Mikvah Coming to Palm Harbor Synagogue

PALM HARBOR, FL — Observant Jews in the North Pinellas area will someday not have to travel to Tampa to participate in the centuries-old Judaic practice of ritual bathing.

Young Israel Chabad of Pinellas County is building the county’s first mikvah, a place for ritual bathing in water from natural sources such as springs or rain.

The mikvah is being constructed next to the Young Israel Chabad temple, at the intersection of Fisher Road and C.R. 39.

The mikvah is an enclosed building where rainwater is gathered through a system of conduits for the bathing.

Each month, as a purification process and blessing, Jewish women –primarily those who observe orthodox teachings of the faith – immerse themselves in the mikvah.

There are also purifications for men of the Jewish faith that are conducted in the mikvah.

“This is a very, very exciting moment we have been waiting for a long time,” Rabbi Shalom Adler, said of the building of the mikvah. Adler is the director of Young Israel Chabad of Pinellas, a congregation within the Lubavitcher branch of Hasidic Judaism.

Orthodox practice

The ritual bathing practice is mainly followed by members of the Jewish Orthodox community, including Hasidism.

Recently, however, some rabbinical leaders of the more moderate Conservative Judaism have sought to revitalize interest in the practice for followers who want to get back to the religion’s basic precepts.

Of late, some congregations within Reform Judaism, the most liberal expression of Judaism, have begun looking for contemporary uses of the mikvah.

Building the mikvah has involved six years of planning and fundraising, Adler said. Ever since 1997, when the congregation moved into a former house, its has had plans to build a mikvah and provide all the components needed by the Jewish Community, he said.

The 600-square-foot building, estimated to cost about $200,000, will be self-contained and constructed to exacting religious specifications, the Rabbi said.

No barrels

For example the rainwater that will fill the bath cannot be stored in barrels. Instead, it will be collected and directly drained into the bath.

Excavation work for the mikvah has begun. It will replace a traditional swimming pool that had been on the site.

The mikvah will be available to all Jewish women who want to participate in the Mitzvah, or blessing, according to Rabbi Levi Hodakov.

“You don’t have to be Orthodox or a member of our congregation to use the mikvah,” Hodakov, the program director of Young Israel Chabad of Pinellas, said.

Many expected

Hodakov said he expects Jewish women from all over the county will utilize the mikvah once it is completed, in about a year. Many have been traveling all the way to Tampa all these years, he said.

The ritual bathing is important in the everyday life of the Jewish community, Adler said. Each month a married woman immerses herself in the rainwater, which will be mixed with county water for health purposes, to purify herself.

Without a mikvah the Jewish community cannot continue the cycle of life, Adler said.

Men will be able to use the mikvah during special holidays for ritual purification.

The mikvah facility will also have a separate area in which newly purchased cooking utensils can be ritually purified so they can be used in Kosher food preparation.

The mikvah, however, will not be used for ritual conversions to Judaism, Adler said.