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Mikvah before Yom Kippur
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amother
Ginger


 

Post Wed, Sep 16 2020, 4:00 pm
Is it only chassidim that have this minhag?

Anyone non-chassidish does it?
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amother
Ruby


 

Post Wed, Sep 16 2020, 5:08 pm
amother [ Ginger ] wrote:
Is it only chassidim that have this minhag?

Anyone non-chassidish does it?


Reread the first page. Not only chassidim do it.

Women dip for the same reason men do on erev yk - to enter the holiest day of the year in a state of purity. It's kind of obvious why we do it.

Afaik, women follow the custom of their mothers for mikva (and candle lighting). So if your mom didn't dip, don't. And don't worry about it.
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malki2




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 16 2020, 5:32 pm
Blessing1 wrote:
It's not a chassidish minhag. Women of all walks of life go.


Correct. I remember seeing the line of women outside the Mattersdorfer Shul on Erev YK when we lived there. (I never went.)
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Ruchel




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 17 2020, 4:54 am
I'm happy one more thing off my list Wink but if it was my minhag I'd go. beware, if nidda, can't go and some don't let unmarried either
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ilovegod




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 15 2021, 9:42 am
I’m just wondering. I’m thinking about going. After U dip, can I take a regular shower before Yom Kippur?
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clowny




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 15 2021, 9:49 am
ilovegod wrote:
I’m just wondering. I’m thinking about going. After U dip, can I take a regular shower before Yom Kippur?


Preferably you should shower before dipping.
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gonewiththewind1




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 15 2021, 9:53 am
amother [ Mint ] wrote:
Erev Yom kippur mikvah is supposed to be literally erev yom kippur, from after shekiya the night before. Many women don't shower after mikva till after yom kippur.

That is not correct. Our mikvah was open since Sunday for Yom Kippur dipping every night.
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Ima Piano




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 15 2021, 10:04 am
My dh wants me to go but I have a possible bladder infection. There's no way I can go then
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ilovegod




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 15 2021, 10:32 am
clowny wrote:
Preferably you should shower before dipping.
of course I’ll shower before. But is it forbidden to shower after? Like do I stay with Mikva heaters?
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ecs




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 15 2021, 11:11 am
ilovegod wrote:
of course I’ll shower before. But is it forbidden to shower after? Like do I stay with Mikva heaters?


Most people shower after. It's not like regular mikva.
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ccgg




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 15 2021, 11:46 am
It is brought down in the Mishne Brurah, סימן תר"ו, so this is actually a "real" minhag
More commonly kept in the chassidish community, but not exclusively
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Kinor Dovid




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 15 2021, 12:36 pm
AFAIK there are two reasons for this minhag.
1. To purify before the holiest day of the year. This reason applies to any woman, even a widow. For teshuva.
2. Because of takonas Ezra which means that emitting zera, even when it was not levatala is better to dip afterwards. This is why some men dip each time after they were intimate.
When zera discharge comes out of the woman there’s a minhag to dip for that reason, only before Yom Kippur.
It’s discussed in the seforim.
I don’t have time to find it now but The kitzur shulchan Aruch discusses it, and also the Mishnah Brura, that a woman can have zera discharge for three days after intimacy and therefore should wash herself before dipping on erev Yom Kippur to avoid getting tumas zera again (after dipping).

I’m not very knowledgeable in this, just writing the little that I know so I won’t be able to answer any questions but your Rav probably can:)
AFAIK for women it’s a minhag, praiseworthy and purifying but not totally crucial and is ok if it didn’t work out.

Gmar chasima Tova to all of Imamother! A gut gebentched yor!
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FranticFrummie




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 16 2021, 2:25 pm
I'm surprised no one mentioned this article yet: https://www.jpost.com/israel-n.....79563

Women's ritual baths closed by Jerusalem chief rabbi due to 'promiscuity'
Closing women’s mikvahs due to promiscuity and not men’s was a form of illegal gender-based discrimination and violated laws regarding freedom of religion.

A ruling issued by Jerusalem Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar halted a long-standing custom of women, married and single, to immerse in a mikvah ritual bath the day before Yom Kippur to heighten their sense of spiritual purity.

Earlier this week, Amar sent a letter to Rabbi David Banino, head of the Jerusalem religious council’s mikvah department, telling him that mikvah directors and attendants should not allow women to immerse in the mikvaot they operate unless it is the correct night for them to immerse, according to Jewish family purity laws.

This would exclude married women, singles, divorcees and widows who wish to immerse in a mikvah for spiritual purposes ahead of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

The motivation behind Amar’s ruling was what he described as "awful promiscuity." He explained that in current times “we have arrived at a situation so awful that things which we were embarrassed to think about in private and in inner sanctums have become a symbol of freedom and progress.”
Today, he explained, “People who are modest are considered to be mentally ill and oppressed, and people glorify in abomination.”

Amar’s concern regarding promiscuity appears to be a concern that unmarried women who immerse in the mikvah will then justify having relations outside of marriage.

Under Jewish law, married women must immerse themselves in a mikvah following the completion of their menstrual cycle, before they are permitted to have s-xual relations with their husbands again.
In recent years, some religiously observant, unmarried women who wish to have s-xual relations with their partners have also sought to immerse in a mikvah first, a practice the Chief Rabbinate and some local rabbinates have sought to ban.

Amar’s directive to stop women from immersing for spiritual reasons on Yom Kippur was strongly criticized from several quarters, however, including the Itim religious services advisory organization.
In a letter to Religious Services Ministry director Shimon Ma’atok, Itim attorney Meira Friedman said Amar’s decision was illegal and harmful to the religious traditions of women in Jerusalem who are accustomed to immersing in a mikvah on Erev Yom Kippur, noting that the custom has been in practice for generations.

Friedman argued that closing women’s mikvahs due to promiscuity and not men’s was a form of illegal gender-based discrimination and violated laws regarding freedom of religion.
“It is unfortunate that on the eve of Yom Kippur, a time when Jews unite in reflection and humility, the Jerusalem religious council is choosing to divide Jews,” said Itim director Rabbi Seth Farber.

“The custom to immerse in the mikvah in anticipation of Yom Kippur is well documented in religious sources and the women who wish to practice this custom should not be prevented from doing so because of unfounded fears of ‘licentiousness.’

“Though this decision was taken at the last minute, Itim will consider legal action to ensure that this doesn’t happen in the future.” Following Itim’s appeal to the Religious Services Ministry and media reports, the ministry decided to open two mikvahs in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, one on Minhat Yitzhak Street, on the corner with Ohel Yehoshua Street in the Givat Komuna neighborhood, and the other at Zevin Steet 2 in Neve Yaakov.

Yotvat Weil, 40, from Jerusalem, has been going to the mikvah on Erev Yom Kippur for the last eight years, and sought to go on Wednesday as well with her two daughters but discovered that her local mikvah was shut.

The mikvah attendants said they had been told to say the mikvahs were closed due to coronavirus, despite the fact that men’s mikvahs remain open. Weil eventually went to a private mikvah outside of Jerusalem to immerse, along with her daughters, since the ministry’s instructions to open the two mikvahs came after she had already found alternative arrangements.

“This is unbelievable. Women immersing in a mikvah is a custom dating back at least to the 9th century. This is an ancient custom, it is a spiritual immersion and one which is about [spiritual] connection before Yom Kippur,” Weil said.
“Immersion in a mikvah is personal, and here they are forcibly preventing women from doing so in this violent manner,” she continued.

“This is something which belongs to women, yet Rabbi Amar with this aggression is essentially saying he is the owner of women’s bodies and the owner of my mitzvot and those of all women.
“Women have freedom over their bodies and freedom to fulfill mitzvot for themselves," she said. "Someone who wants to lock mikvahs can make other decisions and no one stops him.”
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etky




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 16 2021, 2:53 pm
Well, Matan Kahana won points for his intervention in this issue, in my eyes at least...
The fact that it occurred at all is unbelievable.
For the record, womens mikva'ot in the Gush were open yesterday.
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SuperWify




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 16 2021, 4:01 pm
Kinor Dovid wrote:
AFAIK there are two reasons for this minhag.
1. To purify before the holiest day of the year. This reason applies to any woman, even a widow. For teshuva.
2. Because of takonas Ezra which means that emitting zera, even when it was not levatala is better to dip afterwards. This is why some men dip each time after they were intimate.
When zera discharge comes out of the woman there’s a minhag to dip for that reason, only before Yom Kippur.

It’s discussed in the seforim.
I don’t have time to find it now but The kitzur shulchan Aruch discusses it, and also the Mishnah Brura, that a woman can have zera discharge for three days after intimacy and therefore should wash herself before dipping on erev Yom Kippur to avoid getting tumas zera again (after dipping).

I’m not very knowledgeable in this, just writing the little that I know so I won’t be able to answer any questions but your Rav probably can:)
AFAIK for women it’s a minhag, praiseworthy and purifying but not totally crucial and is ok if it didn’t work out.

Gmar chasima Tova to all of Imamother! A gut gebentched yor!


In that case a woman who had not been intimate up to three days before would not need to go.
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