I returned to the Source
to be reborn
to rebirth myself—
I became,
always in the process of
becoming
who I was always meant to be
who I have always been:
A Jewish soul,
once lost, wandering from Sinai
seeking home.
Honoring tradition, Torah, halakhah, myself
in ritual is a blessing
to be granted with perhaps the greatest blessing:
“welcome home.”
The mikveh was grounding and transcendent,
a sanctuary wherein contradiction marries continuity, achievement, and acceptance.
I felt at once weightless
and at one, in substance, with the surrounding water
with the generations of Jews who came before me
with the generations of Jews who will arrive after me.
I became water, the water became me.
The transformation complete upon a definitive “kasher!”—
surreal and so corporeal.
I feel whole for having finally embraced
those living waters and
the Jewish people and
myself.
I returned
and turn
and turn
and turn
to the Source.
