What a whirling weekend of emotion and experiences.
The ball started rolling with the arrival late Wednesday of my dear friend, Merav. She flew in early to be with me on Thursday morning when I went to the mikveh, to act as my witness, and supporter. Two things that Merav has been for me, thru good and bad, elation and sadness. She is like a sister to me, but in some senses is even more dear than a sister, for she sometimes feels like she is another "self" for me.
We met at the University of Judaism where the only non-Orthodox (and therefore open to all) mikveh in Los Angeles is located. The mikveh is a ritual practice that I have taken to my heart as one of the most spiritually nourishing that I know of. The waters of the mikveh have enabled me to shed pain and sadness, guilt and sin on past occasions, so this visit was one that had a new and different focus for me.
This time I came as a groom on the spiritual journey of a lifetime. In the ritual immersion in the cool waters of the may'im hay'im I was able to stop time and allow myself to re-focus away from the balagan of preparations and "to do" lists, and take spiritual stock of myself, and gird my nefesh for the days that lay ahead.
Merav brought with her two poems which she read to me as I stood nude, neck-deep in the waters, surrounded by the glow of candlelight. Sue Rosenthal - "the mikveh lady" - is a truly amazing and incredibly competent guide for the perplexed mikveh goer. She had known the reason for my visit, and had prepared readings and meditations prior to my arrival. Her voice soothed away the outside world from behind the curtain, where she and Merav sat.
She walked me into the water, and brought me to a point where I felt so incredibly safe and focused that at a couple of points I was unaware if I was even breathing. It was just the most astoundingly personal and open moment of my life, up until that point.
I immersed myself a total of three times, and each time stayed inside the waters (completely submerged) for as long as I possibly could, expelling every last possible cubic centimeter of air from my lungs. This made each emergence from the water a full gasping of air, as if from the womb of the world.
My tears merged softly with the cool blue waters, and I felt both renewed, and to a certain point re-born (or perhaps re-directed is a better term to appropriate to describe this?).
This most ancient of rituals, is one that I truly feel I own as an intergral part of my life of faith.
Baruch atah ha'shem, eloheinu meleh ha'olam, asher kid'sha'nu b'mitzvotav, v'tzivanu al hat'vi'lah
Blessed are you - wellspring of the universe - who has made us holy through holy decrees, and has decreed that we immerse ourselves
The ball started rolling with the arrival late Wednesday of my dear friend, Merav. She flew in early to be with me on Thursday morning when I went to the mikveh, to act as my witness, and supporter. Two things that Merav has been for me, thru good and bad, elation and sadness. She is like a sister to me, but in some senses is even more dear than a sister, for she sometimes feels like she is another "self" for me.
We met at the University of Judaism where the only non-Orthodox (and therefore open to all) mikveh in Los Angeles is located. The mikveh is a ritual practice that I have taken to my heart as one of the most spiritually nourishing that I know of. The waters of the mikveh have enabled me to shed pain and sadness, guilt and sin on past occasions, so this visit was one that had a new and different focus for me.
This time I came as a groom on the spiritual journey of a lifetime. In the ritual immersion in the cool waters of the may'im hay'im I was able to stop time and allow myself to re-focus away from the balagan of preparations and "to do" lists, and take spiritual stock of myself, and gird my nefesh for the days that lay ahead.
Merav brought with her two poems which she read to me as I stood nude, neck-deep in the waters, surrounded by the glow of candlelight. Sue Rosenthal - "the mikveh lady" - is a truly amazing and incredibly competent guide for the perplexed mikveh goer. She had known the reason for my visit, and had prepared readings and meditations prior to my arrival. Her voice soothed away the outside world from behind the curtain, where she and Merav sat.
She walked me into the water, and brought me to a point where I felt so incredibly safe and focused that at a couple of points I was unaware if I was even breathing. It was just the most astoundingly personal and open moment of my life, up until that point.
I immersed myself a total of three times, and each time stayed inside the waters (completely submerged) for as long as I possibly could, expelling every last possible cubic centimeter of air from my lungs. This made each emergence from the water a full gasping of air, as if from the womb of the world.
My tears merged softly with the cool blue waters, and I felt both renewed, and to a certain point re-born (or perhaps re-directed is a better term to appropriate to describe this?).
This most ancient of rituals, is one that I truly feel I own as an intergral part of my life of faith.
Baruch atah ha'shem, eloheinu meleh ha'olam, asher kid'sha'nu b'mitzvotav, v'tzivanu al hat'vi'lah
Blessed are you - wellspring of the universe - who has made us holy through holy decrees, and has decreed that we immerse ourselves
posted by simpletruths at 21:44
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