Friday, October 7, 2005

So Friday was a hectic day at work, still a lot of construction going on. The office is one big cloud of dust. I would imagine my lungs are coated with a nice thick layer of dust. Anyway, I received a call from Gal on Friday afternoon. Gal is one of the religious guys I met at Temple. He asked me to come for Shabbat dinner. I said yes and was excited for the experience. He decided he would pick me up because he wanted to go to the ocean to do mikvah. What is mikvah... I will cut and paste so you can learn if you do not know.

Mikvah (or mikveh) (Hebrew: ???? Pronunciation: ( Seph. m?-kvä'; Ashk., Eng. mik'vu) is a "ritual bath" used for immersion in a purification ceremony within Judaism. Its main use nowadays is by Jewish women to achieve ritual purity after menstruation or childbirth. Immersion in a mikvah is also required for completion of a traditional conversion to Judaism.




Traditionally, the mikvah was used by both men and women for various purposes. Everyone was required to go to the mikvah upon coming into contact with the dead or other ritually unclean (tamei) objects. Nazirites were required to immerse in the mikvah upon being healed or completing their vows, lepers were required to immerse upon healing, priests were required to immerse before performing certain Temple rites, men were required to immerse after having a nocturnal emission (this is still practiced by some as tevilath Ezra, "the immersion of Ezra"), and women after giving birth or menstruating.

Today, among Orthodox Jews, only women are still required to immerse in a mikvah after childbirth or menstruation before they have intercourse with their husbands. In some Orthodox communities, men may immerse before their wedding. Women immerse themselves before the day of their wedding, after their last pre-wedding menstrual cycle in order to be ritually pure for their wedding night. New converts to Judaism also often immerse in the Mikvah, though this is not considered necessary by all Rabbis. Men and women have separate mikvah facilities in separate locations, as a woman's attendance at the mikvah is a private matter. Some men also use the mikvah regularly, either daily, weekly, or before Yom Kippur. This is especially so in Hasidic circles.

The rules regarding the construction of mikvahs are complicated. The immersion itself must take place in mayim chayim ("living water"), i.e., water that moves. Certain rivers or lakes can therefore be used for immersion, but one should always check with a Mikvah expert to be sure as to the status of a particular body of water. Standard bathtubs cannot be used. Alternately, rain water can also be used, and is the source of most mikvah water today. Though a certain amount of rainwater is required, this can be augmented with regular tap water, which has a connection to mayyim chayyim. This later formula is often used so that the water used for immersion can be frequently changed. A pool of rainwater (bor) is connected with a duct to a regular bathing pool, and the duct is closed to empty and replace the regular water without having to replace the rain water.

Immersion requires that the water cover the entire body. All clothing, jewelry, and even bandages must be removed, and the hair must be combed straight so that there are no knots. In contemporary mikvahs for women, there is always an experienced "mikvah lady" to watch the immersion and ensure that the woman has been entirely covered in water.

While Gal was doing Mikvah I was taking pictures.






I did take several pictures of him in the ocean which I will post later. After he was finished I had to drive his car home because he does not drive on Shabbat. While we were driving home he told me that a few times he lost his shorts. When he gets in the ocean he takes his shorts off and let's them go. When he is finished he swims to his shorts, I guess the current was strong and took his shorts away. So he had to run out of the ocean naked to his towel, funny.

While we were walking up the stairs to his apartment I could smell the food. We walked in and there was food everywhere, in the oven and on a warmer. I could tell that he worked very hard to make this meal. On the table were two Challahs which he told me that the Rabbi's wife made. He brought her the flour and she baked two for him.


Any traditional Jewish meal begins with the breaking of bread. Challah is a special kind of bread used for Shabbat and holidays. It is a very sweet, golden, eggy bread. The taste and texture is somewhat similar to egg twist rolls (those little yellow rolls that look like knots). The loaf is usually braided, but on certain holidays it may be made in other shapes. For example, on Rosh Hashanah, it is traditional to serve round challah (the circle symbolizing the cycle of life, the cycle of the years).


There was also a bottle of wine on the table and I also brought a nice Kosher wine from Israel. We drank the wine that I brought, very nice. The first of the four havdalah blessings is made over wine or another liquid. If the blessing is made over wine, recite this blessing:Barukh atah Adonai Elohaynu melekh ha-olam, borei pÂ’riy ha-gafen. (Amein)
Blessed are You, Lord, our God, King of the Universe, who creates the fruit of the vine. (Amen)



I lit the candles and said the prayer. The candles literally and metaphorically bring light to the household and create a tangible boundary between the weekday and the Sabbath.

Shabbat dinners usually last a very long time. You are with family and friends so you enjoy eachothers company, talk, eat, drink, more food, more food, more wine and then dessert. For desert he put out fruit and a cake.

It was a very enjoyable night. I forgot to mention that Gal's apartment is right on the water and the view was amazing.



We sat outside after dinner and the ocean breeze was so nice. He also has two little white birds which he named Ellyn and Wendy.
I do not know what their names were before. He probably did not have names for them.






I hope you enjoyed reading!!!