Religious Services Ministry okays private immersion at ritual baths

Decision follows similar move by chief rabbinate, echoes rabbis’ warning that performing rite alone can affect its kosher status

By ToI Staff 23 September 2016, 8:07 pm

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Illustrative photo of a ritual bath attendant, a woman who checks that the immersion in the bath is kosher according to the Jewish tradition. (Hadas Parush/Flash 90)

The Religious Services Ministry has reportedly approved women’s use of a ritual bath (mikveh) without the supervision of an attendant, three months after Israel’s Chief Rabbinate reluctantly agreed to the move.

Israel Hayom said Friday that it has obtained a copy of the formal ministry decision, which will be published in the near future. According to the paper, the decision states that, “If a mivkeh user wishes to immerse herself without the presence of an attendant or anyone else at all, there is no reason to prevent her from doing so.”

The decision does, however, cite the rabbinate as saying that to make it kosher, immersion in the mikveh necessitates the presence of a female supervisor (balanit). “Immersion without the presence of a balanit may have real implications for the kosher status of the immersion,” the decision states.

According to Eden, a “mikveh education center,” some 750,000 observant women make regular use of the mikveh, the overwhelming majority of whom are in the Modern Orthodox-Religious Zionist camps. Additionally, approximately 10,000 secular women each year have what is in many cases their only experience with the ritual bath ahead of their wedding.

The rabbinate does propose “kosher” alternatives to what some see as the intrusive presence of a balanit, such as entering the bath wearing a loose robe or immersion with a friend present instead of the attendant, or calling the balanit into the room only once the woman using the mikveh is already submerged.

A mikveh, or Jewish ritual bath, in a Jerusalem neighborhood. (illustrative photo credit: Uri Lenz/Flash90)

The rabbinate’s June decision came ahead of a scheduled High Court of Justice hearing on a case brought by Itim, a group that aids Israelis in navigating the state’s religious bureaucracy, which is demanding a woman’s right to immerse herself in privacy.

In its June 22 response, the chief rabbinate states it is against Jewish law to allow immersion in ritual baths without an attendant and will hang signs to that affect in the ritual baths, but it has agreed nevertheless to the privacy demand made by Itim.

The Itim case only deals with women, not the question of Reform and Conservative use of the ritual bath, which was decided in February.