“Do I need to take my wedding ring off?” I asked Rabbi Aryeh Weinstein at the Adele Mermelstein Community Mikvah in Newtown.
“Yes,” the rabbi of the Lubavitch of Bucks County said. “There should be nothing between you and God.”
Later, after the rabbi left the changing room, I put my wedding ring on the bench, took the ritual shower and walked to the mikvah. I went down the steps, immersed myself and came back up.
After a few minutes, I walked back up the steps, dried off and put my wedding ring back on.
“How do you feel?” the rabbi asked after I went back outside.
“Pure,” I responded.
This mikvah on a quiet corner of State Street next to the rabbi’s home opened on April 7 with a joyful ceremony. Weinstein, who with his wife Rosie led the effort to build it, spoke. So did Yudy Shemtov, the Lubavitch’s senior rabbi, and Neil and Hedy Hoffman, members of the Lubavitch community and the mikvah’s primary benefactors.
Adele Mermelstein is Hedy Hoffman’s late mother and a Holocaust survivor. During the shiva after her mother’s passing, Hedy Hoffman also had to attend to her husband, who was in the hospital with prostate cancer. The husband always felt bad about that, so he named the mikvah in Mermelstein’s honor.
The mikvah cost more than $2 million and included donations from more than 500 people. The Lubavitch broke ground on the property in March 2020. COVID delayed the process of finding certain materials. But it was worth the wait.
“The Adele Mermelstein Community Mikvah stands as a testament to the power of community, faith and dedication,” the rabbi wrote in a news release. “It is poised to become a beacon of spiritual enlightenment and renewal for generations to come.”
Immersing in the mikvah is a general purification ritual, according to the rabbi. But it’s especially designed for women to bring “purity to herself and to her family,” he said. Before entering, a woman is supposed to count five days from the end of the onset of her period and seven clean days, according to Weinstein.
A woman is also supposed to enter the mikvah before she conceives. But she can go in later in life and offer a “retroactive impact on the soul of the child,” the rabbi said.
“While we know a lot about the body — and a person will do anything a doctor tells them to preserve their health — we don’t know nearly as much about the soul,” Weinstein said.
The mikvah helps Jews experience the soul “more consciously,” the rabbi said. It also enhances the “ability for a child to experience the soul throughout their life on a more conscious level.”
“It’s not really designated for any life cycle events,” he said.
When we enter, we lose “our identity in the reality of the purpose that we were put in this world for.”
Building a mikvah is more important than building a synagogue, according to Weinstein. A Jewish community is even allowed to sell a Torah to build a mikvah.
Fortunately, the Lubavitch of Bucks County did not have to sacrifice its nearby building or sell a Torah. It was able to raise money. The result was almost immaculate.
The building contains marble walls and large changing rooms. Women can use tablets on the walls to make music selections, set timers and request additional supplies.
So far, those using the mikvah include Jews in Bucks County, Jews from just over the river in South Jersey and Jews in general within a 10- to 15-mile radius. But the mikvah is open to anyone.
Women must sign up and pay at ancmikvah.com because they can only go in at night. Men can come and go as they please during the mikvah’s open hours. They are encouraged to donate or become monthly members. Money goes back into the maintenance of the mikvah.
“My wife teaches many of the women in the community about this mitzvah,” Weinstein said. “And they embrace it.”
