I am not sure the wedding mikva thing is going to catch on and become trendy, but nowadays you can never predict these things accurately.

Those 3 Neturei Karta folk who went to Jenin recently  to commiserate with terrorists have bene in all sorts of trouble since, being detained, arrested, and all that jazz.

It seems there is some fight between the Rabbinic Council of Bet Shemesh and the City of Bet Shemesh. I dont know why but the City of Bet Shemesh has announced that as of this Sunday they will shut down all the municipal mikvas in Bet Shemesh, except for 3 (the mikvas in Gimmel, Daled and Heftziba neighborhoods). According to the notice the mikvas are operating with no license. Until the situation is sorted out, women can use the mikvas in Gimmel, Daled and Heftziba, or any of the private mikvas around town.

Ever since Corona began and the shuls were first closed, the outdoor minyan came into existence and has yet to go away, despite the shuls re-opening. 

Here is an issue, an aspect of life, that Corona messed up but you surely didn't read about it in the regular news sites or hear about it on the radio or television.

One of this year's big issues is how to immerse new dishes in a mikva. With so many people making Pesach and the seder for the first time, in addition to all the people who just need to buy new things each year, many utensils need to be toiveled, but with the mikvas closed due to CoronaVirus that has become impossible.

I have already mentioned a number of solutions suggested by various rabbis, such as sellign the utensils to a gentile, or making the utensils hefker in front of 3 men (ad hoc beis din), or even the solution of not toiveling at all because it is not possible (but they would need to be toiveled when the mikvas are reopened).

Rav Benzion Kook, a posek in Jerusalem, has paskened that in an extreme situation such as the one we are currently in one can make the utensils hefker in front of 3 men and not relatives, and therefore best it be done with neighbors via adjacent porches and balconies so as not to get close to each other, and then use the hefker utensils without reacquiring them. After Pesach whenever the mikva reopens, the utensil will need to be toiveled.

We have already said this solution, so it is not really that exciting. What is interesting is that Rav Kook added that if it is difficult to get three unrelated men, one could make the vessels hefker in front of 3 family members, and even in front of 3 women.

According to Rav Kook, making them hefker is better than selling them to a gentile.

Rav Kook explains that he is basing his psak on what he heard form both Rav Elyashiv and Rav Auerbach
source: Kikar

A realtor dealing in foreclosures in Baltimore took on a house from foreclosure that he discovered to be very strange. In the house he discovered an indoor pool, but a very strange pool.

Here is the excerpt from Realtor.com (video below):

The former owner sank hundreds of thousands of dollars into the townhouse and installed the pool. He then opened it up as what DeLorenzo described as “a bathhouse.”
“There’s no beds, no closets," he says. “The reason the baths are wide open is because no one was ever meant to live there. It was just for his private use. Wild parties used to happen in the house.”
An indoor pool, open baths, and not much else inside? You do the math.
The 952-square-foot space is completely open, with the pool as its centerpiece. A spiral staircase, a metal catwalk, and a diving platform all surround the pool from above.
[...]
DeLorenzo cautions that the pool would probably need to be filled in.
“Most homes have an indoor pool in a separate, contained section of the house," he said. "This is just open.”
Along with the obvious liability of the pool's placement, he noted that air quality and mold could be an issue for the next owners if the pool stays in place.

and here is the video:


can this possibly have been a mikva?

the diving platform is strange. I grant you that. Nobody is diving into a mikva. But maybe they have that wrong and maybe diving was not the purpose of the platform. a 12 foot deep pool is strange, for both swimming and for a mikva. The length of the pool makes it seem impractical to have actually been a pool. Maybe some sort of pool of water to cool off in rather than to swim, or maybe a mikva...

what do you think?

massages in the mikva are prohibited, except for in the sauna and then only on the upper body...

okey dokey

are people really doing this? is it really an issue?

A rav in Tzfat, Rav Bistrisky, issued a psak telling the community that they should not be bringing children to the mikva.

I have said many times that the hospital is not a place for sick people and the mikva is not a place for children. When I first saw the headline, I assumed it was validation of my opinion about mikvas. But then it turned out that Rabbi Bistrisky has a different reason you should be keeping your children away from the mikva, other than the one most people are probably thinking of.

According to INN, Rabbi Bistrisky said the mikva is a dangerous place for children and there is a dangerous threat of drowning, though he did add the other form of danger as an implied issue he did not want to expand on..

Rabbi Bistrisky pointed to a recent incident in which a child was drowning in the mikva and a nearby adult saved him. With other similar incidents around the country occurring recently, in mikvas pools and even in a bucket, this is a danger that we must pay more attention to.

It seems there is a complaint about the use of maayanot on Fridays in the Jerusalem area.

A maayan is a natural spring. In many places around Israel there are springs that people enjoy cooling off in. Most are just out int he wild, all around the country. Some have been renovated by the State and turned into nice ponds, and some are just wild ponds. These are all, obviously, open to the public and anybody and everybody has a right to go there. Nobody controls them.

I remember we used to go to a beautiful maayan at the edge of Bat Ayin. We once went there on a Friday and after some time some men came and told us that on Fridays it is used by the locals as a mikva so we would have to leave. We left.

Now it seems that in some of these springs, yeshiva guys are showing up no Fridays and chasing away people swimming and frolicking in these ponds and springs, saying they wish to use it as a mikva. When the frolicker, including female, refuses to leave, some of these guys are either pressuring them to go or even get undressed and jump in regardless of the other people there and via their nakedness chase the other people away.
source: Kol Ha'Ir

The yeshiva guys have as much right to use the ponds and springs as anybody else. They are open to the public and that includes everybody. However, the women and non yeshiva males also have a right to use it. Being that it is not a private swimming pool, there is no real way to create a bank of hours for it to be used as a mikva, so it should mean go at your own risk. If you want to go to a maayan and swim or dunk, know in advance there might be omen there. If you dont mind mixed swimming, gei gezundeheit. If you do, you are taking the risk you wont be able to use it.

And if there are other people there, you should not get naked in front of them and use it as a mikva. Go to a mikva instead where that is part of the expected experience. Not only is that indecent exposure, for which the person undressing can be arrested, but ti is also sexual harassment.

There is a group arranging a protest against this behavior. The Facebook event as of right now ha 132 people registered as going to participate. The form of protest called for is just to show up to the Lifta spring near the entrance to Jerusalem and enjoy the water and not be pressured to leave.

I have heard of nude beaches. Now there are nude springs.

Rav Adiel Asyag of Kollel Eretz Chemda issued a psak by which under certain circumstances a woman who immersed in the mikva with "rastot", or dreadlocls, in her hair, the immersion could be considered valid.

Jack Sparrow can now go to the mikva!

Normally dreadlocks would be considered a chatzitza and would invalidate the tevila. The braids are tied very tightly and that is a problem. However, Rav Asyag says, that if the rabbi knows that if he says no she simply won't go to the mikva, or in a situation such as a baalas teshuva that might reconsider because of such a problem, there is room for leniency and to allow her to immerse even with her dreadlocks intact.

Rav Asyag qualifies it by saying that she must clean the braids very thoroughly and ensure nothing is stuck inside them. As well, such a woman should stay under the water for a bit longer than normal to give the water more of an opportunity to get though the tight braids.
sources: Kipa and Srugim

The Rabbanut courts have become experts at reversing important decisions that affect lives.

Various rabbonim and courts have reversed, and attempted to reverse, conversions. The conversion reversals are already old news. Recently the rabbanut courts have been trying to reverse the granting of a divorce in Tzfat - the Supreme Court might not allow them to for procedural reasons, but the Rabbanut court has already ordered it reversed.

And now, a rav is saying that immersions in the mikva by women in his city might have to be reversed and the women would need to re-toivel.

Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Motzkin, Rav Dovid Meir Druckman, has decided to fire an Ethiopian woman who was recently working for the city's religious council in the position of a mikva attendant. It seems Rav Druckman raised doubts as to this woman's Jewishness and if she went through a proper conversion (as Ethiopians from Ethiopia were required to undergo conversion lchumra). Because her Jewishness is in doubt, it renders all immersions performed under her watchful eye as invalid - or at least in question..

The Rabbanut requires women to toivel in the presence of a balanit -a mikva attendant.

Rav Druckman denies that his relieving her of her duties had anything to do with her being Ethiopian, but says she had been hired without first getting his approval while many other women have applied for these jobs and had been tested by him, yet she "jumped the line". He also denies having made an issue of her Jewishness, but explains that because he does not know her that was one of the questions he asked.
source: Walla

Whatever his problem with the balanit, reversing tevila already performed seems crazy and against halacha. Either the woman toiveled or she did not toivel. The need for a balanit is important, but if a woman toiveled without one she is considered immersed and tehora, unless there was a known problem (such as hair not going under the water, among other possibilities). The Rabbanut stance is that a balanit is required, but the city councils have decided to not require it if a woman doesn't want one present.. which means whatever the Rabbanut stance, it is clear that it is not an absolute requirement for the kashrus of the tevila.

So even if this woman was not a Jew, which is a ridiculous assumption with no basis, the immersions would all have been kosher. I do not know -can a non-Jew be an attendant at an immersion? The job is completely functionary, and not an issue of testimony, so I don't see why not, but I don't know if it is ok or not. If yes, then what is the issue here, even if she isn't Jewish (again, a ridiculous assumption to make)?

And if the issue was not her Jewishness but just that she was hired through improper channels, why would that render all the immersions invalid retroactively (even if that were possible)? Because she had employment issues her supervision of immersions did not count?

MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ) with the other Haredi MKs have been working to prepare and pass a new law that would give the Rabbanut more control over the public mikvaot. They were concerned about more encroachment of the Reform and Conservative into Israel, as they have been by the Kotel, and were worried about Reform conversions being performed in public mikvaot.

Despite the fact that we believe that a Reform conversion is meaningless, their use of the mikva as part of the process does not damage or ruin the mikva in anyway. However, the Haredi MKs are worried about the Reform attaining some sort of foothold in Israeli society, and some sort of legitimization in people's eyes, so despite the mikva not being ruined, the Haredi MKs don't want the Reform using it. The Supreme Court even decided that the Reform and Conservative have the right to use the mikvaot for their conversions.

So, they have been working on putting together a new law. Some initial drafts raised the ire of many groups, as they tried to give the Rabbanut too much control and too much micro-management ability over who can use the mikva.

They finally came up with the final version of their new law and passed it. According to The Times of Israel, the new law is that Reform and Conservative people will not be able to use the mikva at all. The mikva management (I assume via the mikva lady) will have the right to turn people away from using the mikva.

I don't know how anybody will know who is Reform, who is Conservative, who is simply not religious or whatnot. Plenty of not-Orthodox people have used the mikva until now, and I hope they won't get turned away because of this new law.

A Haredi askan commented about this that in the USA the Reform don't have any mikvas and have no use for them, so there is no reason they should need them here. The only reason they want to use the mikvaot here is as a tool to gain legitimacy and an opening into society via conversions.

I don't know how many mikvaot the Reform operate in the USA, but a quick Google search shows that they do have some. I don't know how frequently they use them, or for what, but the statement made above is obviously wrong. Besides for that, Haredim do things differently in Israel than they do in the USA, so why can't the Reform?

Another issue I see is that if someone Reform (more likely Conservative) wants to keep taharat hamishpacha and go to the mikva, why should anyone have the right to prevent them from doing so?

I thought the final law would specifically deal with preventing conversions by Reform, but they opened it up and said any immersions by Reform and Conservative are not allowed. Maybe they will only ban people who converted Reform or Conservative - but I don't know how a woman entering the mikva will be identified as a convert, let alone as a Reform convert.

security cameras and mikvas appearing in the same sentence always worries me.

According to a report, the "Mishmeret Hatzniyut" (whoever they are) has decided to install cameras in mikvas around Jerusalem.

The reason for this is the concern for attacks on children in the mikvas.

Supposedly, the security cameras will only be view-able to 3 rabbis with tight security. If a complaint is filed, three rabbis appointed to this task will, together, watch the footage.

The camera system has already been installed in one mikva.
source: Kikar

1. if a complaint is filed, perhaps it is the police who should be given the videos to watch, rather than a group of rabbis. Why are the rabbis investigating?

2. I am not all that much more comfortable knowing three rabbis are scanning footage of a bunch of naked men and children than if it was one rabbi or some creepy mishmeret hatzniyut guy in his mom's basement.

3. who is this "mishmeret hatzniyus", and what kind of authority do they have to wire up mikvas with cameras? and who are they to appoint rabbis with the task of viewing the footage of the mikva cameras?

4. as I said above, "mikvas" and "cameras" are words that should never be spoken in the same sentence. Definitely not in reference to anybody other than the police, and even them....

5. Maybe kids should be kept out of the mikvas

The Haredi and religious parties are proposing a new law that would circumvent a recent decision by the Suprme Court.

The Supreme Court recently decided that the public mikvahs run by the Rabbanut religious council must open its doors to Reform and Conservative conversions. As well, their beis din representatives must be allowed i to supervise such conversions in these public mikvahs.

Obviously the religious parties are not happy with this decision. MK Gafni, and joined by Shas, UTJ and Habayit Hayehudi, is proposing a law that would circumvent the Supreme Court. The law, if passed, will establish that mikvahs in Israel must operate according to the directives of the Rabbanut religious council.
source: Behadrei

I am actually surprised that this is not already a law or an operative rule of some sort. The Rabbanut builds the mikvahs and controls them, but the operation doesn't have to follow their rules? To me that does not make sense.

Anyways, I am pretty sure this law will pass, but I am also pretty sure the Supreme Court will find a way around it.

Woman removed from mikvah premises by police after demanding to immerse alone

  -- JPost

oy, what the police have to deal with!

I wonder what the dispatcher was thinking when he got a call to extract a woman from the mikva....

I am not sure what was lacking before... when I want to go to the mikvah I do, or at least i can, and when I want to go to the gym I do, or at least I can. I cannot think of a single time I needed or wanted to do both at the same time.

Yet it seems there is some market for that. Gym with a mikvah. Mikvah with a gym.

According to INN:

I am not sure what this adds, but why not. Personally I cannot imagine wanting to dunk in such a mikvah, considering the sweaty people who would be using it, but if others want to...

Will they do this for womens mikvah and gyms next?

what hybrid name could we call it? Gykvah?

It used to be that a kosher gym or a mehadrin gym was a gym that had separate hours for men and women. Now it will refer to a gym with a mikvah. how will we know what a gym advertising itself as kosher or mehadrin will mean?

Mynet is reporting on an interesting case of a woman who tried to immerse in a mikva with dreadlocks (Rastot in Hebrew). The mikva lady saw the dreadlocks and told her she cannot immerse like that, as the dreadlocks are a chatzitza - they must be opened for immersion.

Technically, tight braids are a problem for immersion, and they are considered a chatzitza. Different rabbonim, though, do take different positions on the matter. for example, I did a quick online search of the question about immersing with dreadlocks, and out of 4 "ask the rabbi" sites I found, 2 said it is ok to immerse in the mikva with dreadlocks and 2 said it is a problem. All four sites I found were dati leumi websites/organizations/rabbonim.

According to the Mynet report, the mikva lady would not let her immerse, even though the woman told her that he rabbi had told her she could go to the mikva like that. The mikva lady, and another one that was called in to help, responded that their rabbonim do not allow dreadlocks immersion as they consider it a chatzitza.

A member of the mikva department of the religious council of Jerusalem responded that the mikva ladies are not allowed to get involved in such things and are only there to assist women who need assistance or if a woman asks a halachic question - they are not allowed to initiate on their own, and such instructions are repeatedly sent out to the mikva ladies around town.

This does raise the issue, again, of what the purpose of a mikva lady is, and what she is allowed to do. If she sees a clear chatzitza, is she not supposed to tell the woman immersing? Maybe the woman missed something and would want to know.

Personally I would say that a mikva lady seeing a problem should be able to mention something like that, but once the woman says she already checked it with her rabbi, she should be allowed to continue to immerse without interruption.

Normally though, the purpose of the mikva is really just to make sure the womans hair goes completely under the water when immersing, and to let her know upon egress from the water that her immersion was kosher. Beyond that, her involvement should mostly be limited to situations in which the woman immersing asks for help, or if she spots something that clearly might have been missed.

The issue of being machmir at someone else's expense is extremely difficult. What if this woman, or another woman, went home, having been turned away from the mikva, and tells her husband that she immersed, when she really did not? What if she left with a bad taste, and next time she refuses to go? All because the mikva lady wanted to be machmir. Is that chumra really worth it?

Rabbonim go out of their way to make it very easy for women to go to the mikva, allowing things in very lenient ways, out of concern that otherwise some women might just stop going. An example that comes to mind that i recently learned - the Shulchan Aruch says that it is prohibited to heat the mikva.water. Even during the week.

Can you imagine a woman going to a freezing cold mikva? Really they should be. However, the rabbonim have decided to be lenient and allow it - across the board. There is no such a thing as a cold mikva for women. The reason is because if we made women immerse in a cold mikva, many women would just not bother going. They might tell their husbands they went, but in actuality there is a concern that they might not actually immerse. So they are lenient and find a way around the prohibition to make it easy for women to immerse, and to not give them an excuse to not immerse.

Sure there is place to prohibit dreadlocks. But if a woman comes in and says she already consulted with her rabbi who allows it, it is not the place of the mikva lady to be more stringent on her.

 .