Personal Narrative: Out of the Mikvah, into the World

Abstract

In this personal essay, Tova Mirvis describes her religious evolution concerning the Jewish ritual of mikvah, or women’s immersion into a bath to attain a state of ritual purity. Her initiation begins before her wedding night, when she is accompanied by her mother to the mikvah to be purified before having sex for the first time. The practice continues each month, at the conclusion of her menstrual period. As the years go by, Mirvis begins to experience doubt about her religious observance in general and adherence to the practice of mikvah in particular, chafing at the requirement to ‘cleanse’ herself monthly. Mirvis writes that her discomfort over time leads her to experiment with other forms of ritual immersion and, eventually, she leaves the religious world that had been so central to her.