previous post on Jewish ritual circumcision.
Either way, a Jewish ritual bath certainly seems to be a somewhat sexually perverse Pharisaical rite; especially since a Bet Din (lit. “court” of Jews, which usually includes at least one rabbi) must be present when female converts to Judaism are immersed in a mikvah. For a woman accompanies the female convert into the mikvah chamber, and then reports back to the three Jewish men of the Bet Din, who have been waiting in an adjacent room, and confirms that the convert has removed all of her clothes and has immersed herself completely as prescribed by Pharisaical/Talmudic law.
This, incidentally, has affinity with the rite of consummating marriage as pracitised by the Exclusive Brethren sect in Christendom, because the parents of the newly weds are in an adjacent room on the first night waiting “to hear” that the marriage has indeed been consummated; and it raises the question of whether there is any abuse of women in the context of the ritual bath, and in a manner similar to abuse suffered by R.C. women who have first confessed things in the Confessional.
From the outer room the Bet Din can actually hear the convert recite the conversion prayer, while she’s standing naked in the water. Do these Jews have fantasies and sometimes even watch the event at this point? God knows, but he does know.
- Nude Jewess recites conversion prayer in a mikvah within earshot of three Jews of the Bet Din
To quote an article at http://mikvah.org/inside.asp?id=218 …
“There are about 450-500 mikvahs in the United States in Canada, about 500 in Israel, and an estimated 200-300 in the rest of the world …
Rainwater at the Ormond Beach mikveh is collected in a specially constructed receptacle beneath the marble-encased immersion pool, and is kept lightly chlorinated and at a comfortable temperature. There are connecting shower and changing rooms; and a specially trained attendant assists with the ritual. Only one woman goes in at a time, completely naked, immersing herself under the water. Appointments are required and a $36 fee is charged.
- Lavish new Chabad mikvah complex in Flamingo, Thornhill, ON, Canada
There is also a separate mikvah in the building for orthodox men, some of whom traditionally immerse themselves before prayer and holidays.
“A man can go to elevate himself,” said Karmely, the family purity expert. The mikvah is also used for conversions. But it’s for women that the ritual has special relevance.”
A mikvah.org post also says: “Basically the code of family purity mandates that a couple refrain from all physical contact (even holding hands) from the onset of the wife’s menstrual period (a minimum of five days) and continuing an additional seven days after the period has ceased. Then she is to bathe her body and hair throroughly, cut her finger and toe nails short so that they cannot have a vestige of dirt and remove all foreign objects such as make-up, jewelry and bandages.
“Finally, she must totally immerse herself three times in the Mikvah while reciting a special prayer. The Mikvah itself is built to rigid specifications, looks like a deep square bathtub with steps and contains water four feet deep from a natural source, such as rain. With immersion, the woman is considered spiritually purified and renewed.”
Naked, she crouches in the water, then plunges under, rolling just for a moment in the warm pool before resurfacing to recite a prayer.
- Feminist mikvah attendant disrobes Jewess for naked ritual bath. Does this have lesbian connotations?
Sher is one of thousands of ‘liberated’ Jewish women in the United States who have revived mikvahs as “fashionable” venues, where even the feminists who once condemned the ritual bath as a “degrading” ordinance are now in their element.
Reform Rabbi Elyse Goldstein quoted Sher at a recent conference at Boston on contemporary uses of the mikvah, as having said: “As a feminist, I support taking back, reinventing, reappropriating, someone has said ‘hijacking’ — I really like that — the mikvah.”
