Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Life

Israel’s Chief Rabbinate Agrees to Mikveh Immersion Without Attendant

JERUSALEM — The use of an attendant during mikveh immersion in Israel will be changed from mandatory to optional.

Israel’s Chief Rabbinate and Ministry of Religious Services agreed on the change in a filing Wednesday with the Supreme Court. The state religious bodies were responding to a suit filed by ITIM, a group that supports Israelis in their encounters with the country’s religious bureaucracy.

“Female mikveh bathers can decide for themselves whether to follow this halachic rule (immersing in the presence of the female mikveh attendant), including bathing by themselves or with the company of a friend, while the local religious council and its employees will not condition the bathing with the presence of the female mikveh attendant during the ritual bathing,” read the response delivered to the court by the state attorney’s office, according to ITIM.

Religious authorities believe the supervision of an attendant at a mikveh, or ritual bath, is necessary to ensure that the woman’s immersion is done according to halachah, or Orthodox Jewish law, to ensure that every part of the woman, including all her hair, is under the water at the same time.

Some women have complained of mistreatment by mikveh attendants or a screening that is too rigorous. Victims of sexual abuse also have asked to not be observed during immersion.

The response clarifies that the religious position of the Chief Rabbinate is that immersion in the mikveh must be done in the presence of a female mikveh attendant and that signs to that effect should hang in all mikveh.

Last July, ITIM filed the petition on behalf of 13 women calling on the Supreme Court to instruct the Ministry of Religious Affairs to require all religious councils to maintain “a procedure aimed to protect the personal privacy of all mikveh bathers,” as well as to instruct all religious councils to enable bathing without the presence of the female mikveh attendant in cases where the women demand it.

Rabbi Seth Farber, director of  ITIM, in a statement congratulated the Chief Rabbinate “on showing compliance and an understating to the needs of the many women who wish to bathe in the mikvehs, thus bringing them, and many other women, closer to this important mitzvah.”

The Tzohar rabbinical organization called the decision “a further important step forward in promoting Jewish practice and halacha in Israel in an atmosphere of love and acceptance rather than coercion.”

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.