Bridal Mikvah
We’re preparing for a wedding at Beth Simchat and we’re so excited. Especially because the way it’s going to be conducted is that the wedding will be woven through a sermon about how the ancient Jewish wedding is a picture of the wedding between Yeshua the bridegroom and the Church, His Bride. In the week before the wedding we will be having a bridal mikvah. While traditionally this would be done in “living water”, or natural flowing water, we live in a desert so we’re going to meet in a swimming pool.
10 years ago in the week before my own wedding, which was a Jewish/Christian wedding, we did a mikvah. My matron of honor arranged for us to have very fancy desert at one of the Valley’s top restaurants and the use of one of their outdoor hot tubs that are spread out around the mountain. It was wonderful! So when our bride was talking to me about preparing for her wedding I asked if she would be doing a mikvah. She loved the idea.
One thing I wish I’d known for my own mikvah were the blessings for bridal mikvah. I’m always amazed at how easy it is to pray without ceasing when you understand that there are blessings for everything! Especially things that are important to God–bread, wine, Sabbath, and even immersion. No surprise there, though. So in preparation for this mikvah I went in search of the blessings for bridal mikvah and this is what I found:
“Barukh ata Adonai Eloheynu Melekh Ha-olam asher kid’shanu, be-mitzvotav vitsivanu al ha’tevilah.
“Praised are you, Adonai, God of all creation, who sanctifies us with your commandments and commanded us concerning immersion.”
Well, that is the general immersion blessing.
Sheheheyanu, the blessing commemorating significant first events, is often added for brides (and grooms) who are undergoing immersion.
“Barukh ata Adonai, Eloheynu Melekh Ha-olam sheheheyanu vikiamanu vihigianu lazman hazeh.
“Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, .who kept us alive and preserved us and enabled us to reach this season.”
Two or three immersions are traditional and I love anything done in threes that can symbolize the Trinity as being the source of and a party to a ritual. In my wedding I circled my husband 3 times. And the word “mikveh” appears in Torah 3 times.
One thing I realized when planning for my wedding was that modern weddings have traditions and rituals as part of them, but the rituals of preparing for weddings have been honed down to a bachelors and bachelorette party which are, in many cases, nothing more than Hellenistic pagan debauchery run rampant. How can one prepare for the sanctity of marriage by mocking it in a pre-wedding romp through worldliness? And we are surprised at how many marriages fail. But a ritual emphasizing holiness, and purity, and preparation for becoming a bride and being a wife is a beautiful beginning to the wedding rituals.
Based on Sephardic tradition of turning a mikveh into a party we are going to have women who love the bride gather to celebrate her upcoming wedding with her and to encourage her in her desire to be pure at the altar with her groom.
If you would love to share about your bridal mikveh please send your story to crystal@aolff.org and I will add to this with ideas so that women who desire to put together a special bridal mikveh can be inspired here.
