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Traditional Practices around Menstruation
Stringent laws have accumulated around the practice of taharat hamishpachah. According to
traditional Jewish law, women must wait seven “clean” (discharge-free) days before going to the
mikveh, thus lengthening their time of sexual abstinence to almost two weeks. Women must
zealously check to make sure that their flow is over. They must bathe and clean themselves, clip
their nails and remove every stray strand of hair from their bodies before immersing. Brides must
separate from their husbands after first intercourse if there has been bleeding. Husbands and wives
are forbidden to touch one another or even sleep in the same bed while the wife menstruates.
Childbirth entails an even longer period of abstinence. While many contemporary Jews have
entirely abandoned these laws, and some traditional Jewish women have modified them, many
Jews in Orthodox communities observe them exactly as they were observed throughout history,
and consider them central to Jewish life. Women from the cold countries of Europe tell stories of
chopping holes in the ice in order to immerse at the proper time, and there are ritual baths from
Brazil to Italy to Japan.
There has been a tremendous surge in the publication of traditional guides to mikveh in recent
years, precisely because the practice has been observed less in the modern period, even among
traditional women. Modern Orthodox literature concerning mikveh describes the details of
observance, explaining exactly what kind of stain must be regarded as the onset of menstruation,
how to check to make sure one’s period is over, how to build and maintain a proper mikveh, what
kinds of scabs must be removed from the body before immersion, and so forth. This literature also
includes a wealth of folklore and stories about holy women at the mikveh, and specifically
explains mikveh use as a profound and beautiful expression of Jewish womanhood. From early
books written by men like A Hedge of RosesWaters of Eden (Norman Lamm) and (Aryeh Kaplan)
to later books written by learned women, like the anthology Total Immersion edited by Rivkah
Slonim (Jason Aronson, 1996) and The Secret of Jewish Femininity by Tehilla Abramov (Targum
Feldheim, 1988), these volumes provide systems of meaning that place the observance of mikveh
at the center of married life and at the center of women’s relationship to God.
The reasons given for the sexual separation and ritual bathing entailed by the laws of mikveh are
varied. Some call these practices a divine gift to help couples maintain romantic attraction. Some
explain the system of ritual purity and impurity as a theological statement about the forces of life
and death (see later section on Rachel Adler). Some believe observing this commandment ensures
that one’s future children will be spiritually pure. And some call mikveh a matter-of-fact
acknowledgement of a biblical commandment, a fulfillment of God’s will. Some modern
interpreters, drawing on feminist imagery, say the period of separation is a sacred dormancy
period when women can refresh and renew themselves. Prominent Orthodox writer Blu
Greenberg, among others , has defended mikveh as a practice that sanctifies women’s lives
(Greenberg, Blu. “In Defense of the ‘Daughters of Israel’: Observations on Niddah and Mikveh.”
In On Women and Judaism: A View from Tradition. JPS, 1981). Anita Diamant asserts that some
Orthodox women see mikveh “in terms of automony and separateness…[or] in terms of
celebrating the ability of their body to regenerate” (Sapiro, Susan. “Living Waters: An Interview
with Anita Diamant,” in Journey, Spring 2002, 22-25). Anne Lapidus Lerner reports that many
Conservative women rabbis and rabbinical students are committed to the practice of mikveh as
part of their religious obligation (A Breath of Life, p. 137). These convictions stand in contrast to
those who say that taharat hamishpachah and mikveh are a way of denying the holiness of the
body and reinforcing women’s subservient place in Jewish life.
However people interpret the laws around niddah (women’s menstrual impurity), this ancient
practice is a topic of interest for many modern Jews, even those who do not observe it. Trips to
ancient and modern mikva’ot (pl. of mikveh) are common, and many Jews have expressed interest
in learning more about Jewish practice related to the ritual bath. Books like Women and Water by
Rahel Wasserfall (Brandeis University Press, 1999) satisfy that curiosity by providing details