Photo from ynet.co.il
A few days ago, I wrote a post about Yeshivat Maharat and the communal need for ordained orthodox Jewish female leaders. One of the points I mentioned was that women who practice the laws of taharat mishpacha would feel more comfortable asking shailahs of women rather than men. However, there is another area that should be within the realm of female spiritual leadership that has just as much importance, if not more so. That is the area of female mikvah conversion ceremonies.
There is in article in Ynet that discusses the embarrassment of women undergoing conversion ceremonies in Israel, which are run under orthodox Jewish auspices. In Israel, as in every other part of the Jewish orthodox world, a convert must submerge in mikvah waters under the supervision of a rabbinic tribunal of three men. A standard mikvah pool looks something like this:
The convert goes down the steps into the mikvah pool while the three rabbis stand above. While being observed from above, the convert completely submerges himself or herself three times. There are two blessings that are recited at the end of the three dunks – one for the blessing over immersing in the mikvah, and one thanking G-d for their new status as a Jew -
1. Barukh atah Ado-nai Elo-henu melekh ha’olam asher kideshanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu al ha’tevillah.
2. Baruch atah adonai eloheinu melech ha’olam shecheyanu v’kiy’manu v’higyanu lazman hazeh.
The rabbis supervise each dunk to make sure the person’s entire body goes under the water. When the convert emerges from the mikvah, they are now officially a Jew.
In order to ensure the body’s complete contact with the mikvah waters, the ideal state is to be naked. Male converts are completely unclothed during the conversion mikvah ritual. The obvious question is, do women converts dunk naked in front of the men? In Israel, according to the article, the answer is no. Women are given loose robes, as depicted in the drawing at the top of this post, to dunk in. Even so, for many women, the vulnerability of being in a soaked garment and immersing in front of men (the Jewish version of a wet t-shirt contest), is still enough to make the memory of the conversion experience an unpleasant one.
At the same time, the Israeli robe is much more tznius than the garment that appears to be standard in most orthodox American conversions, which literally is a sheet with a hole in it. The sheet is a large and unwieldy piece of fabric whose purpose is to fan out above the water once the convert dunks under. However, often the sheet sticks to some part of the body or fans out in a lopsided way, thus exposing a view of naked flesh to the rabbis above.
Because of the requirement that nothing get between the body and mikvah waters, often this unwieldy sheet poses an obstacle and is done away with altogether. I read a thread on a Jewish women’s forum called imamother.com, where a convert answered questions from the other women. One of her remarks was that when she converted, she did so 100% naked. The other women were shocked that she went skinny dipping in front of three rabbis. None of them were aware that female converts go naked during the conversion process. The woman who shared her experience did not seem bothered by it, calling the rabbis in her conversion, “old farts.”
I’m not sure why this serious breach of tznius is considered ok. Perhaps it’s because the person entering the mikvah is not yet a Jew? There is also the assumption that if a woman did not grow up Jewish or grew up as a secular Jew, that her standards of modesty are lower (after all, they once wore bathing suits on the beach!). It could also be the “rabbi as a doctor” argument. The same argument that’s used when women express humiliation at having to show stained bedikah clothes or underwear to a rabbi for taharat mishpacha shailahs. You wouldn’t be embarrassed to be examined by a male doctor would you?
Reading the article about Israeli female converts, as well as the experience of the American convert on imamother, makes me realize this is an issue that many Jewish women have gone through or will be going through. This breach of modesty traumatizes a population that is often loathe to identify itself, and thus, it continues. The issue hits home, because it happened to me. Part 2 on my experience continues tomorrow.
