“Cultic impurity bears no relation to modern notions of dirt and cleanliness. In the mishnaic system, only those bodily fluids that Scripture enumerates as sources of cultic contamination give cause for concern. These happen to include menstrual blood and other genital discharges, but not (for instance) urine or faeces, which to our way of thinking may seem far more ‘dirty’ than an emission of blood”
Wegner J.R. 1988 Chattel or Person? Oxford University Press; Oxford 1988; p. 242, n.251
Why are converts required to immerse?
Rather, Rabbi Yehoshua derived it from here, where the verse states with regard to the formation of the covenant at Sinai: “And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it upon the people” (Exodus 24:8), and it is learned as a tradition that there is no ritual sprinkling without immersion. Therefore, our forefathers also must have immersed at Sinai, and consequently that is also an essential requirement for all conversions.
Can a conversion with Mikveh be undone?
The baraita continues: Once he has immersed and emerged he is a Jew in every sense. The Gemara asks: With regard to what halakha is this said? It is that if he reverts back to behaving as a gentile, he nevertheless remains Jewish, and so if he betroths a Jewish woman, although he is considered to be an apostate Jew, his betrothal is a valid betrothal.
How do we conduct Mikveh and what else is it used for?
נתרפא מטבילין אותו מיד ושני ת"ח עומדים על גביו ומודיעין אותו מקצת מצות קלות ומקצת מצות חמורות טבל ועלה הרי הוא כישראל לכל דבריו אשה נשים מושיבות אותה במים עד צוארה ושני ת"ח עומדים לה מבחוץ ומודיעין אותה מקצת מצות קלות ומקצת מצות חמורות אחד גר ואחד עבד משוחרר ובמקום שנדה טובלת שם גר ועבד משוחרר טובלין וכל דבר שחוצץ בטבילה חוצץ בגר ובעבד משוחרר ובנדה
When he is healed from the circumcision, they immerse him immediately, and two Torah scholars stand over him at the time of his immersion and inform him of some of the lenient mitzvot and some of the stringent mitzvot. Once he has immersed and emerged, he is like a born Jew in every sense. For the immersion of a woman: Women appointed by the court seat her in the water of the ritual bath up to her neck, and two Torah scholars stand outside the bath house so as not to compromise her modesty, and from there they inform her of some of the lenient mitzvot and some of the stringent mitzvot. The procedure applies for both a convert and an emancipated slave who, upon immersion at the time of his emancipation, becomes a Jew in every sense. And in the same place that a menstruating woman immerses, i.e., in a ritual bath of forty se’a of water, there a convert and an emancipated slave also immerse. And anything that interposes between one’s body and the water of the ritual bath with regard to immersion of a ritually impure person, in a manner that would invalidate the immersion, also interposes and invalidates the immersion for a convert, and for an emancipated slave, and for a menstruating woman.
Through most of Jewish history, immersion in a mikvah has been the universal ritual of conversion to Judaism. Since the first or second century C.E. women and men, adults and children, have submerged themselves in water, recited prayers, and emerged as Jews. When you walk into the water of the mikvah, you follow in their wake. You also enter a Jewish institution and partake of an ancient and elemental Jewish experience that is utterly foreign to the vast majority of liberal-born Jews.
[…] Mikvah is an experience of the body and the soul. Although preparing for a conversion is largely an intellectual activity, immersion is an altogether physical act, a ritual enactment of commitment, a spiritual leap. Mikvah defies logic; after all, how can getting wet change your life? And yet, as most Jews-by-choice will tell you, it is a transforming emotional experience. Floating in the mikvah, every limb, every pore, every strand of hair covered by waters as warm as those of your mother’s womb – you are held in a primal embrace and emerge, in a way, reborn.
Immersion can be understood as a personal experience of Sinai – of revelation. Although there is no mention of mikvah in the Torah itself, later interpreters used the story of the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai to create a biblical precedent for ritual purification through water. Immediately before the Ten Commandments were given to Israel, God tells Moses to sanctify the people and have them ‘wash their garments.’ Just as the Jewish people purified themselves before receiving the Torah, the convert enters the mikvah before being called upon to hold the Torah in his or her congregation.
You share this experience of Sinai with Jews-by-choice of every generation, all the way back to the ‘mixed multitude’ – the non-Israelites who followed Moses into the desert in search of freedom – mentioned in Torah. As one Jew-by-choice put it, “When you lead a Passover seder, you have all of the generations of you Jewish family, since Sinai, standing behind you. When I lead the seder, I feel as though I have all of the generations of Jews who entered the mikvah standing right beside me”.
Mikvah is not about cleansing sins of a rebirth that blots out your life prior to conversion. And yet, entering the water does offer an opportunity to redefine yourself in fundamental ways. Since the days of the ancient Temple, mikvah has been used to signify changes in status- within the community, within personal relationships, and within one’s own heart.
Anita Diamant Choosing a Jewish Life 1997; p.119-120