To read at the entrance of mikvehThe ritual bath. The waters of the mikveh symbolically purify – they are seen as waters of rebirth. A convert immerses in the mikveh as part of conversion. Many Orthodox married women go to the mikveh following their period and before resuming sexual relations. Couples go to the mikveh before being married. Many, including some men, immerse before Yom Kippur; some go every Friday before Shabbat.:
I come to the mikveh to restart my natural menstrual flow, turning away from contraception, and turning toward the miracle of creating life. I follow in the footsteps of Jewish women who have honored the cycles of life through immersion. I have chosen this time myself, to enter a new cycle. I pray to be strong and whole as I ready myself for the opportunity of motherhood.
To read at the edge of the waters:
Immersion in water softens our form, making us malleable, dissolving some of the rigidity of who we are. This allows us to decide who we wish to be when we come out of the water. The water changes us neither by washing away something nor by letting something soak in to us, but simply by softening us so that we can choose to remold ourselves into a different image.
After First Immersion
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ עַל הַטְבִילָה.
Barukh atah, Adonay Eloheynu, Melech ha’olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav, vitzivanu al hat’vilah.
Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Ruler of the universe, who sanctified us with Your commandments concerning immersion.
Take a moment to breathe and be present
Prior to Second Immersion
A Prayer for Fertility
You are Adonai Our God.
You were our God before You created the world and You are our God from the time You created the world and for eternity You are God.
You have created Your world so that Your divinity will be known in it through the means of Your holy TorahThe Five Books of Moses, and the foundation of all of Jewish life and lore. The Torah is considered the heart and soul of the Jewish people, and study of the Torah is a high mitzvah. The Torah itself a scroll that is hand lettered on parchment, elaborately dressed and decorated, and stored in a decorative ark. It is chanted aloud on Mondays, Thursdays, and Shabbat, according to a yearly cycle. Sometimes "Torah" is used as a colloquial term for Jewish learning and narrative in general..
O Adonai our God, You wrote two commands in Your Torah:
‘Be fruitful and multiply’ and you wrote in Your Torah
‘…you shall teach this to your children’ and the meaning of both is the same:
For You have not created the world as a wilderness, but for inhabiting, and for Your glory you have created, formed and made it, so that we and our offspring and the offspring of all Your people IsraelLit. ''the one who struggles with God.'' Israel means many things. It is first used with reference to Jacob, whose name is changed to Israel (Genesis 32:29), the one who struggles with God. Jacob's children, the Jewish people, become B'nai Israel, the children of Israel. The name also refers to the land of Israel and the State of Israel., all of us should know Your name and learn Your Torah.
And so I come to You, God, and I cast my petition before You and my eyes depend on You that You should be gracious to me and hear my plea
to bring for me sons and daughters and they too should be fruitful and multiply, they and their children and their children’s children till the end of all the generations for the purpose that we all will be busy with Your holy Torah to study and to teach and to guard and to perform it.
Immerse
Prior to Third Immersion
O Great God!
Through water you have made great miracles many times:
The righteous Noah was saved from the flood water.
Our teacher MosesThe quintessential Jewish leader who spoke face to face with God, unlike any other prophet, and who freed the people from Egypt, led them through the desert for forty years, and received the Torah on Mt. Sinai. His Hebrew name is Moshe. was drawn forth out of water.
The well of MiriamMiriam is the sister of Moses and Aaron. As Moses' and Aaron's sister she, according to midrash, prophesies Moses' role and helps secure it by watching over the young baby, seeing to it that Pharaoh's daughter takes him and that the baby is returned to his mother for nursing. During the Israelites' trek through the desert, a magical well given on her behalf travels with the Israelites, providing water, healing, and sustenance. went with Israel through the desert bringing water.
Show today also your miracle that I should be helped through this water
to have a child, one who will be completely righteous, who will study Torah to better the world
who will light my path—after many days—straight to Heaven.
Immerse
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ וְקִיְּמָנוּ וְהִגִּיעָנוּ לַזְּמַן הַזֶּה.
Barukh atah, Adonay Eloheynu, Melech ha’olam, shehekheyanu, v’kiy’manu, v’higianu la’zman hazeh.
Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Ruler of the universe, for giving us life, sustaining us, and enabling us to reach this season.
1) The National Center for Learning and Leadership, CLAL
2) Prayer has been adapted from: http://www.wlcj.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/mishpacha_nov2013_prayers.pdf / From the Kitsur Shelah
3) Prayer has been adapted from: Tikva Frymer-Kensky, Motherprayer: The Pregnant Woman’s Spiritual Companion, (Riverhead, 1995), 12–13. as quoted in http://www.wlcj.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/mishpacha_nov2013_prayers.pdf
