Religious Zionists diverge over whether to use mikveh during coronavirus crisis
Question becomes acute after infected woman immersed in Efrat mikveh
As well as having an unprecedented impact on modern life and society, the coronavirus pandemic is having far-reaching consequences on the religious and intimate lives of observant Jews in Israel.
As the virus continues to spread in the Jewish state, increasing concern has been voiced about the safety of mikvaot, ritual baths, in which religious women immerse once a month after their menstrual cycle has ended.
The question became more acute this week after it emerged that a woman who had been infected with coronavirus but was asymptomatic immersed in a public mikveh in Efrat, meaning that other women who had immersed there had to go into quarantine.
Halacha strongly forbids sexual relations between husband and wife before the woman has immersed in a mikveh, and so access to mikvaot is critical for normal marital life.
In a decision written last week, two Orthodox women arbiters of Halacha ruled that women should refrain from immersing in mikvaot if they cannot be certain that requisite hygienic standards are adhered to, especially in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
The decision was co-authored by two Orthodox women who have received qualifications to rule on halachic questions of family purity, Dr. Chana Adler Lazarovits and Rabbanit Sarah Segel-Katz.
Adler Lazarovits, who studied at the Institute of Jewish Law of Otniel Yeshiva, is continuing her studies at Midreshet Ein Hanatsiv and Yeshivat Ma’ale Gilboa. Segel-Katz studied at the Jewish Law Program for Women of Beit Morasha and the Jewish Law Institute at Yeshivat Ma’ale Gilboa.
The ruling would have significant consequences for family life. The authors said couples would have to indefinitely extend the period in which they could not be intimate.
Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, a prominent arbiter of Halacha in the religious-Zionist community, ruled on Monday that since the commandment for a woman to immerse after her menstrual cycle is so crucial, it should not be postponed.
He argued that since the Health Ministry has not banned immersion in a mikveh despite the coronavirus pandemic, and that since danger is present in many walks of life, women should continue to immerse, although they should prepare for it at home instead of in the mikveh building.
Adler Lazarovits and SegelKatz took a very different view.
In their decision, they said the Health Ministry has not issued a statement declaring mikvaot to be safe.
Therefore, in a situation where it is impossible to ensure the requisite standards of hygiene are being upheld, and due to the danger to life posed by coronavirus, women should not immerse, they wrote, adding that the precept of not endangering one’s life even to fulfill religious commandments should supersede the commandments themselves.
Adler Lazarovits and SegelKatz cited the difficulties of guaranteeing that mikvaot are sufficiently hygienic and that adequate disinfection measures are taken to ensure that they do not become vectors for spreading the coronavirus.
Research conducted in 2015 on the state of public mikvaot by the Institute for Zionist Strategies found that 75% of them do not have the requisite operating license, meaning that the Health Ministry cannot ensure requisite hygiene standards are being upheld, they wrote.
Segel-Katz told The Jerusalem Post she and Adler Lazarovits over the past two weeks had spoken with dozens of women who had immersed in public mikvaot and with mikveh attendants. Mikveh attendants monitor and disinfect the water, and supervision of Health Ministry hygiene standards is conducted once a year in small towns and once a month in large cities, she said.
The Health Ministry and local religious councils have “almost no mechanisms” in place for supervising the results of disinfection during and after a mikveh’s use, they wrote. They discovered that “not all mikvaot have been supplied with all the means for disinfecting the mikvaot,” nor the requisite protective equipment for mikveh attendants.
According to the Religious Services Ministry, the water in mikvaot is changed every day by the mikveh attendants, who add chlorine and other disinfectants every time this is done.
The Health Ministry did not respond to questions from the Post regarding the frequency of inspections conducted by the ministry to examine hygienic standards in mikvaot.
Dvorah Iperman, director of the Department for Religious Structures in the Religious Services Ministry, said even though “immersion today is not simple,” it is safer than other public places, such as supermarkets, because of the daily disinfection procedures undertaken in mikvaot.
“I agree it is scary,” she said. “It’s not easy to go to a public place at the moment… But someone who goes to a mikveh can be calm because the site is disinfected and undergoes treatment.”
Because of the lacuna in Health Ministry oversight of hygiene standards Adler Lazarovits and Segel-Katz ruled that since the coronavirus represents a life-threatening danger, and women who carry the virus but are asymptomatic could spread the disease when they immerse, women should only immerse if they are certain the mikvaot do not pose a risk to their health.
“In the absence of information confirming adherence to the instructions at her local mikveh, a
woman must not endanger herself and thereby public health in order to immerse in the mikveh,” the authors wrote.
Immersion in natural water sources, such as springs, Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) and the Mediterranean Sea, is currently impossible since the Health Ministry has forbidden bathing in such places at present.
The authors said, “with great sorrow,” their decision meant religious couples would have to indefinitely extend the period in which they could not have sexual relations, but couples worried about “emotional difficulty or the risk of a worsening of a psychological condition” as a result of such a situation should consult a rabbi or halachic authority.
Melamed said the danger of infection in a mikveh was not sufficient to postpone immersion, adding that a small amount of danger such as traveling by car was present in all walks of life.
“We do not know enough about the danger of coronavirus, and therefore. when discussing matters of choice, then one can be stringent [to avoid danger],” he said. “But when talking about a great religious commandment such as this, one should rely on those responsible for public health.”
“Their instructions are used to operate mikvaot for women to immerse… According to their position, immersion is not dangerous,” Melamed ruled.