News broke last week that a dozen Native Americans and a cultural consultant walked off the set of Adam Sandler’s new Netflix film under production because it was misrepresenting Apache culture and spouted derogatory lines about women and indigenous people. I stand with them!

Video of the Native actors confronting the producers of Adam Sandler’s film in production by actress Goldie Tom was published online by Indian Country Today. Note at 0:06 “Does it make fun of the Jews?” (Click the image to view the video.)

It gets personal for us Jews who are activists for social justice when successful Jewish business persons in the entertainment industry perpetuate racism in mainstream society. On the heels of a long term campaign which erupted last year to change the name of the football team that Dan Snyder owns from Redskins, Adam Sandler has thus far been silent while his name has trended on social networks over the Natives who walked off the set. Yet Deadline.com reported that Netflix actually jumped at the opportunity to defend Sandler and justify racism in the media by issuing a statement:

“The movie has ‘ridiculous’ in the title for a reason –because it is ridiculous,” said a spokesperson for the streaming service Thursday. “It is a broad satire of Western movies and the stereotypes they popularized, featuring a diverse cast that is not only part of — but in on — the joke.”

There’s nothing funny about racism and “ridiculous” is no excuse. The many Jewish activists who have been taking to the streets with the #BlackLivesMatter movement should be finding ways to educate others on the harmful ways Native Americans are depicted by the media and hold our Jewish brethren accountable.

Newsweek interviewed actress Allie Young who walked off the set in protest with others, and gave some more insight into the horrific suggestions depicted in the film.

The script posed more issues, including offensive names for indigenous women, like “Beaver’s Breath” and “Wears No Bra.” In one scene, a Native American women is passed out on the ground. A group of white men pours liquor on her, and she wakes up and starts dancing. “In Indian country, we’re battling that issue right now,” Young said. “It’s 2.5 times more likely for an indigenous woman to be raped or sexually assaulted. Movies like this perpetuate that and just add to the stereotypes of our native women.”

Actress Allie Young has first hand experience with the social challenges that plague the original peoples of this continent as a result of historic and current policies, evidence of ongoing colonization. She echoes what the many campaigns to change racist school mascots around the country assert about the impact of these negative representations on the identity of Native youth.

“I take this very personally because my little brother committed suicide when he was 17 because of racism,” Young said. “In his suicide note, he said, ‘It’s hard to stay alive when you’re brown and gifted.’ I want to take a stand for native and indigenous youth. I want them to see their people portrayed as something better.”

American Jews who are aware of the continuing legacy of governmental forces continuing the historic theft of land against indigenous peoples deplore these evolutions of social oppression. This September, despite prostests the Pope is planning to canonize Junipero Serro, the friar who founded the mission system in California in the 1700′s which enslaved and brutalized the indigenous peoples of the West Coast - and celebrations have already begun among Catholic institutions. In the past month, the State of Michigan sold sacred, treaty-protected land to an internationally owned limestone mine in the largest public land deal in the state’s history. In December, Arizona’s Senator McCain buried a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act that gave sacred Apache land Oak Flats to an international copper mine. Over the past decade, the US federal government has militarized and confiscated historic indigenous lands for thousands of miles in constructing and securing the US-Mexico border wall. These new developments are just the latest while rape of the land affects indigenous peoples across the Americas from the Tar Sands to Patagonia.

We must stand against antisemitism on college campuses and around the world. We must protect our sacred and burial sites in the Holy Land and everywhere that Jews have lived. We must protest institutional injustices, endorsement of abuses and military violence by our governmental, corporate and faith leaders. And we must call on Adam Sandler to apologize and join in solidarity against racism in the media.

Whether it’s supporting the women on the front lines of indigenous struggles, endorsing campaigns to end racist mascots, becoming educated and sharing information with others about today’s plight for environmental justice or objecting to the bigotry that the media perpetuates in our society, American Jews and the organizations we are part of must increase our alliances with the indigenous peoples as they lead.

There is a place in Shabbat tefillot where we should have “Yemima bat Avraham Avinu haKadoshah” in mind together with all who died Al Kidush HaShem. It’s the part called “Av HaRachamim” found before Ashrei of Musaf.

Karen Yemima Mosquera Barrera, 22, was buried on the Mountain of Olives in the Holy Land this week. The story of Yemima’s life is becoming known during these days preceding the anniversary of the death of our matriarch Rachel.

Sabrina Schneider stands behind Yemima’s mother Rosa Cecilia Barrera and sister at the funeral. Source: Metro Ecuador

“She was buried at midnight of Oct. 27th – on the Mount of Olives. The cemetery facing the Old City of Jerusalem – the site famous for being the place where the righteous ones will first be resurrected at the End of Days,” wrote Chaya Lester, co-founder of Shalev Center, spoken word artist, and tour guide in the Holy Land in the Jewish arts online publication Hevria.

“It is the greatest spiritual aliyah that any man or woman has ever attained in the history of Am Yisrael, granting her the privilege of being buried on the highest point of the Mount of Olives and earning her the title ‘HaKedoshah Yemima bat Avraham Avinu, H”YD,’”wrote Sabrina Schneider, women’s health and childbirth worker and relative of Yemima. “Among many other things that were said in her hesped, one Rebbe said she will be the first to rise from the dead.”

Schneider’s posek, Talmid of HaGaon Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, t”zl advises all of Am Yisrael that there is a place in Shabbat tefillot where we should have “Yemima bat Avraham Avinu haKadoshah” in mind together with all who died Al Kidush HaShem. It’s the part called “Av HaRachamim” found before Ashrei of Musaf.

Schneider has been posting updates to her facebook wall since the senseless tragedy at Ammunition Hill light rail station October 22, 2014, where the first to die was 3 month old baby Chaya Zissel Braun. A look into on Yemima’s background was published in Voices Magazine blog when she was in critical condition at Hadassah hospital October 24. Reports included information for praying, offering charity, or doing other mitzvot for her recovery.

The Foreign Ministry of Israel flew in Yemima’s family from Ecuador following the attack. The Jerusalem Mayor and the Ecuadorian Ambassador to Israel were at the funeral, but no state representatives attended.

“My daughter died in God’s name. I don’t want her death to be in vain,” said Yemima’s mother Rosa Cecilia Barrera at the funeral. “Her dream was to come to Israel to start her life. I am heartbroken. No one can heal my sorrow.

“It pains me that these terrorists are so full of hate and they set out to murder innocent people… She was murdered just because she was Jewish.” In fact, Yemima was murdered on her way to study Torah.

Rachel Cries for her Children

Mothers of the then-kidnapped boys Rachel Frenkel, Bat Galim Shaer and Iris Yifrach appeal to the United Nations. Source: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs Website

Earlier this year, we heard from the mother of a kidnapped boy, when she spoke at the United Nations in defiance of a request from the government of Israel appealing for the safe return of her son and the two other abducted boys. Rachel Frankel, director at the Jewish women’s studies institute Advanced Halakha Program at Matan and Jewish law instructor at Nishmat, continued on as a spokesperson for the missing and then murdered children.

Rachel Frankel said kaddish at the funeral for her 16 year old son Naftali Frankel on July 1, 2014. It was the first time most Israelis and Jews on the planet saw and said “Amen” on a blessing spoken by a woman. “Rachelle Fraenkel became a public leader, a national heroine and, just as important, a religious heroine as well, over the 18 days that her son and his friends were missing,” wrote Haaretz reporter Yair Ettinger.

Rosa Cecilia Barrera and Rachel Frankel are two of many mothers grieving the loss of their children to violence, terror and war. May these mothers and all the mourners be comforted.

Our great matriarch Rachel Imeinu cries, in the Jewish bible, the book of Jeremiah, grieving the exile of her children. And the Creator annuls a decree against the Jewish people in her merit, promising that they will return home.

Avi (C) and Rachel (R) Frankel and their son (L), recite Kadish close to the body of their son Naftali Frankel, 16, (unseen) during his funeral service in the Jewish settlement of Nof Ayalon, in the Israeli West Bank, on July 1, 2014.(AFP PHOTO/DAVID BUIMOVITCH)

Heart and Prayer of the Jewish Matriarchs

As we read in the book of Samuel during Rosh Hashana, Hashem “remembered” Chanah and blessed her with a child after her heartful pleas. The way that Chanah prophetically prayed at the holy site became the basis for how Jewish people pray the Amidah – sober and standing, with their lips forming their words from the heart.

We have a story about Yemima praying Shemona Esrai, and it serves as another model for devotion. Yemima prayed the Amidah so devoutly that she did not notice that a 7.1 Richter earthquake hit, describes Varda Epstein in her blog post after attending Yemima’s funeral. This experience as well as a dream that her mother had, propelled Yemima to go to Israel from Equador, her country of origin. “She would bring her mother and her sister over to Israel and help them follow in her footsteps,” Epstein wrote.

In a report in Israel HaYom, Yemima’s teacher compared her to another great biblical woman, Ruth. “She was like Ruth the Moabite, who came here and sought to be part of the Jewish people… She really loved Israel, and was connected to it in an exceptional way.”

Yemima converted to Judaism 5 months ago. Like so many people across the Americas today whose ancestors were forced to convert to Christianity or die, many descendants of Converso Jews have retained some rituals, and Yemima’s mother had inherited the customs of lighting candles Friday nights, and covering mirrors in the home after the death of a family member. Yemima is not alone in her passion to return to her Jewish spiritual roots, a phenomenon among Conversos from the American Southwest and southward. In Jewish tradition, converts are highly regarded for making the incredibly heroic life transformation.

A week after her burial, next Monday night November 3, 2014 is on the Hebrew calendar 11 Cheshvan 5775 the yarzeit of Rachel Imeinu, also referred to as Jewish Mother’s Day. Customarily, Jews around the world honor the anniversary of the Matriarch Rachel’s passing collectively and individually.

The Grace of Rachel Imeinu

“Take me to Israel! That’s my country! That’s where I’m going to marry and have children, and that’s where I’m going to die and be buried,” Yemima’s mother heard her exclaim one night while she stayed up late studying Torah at home in Ecuador, according to Sara Yoheved Rigler who wrote about Yemima’s tragic death on Aish HaTorah’s website. Yemima worked hard and travelled far to reach her spiritual status and eventually the sacred site on the Mountain of Olives where she was buried.

“My dream is to be buried on the Mount of Olives, because when Moshiach [the Messiah] comes, I will be the first to rise up and be in the Holy Temple. Can you imagine that?” were Yemima’s words, her friend Yael Barros recounted of their walks outside the Old City walls.

Various blogs quoted NRG news’ report that Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat at the funeral described Yemima as, “a delicate soul and guardian of peace who fought to be a Jew.”

“A modest, perfectly righteous convert sacrificed her life for her people, in the Holy City,” writes Varda Epstein of Yemima. Yemima and Rachel Imeinu both exemplify the grace of a Jewish woman, and they both died tragically young.

“At her funeral, one Rebbe said that Yemima is the modern-day prototype for TODAY’s righteous woman… Just by learning about her life, we as women elevate ourselves spiritually,” Sabrina Schneider posted to her facebook wall.

“She was known especially for her tzniut (on ALL levels not just clothing),” in other posts, Schneider described Yemima’s outstanding character. “She was fearless, patient, strong, silent, wise, gentle, compassionate and respectful of others… not to mention, smart.”

Wendy Kenin (left) and Chaya Kaplan Lester (right) visiting Rachel’s Tomb, Summer 2011. Kever Rachel is the 3rd holiest site to the Jewish People.

Yemima travelled far to reach her exalted resting place on the Mountain of Olives, just as Rachel Imeinu travelled far before she was planted in Bet Lechem – the third holiest site to the Jewish people. Yemima worked hard to attain her Jewish life, as Mama Rachel struggled spiritually for years before Hashem blessed her with children.

Yemima succumbed to injuries on the second day of the Jewish month Cheshvan. A week after her burial, next Monday night November 3, 2014 is on the Hebrew calendar 11 Cheshvan 5775 the yarzeit of Rachel Imeinu, also referred to as Jewish Mother’s Day. Customarily, Jews around the world honor the anniversary of the Matriarch Rachel’s passing collectively and individually. Thousands visit Rachel’s Tomb, and more gather around the world to learn Torah in her merit. Saying blessings, giving charity, and doing mitzvot are some of the customs that can be performed individually.

“It is to this beauty of Jewish nature and character that we return during the month of Cheshvan by reconnecting with our matriarch Rachel, with our own Jewish nature, and with ourselves,” writes Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh on the Chabad website, who says that Rachel is described as the most beautiful woman in the Torah. In contrast, he makes reference to terrorism in relation to Jewish nature. “True Jewish beauty and grace destroy the enemy indirectly by leaving him void of any beauty or grace himself, making him irrelevant and powerless.”

Yemima’s life demonstrates the spiritual growth and pure aspirations that can be achieved by each person, and should serve to inspire and increase the prayers, devotion, and grace of the Jewish people as we cry and pray for peace. May the memory of the holy be a blessing.

Sabrina Shneider articulates about Yemima’s passing:

Am Yisrael has gained a great soul in shamayim along with our great patriarchs and matriarchs. A tremendous warrior for peace. She is a tzadika amitit, more alive now than ever. B’zchut her mesirut nefesh to give her life al kiddush HaShem all of Am Yisrael along with the entire world should merit to see a geula shleima karov v’yameinu!

There’s a precious community garden nestled between buildings on a crowded cobblestone street high up in the city of Tzvat, Israel. It began 18 years ago as a memorial community garden, in memory of a son who passed too soon, and it became a city landmark. Today this sacred place, enjoyed by and open to all, is receiving loving support toward renewing the shared space.

The Garden Seeds: Untimely death of a son, grief of a mother, new friendship

First, a mother was seeking a way to honor her son who was killed by cancer as a teenager 20 years ago this past spring. Shirel Levine was considering planting a tree in his memory as she was grieving over her tremendous loss, as an American living in northern Israel. She met the wife of her doctor, and this righteous woman Tamar Bittelman (of blessed memory) expressed a deep compassion with Shirel for the loss of her son. Within 10 minutes of their first encounter, Tamar suggested a garden, and she offered to help set it up.

Steven’s Garden in Tzvat was first established with much communal involvement. The grand opening involved the unveiling of a mural, live music, food and celebration. Tamar and her husband Noach built the first garden beds and then weekly taught local children how to plant and grow food there. The garden lived on, and has been maintained over the years at a low-cost for the benefit of the community.

The author’s daughter from California visits the lemon tree that her kindergarten class donated to Steven’s Garden in Tzvat, Israel.

Somehow Steven’s Garden reached me throughout the years as I reside in the Western US. When I lived in Tucson in the 1990’s, I knew Steven’s sister and so our mutual friend Susan Silverman – also a gardener – ecstatically informed me about this sweet community garden when she visited Tzvat some years later. I personally met Tamar Bittelman in 2004 when I moved to the East Bay in California where she was teaching kindergarten. It wasn’t until 2010 that I discovered Tamar was a founder of Steven’s Garden, when my daughter’s kindergarten class at Oakland Hebrew Day School raised funds as a tzedaka project for Steven’s Garden, and purchased a lemon tree that was planted there. I visited Israel in 2011 for the only time ever with my children, and we visited the tree. Several young yeshiva bochers were enjoying the garden, sitting with their siddurim and chatting reclining on the bench under the mural. It was a joy to finally see this garden for myself, right across the street from the famous Kabbalah artist David Friedman’s studio.

Tamar Bittelman Tzeddekes: The Garden Founder’s Legacy

Tamar Bittelman was not only a kindergarten teacher but was also a co-founder of the Beit Midrash Ohr HaChaim, a unique unaffiliated independent Torah-learning center located in Berkeley, California from 1998 – 2012 under the spiritual guidance of Rabbi Herschel Yolles, the Samborer Rebbe z”l. Tamar started numerous gardens during her life, including a garden adjacent to Congregation Beth Israel in Berkeley before its renovation in 2004.

Tamar’s Tzvat garden legacy is an echo of the story of her grandmother, Esther Beker Reinin of the pioneering Sturman family who was part of Hashomer, an original Jewish defense organization in Palestine first established in 1909. Beker Reinin was part of the historic security organization, serving on horseback protecting the sprouting Jewish settlements. She was also involved in an agricultural school in Israel. Every year at the Beit Midrash Ohr HaChaim in Berkeley, Tamar would sponsor a kiddush to honor the anniversary of her grandmother’s passing, and she would retell stories. There was even a story of when Tamar was walking along a road in a kibbutz in Israel, and a some old-timers walked by her and stopped, and told her, “You look just like Esther Beker Reinin.”

Many of today’s Jewish environmentalists have met Steven’s Garden’s founder Tamar Bittelman. Tamar attended the 2011 Hazon Food Conference in Davis, California where her husband Noach Bittelman the Acupuncturist presented on Jewish health and spirituality, the Earth, and the Holy Land. One year after we attended the Food Conference, Tamar edited my first blog article for Times of Israel, where I recounted a special woman’s circle that we held at the Hazon event, in the broader context of women’s central role in redemption of the world according the Jewish tradition.

Tamar and Noach Bittelman moved back to Northern Israel from California in 2012. During her last visit to Berkeley one year ago, Tamar was excited to learn of my newest project, a Hazon CSA which is in its inception stages and includes in its food security concept residential and communal gardens, and a pop-up kosher vegan soup and salad restaurant. She made an extra call to me during her trip to share her enthusiasm for Young Urban Moshav, and agreed to serve on the Board of Directors.

Sadly, and to the shock of many who have declared her righteousness, Tamar passed away unexpectedly after returning to Israel, on a holy Shabbos during daavening 24 Shvat 5774 (January 25, 2014.) Tamar’s family has set up HaMorah Tamar Kindergarten Fund at Oakland Hebrew Day School in her memory. Tamar is buried in Tzvat, the same city in Israel where Steven’s Garden, which she founded 18 years ago, continues to grow.

The Memorial and the Garden Renewal

Steven’s mother described on Radio Free Nachlaot in August 2014 how others recount to her that they feel Steven’s beautiful energy in the garden. A memorial garden is an example of the environment as habitat outside our bodies for our emotion, spirituality, and communal sharing. It is a place of comfort and healing.

Steven’s Garden holds the empathy of a woman hearing another woman grieving for her lost son, the generosity of creativity that builds and enriches the community, and comfort for mourners. It is a legacy of a grandmother and then granddaughter who loved, guarded and nurtured Eretz HaKodesh and the people of the land.

Community gardens can serve many functions, and Steven’s continues to hold potential for many possibilities. With financial support from the people who cherish this special urban garden in Tzvat, Israel, Steven’s Garden can be renewed with new benches, upgraded irrigation and maintenance, and a new sign that will include Tamar Bittelman’s name as founder of Steven’s Garden. Contributions can be made through the end of this year’s high holiday season through the crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo – click to learn more and contribute.

Jewish birth workers today serve women in medical and non-medical settings locally and globally, and women’s wellness inside and outside of the Jewish community. Birth workers in the Jewish community are intimately entwined in the historic mechanisms that place women in the center, as they are involved with women who live according to the ancestral customs. Jewish birth workers today have thousands of years of Jewish history and experience to build from.

So what happens when a doula and a midwife-in-training meet at a Jewish environmental food conference? They share observations about how the women are relating to each other and the roles women play at the conference. They connect over Jewish ancestral matriarchs and cry together over Mama Rachel, in their first conversation. They hold an informal women’s exchange at a table in the cafeteria during the conference’s parting meal. And when they both join the planning committee for the next conference, they propose a “Women’s Circle” which comes to fruition.

In the summer of 2011 when over 50 women at the Hazon Jewish Environmental Food Conference came together, the women went around the circle and answered the question, “What does being a Jewish woman mean to you?” It was a challenging question, and it brought out deep emotional stories.

By the time we reached the end of the circle, we had learned new things; that the question itself being posed to Jewish women in the room might be hurtful for transgender or other gender-identified persons, that feeding kids healthy foods is challenging, we even learned that men had wanted to participate. The prevailing thread, the topic that came up over and over was that of infertility and childlessness. The women of all ages in the room laughed, cried, listened and found connections with each other that they had not discovered before.

Global context: Women are central to resolving social strife

The current backdrop to the recent conversation among women at a Jewish environmental conference is a massive, visible global discourse on how economies and societies thrive when women are educated, employed, and have access to contraception. Humanity’s collective consciousness is finally recognizing the centrality of women. This recent recognition is unprecedented on this scale, as seen in the following international conferences:

• At the UN Conference on Sustainable Development May, 2012 in Rio, women were noted in new policies, but not seen as a critical answer to worldwide betterment. A prevailing reaction from non-governmental organizations to Rio+20 was the re-assertion that women’s wellness and reproductive rights are proven to be indispensable to sustainable development strategy.

• A Global Summit on Women convened in Athens, Greece in the end of May, 2012, bringing hope to another country in crisis. There, women executives from some 70 countries reaffirmed and established new professional networks – international alliances of female businesswomen who understand the important part they play in shifting power dynamics across the planet.

• The London Family Planning Summit in July 2012 brought together advocates and policy makers that addressed contraception and abortion in the context of women’s rights, also with a broader understanding of its implications for economic development. Soon after, All Africa published an editorial July 25 which identified family planning as crucial to overcoming humanity’s global challenges:

In addition to improving public health, satisfying unmet need for modern contraceptives would bring a host of other benefits. Enabling women to control their fertility and time their births means better chances for higher educational attainment, increased employment opportunities, and enhanced social and economic status. Family savings and investment would rise, spurring economic growth and reducing poverty. These advances at the family level would in turn make social and economic development goals easier to achieve, benefiting society as a whole.

News on women’s rights from the Holy Land that reaches mainstream media in the United States tends to focus on freedom of expression and religious oppression. Domestic violence is rampant in Israel, where one out of three women experience sexual assault in their lifetimes, and there has been a call for prioritizing funds to combat sexual violence like national security. Disparities are evident, as over half of Palestinianwomen are subjected to physical violence. Palestinian women protested against domestic violence in Bethlehem this month, while a Haifa women’s shelter that serves Palestinian women is at risk of losing its funding.

Meanwhile, the “war on women” is raging in the USA. Squabbling in the US Congress stalled the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act for months and lawmakers broke for August recess without passing it. Violence in teen and adult relationships is epidemic. With 1 out of 5 college women experiencing sexual assault, social innovations are taking place to engage youth in helping develop strategies and common understandings of the crises before us. Despite the hold-up of the Violence Against Women Act in Congress, August 10 President Obama signed an Executive Order Preventing and Responding to Violence Against Women Globally. In the US, eradicating violence against women is a beginning step to clearly supporting women.

Childbirth being a gauge for any nation’s healthcare system, women who give birth in US hospitals are not receiving evidence-based care, while a New Zealand study demonstrated that the same midwives at homebirths were better educating their clients than in hospitals. About one third of births in the US are by cesarean, and one fifth in Israel. United States maternal mortality rates have nearly doubled since 1990, and rank 50th in the world while spending more on healthcare than any other country. The US has enormous disparities between birth outcomes for different populations of women.

At the same time, on August 1 a new system of healthcare in the USA began, providing women with eight types of preventative care without copay. The Affordable Care Act now covers screenings from annual well-woman visits to STD and domestic violence, but the contraceptives provisions in particular are being challenged by certain religious institutions. The ACLU reports:

Access to contraception is crucial for women’s equal participation in society. Controlling whether and when to have children has had a direct effect on women’s ability to make their own paths in terms of their schooling, careers, their families.

In the United States, the Occupy movement has kept Americans conscious of the big picture — like the alarming poverty rates — one in 45 children is homeless, and the fact that student loan debt has surpassed credit card debt. Israel’s social movement is a massive response to financial hardship as well, with 1 in 3 children living in poverty. These realities impact women and their families. How are our Jewish sisters affected by these trends? What can be done?

Critical Jewish Wisdom and Feminine Strength

How are Jewish women affected by or involved with this global analysis? Are we financially secure, and treated well in the workplace? Are we informed enough to know how to increase the likelihood of a healthy pregnancy and birth? Can we afford to send our kids to Jewish schools? Can we access healthy food and live a balanced life? Are we suffering from domestic violence or other abuse or discrimination? Are we in community, able to fulfill our life goals and contribute positively to society?

Read more >>

This article was first published at Times of Israel August 22, 2012

There are so many reasons to love the mikveh (Jewish ritual bath). My love for mikveh inspired me to keep kosher, observe the Jewish Sabbath, and cover my hair as a married woman.

Here are a few of my personal favorite things about the mikveh:

1. Immersing into the Earth’s waters

Mikveh water must meet certain requirements of being naturally existing, as from a natural body of water or harvest from the rain. Any large enough body of naturally occurring water can be a mikveh. The ocean is the largest mikveh in the world. When a woman immerses in the mikveh, she is entering the womb of the feminine Earth, calledAdamah in Hebrew. She strikes a fetal position pose, and then is spiritually reborn upon exiting the waters.

“When we refer to G‑d’s presence within our world, giving life to all things, then She is the Shechinah,” writes Tzvi Freeman about why we don’t call G-d Mother.

“When we refer to G‑d’s transcendence beyond this world, we call Him The Holy One, blessed be He. G‑d does not change or have parts, G‑d forbid. Both are the same one and singular G‑d, just looking at that G‑d from different angles,” he writes.

G-d is female, G-d is male, and G-d is everything and can be interacted with and described from each of these aspects.

The feminine aspect of G-d, the Shehina is present and dwelling among us when Jews perform mitzvot (commandments), such as davening (praying) together, or learning Torah together. Freeman continues, The Holy One, Blessed Be He unites with the Shechinah when we accomplish mitzvot correctly, hence elevating spiritual harmony in the world. When a woman immerses in the holy waters of the mikveh, she is physically uniting with that feminine Shechinah and in fulfilling the mitzvah uniting the Shechinah with The Holy One, Blessed Be He.

The Shehina dwells in the wilderness where Creation is ever-abundant, and also dwelled in the Holy Temple which explains all the miracles that happened there. Through her immersion in the mikveh, the woman embodies this powerful, fertile life force that travels with her. Observance of the marital laws that include the mikveh brings the Creator into the relationship with the husband and wife, elevating their union.

2. Ancestral Customs for personal hygiene, social networks, and intimacy

Before a woman immerses in the mikveh, she must meticulously clean her body according to certain procedures, to ensure that nothing will obstruct any part of her body from being touched by the holy waters. She has been preparing for seven days since the end of her menstruation. The moments preceding and during immersion are guarded by a female attendant, a witness to help ensure that the woman is totally clean and totally immersed.

Mikveh is a basic element of living a Jewish life. According to Jewish law, building a mikveh takes precedence over building a house of worship.

Women are known to gather and spend time together on mikveh night before returning to their husbands. Bathing and the opportunity to connect with other women is guaranteed down time every month, guarded by the custom and engagement of the Jewish women in the local community.

I personally love knowing and practicing the hygienic customs of my ancestors! It’s not only about how we keep ourselves clean, it’s also about how we prepare ourselves for intimacy with our beloved. Generally speaking this monthly ritual for the married woman provides a rhythm of intimacy for husband and wife. Our own Jewish tradition has within it a structure for balance and renewal of healthy sexual intimacy.

3. Centrality of the woman’s rhythms

Not only does a woman learn to track her menstrual cycle according to the Hebrew lunar calendar and the traditional timing systems through the practice of mikveh, but the rhythm of her menses greatly impacts her relationship with her husband and family, and hence the womens’ cycles guide social dynamics in the community. It makes so much sense to have the women’s core rhythm, which is intrinsically connected and divinely balanced with the moon and the tides, be central to the Jewish calendar. I feel so proud that this woman-centered consciousness is embedded in the heritage of my Jewish ancestry.

The woman learns to track her menstrual cycles according to ancient calendar methods. She tracks her cycle dates in relationship to the lunar month, the Jewish calendar, and her internal rhythms. The ancient practice of tracking our cycle in this way is incredibly rooted and grounding, as is the traditional women’s celebration of Rosh Chodesh, each new month, ever since Sinai.

4. Spiritual Strength

I discovered traditional Yiddishkeit (Judaism) during my childbearing years, and then had the opportunity and great blessing to have relations and conceive children while involved with the holy mikveh. This action bestowed spiritual blessing on my children, as well as applied retroactively to any of my previous children and the generations of babies born since my grandmothers ceased using the mikveh. I know these things because they were passed to me through an unbroken oral tradition, a living practice that I accessed because I sought out people who maintain and guard these traditions.

As it is a carefully implemented mitzvah, I have had the privilege of using the mikveh in this way because I am a married Jewish woman married to a Jewish man. So many variables in my life could have been different. I feel totally blessed to have mikveh in my life.

5. Timeless Wisdom

A translation of the root of the Hebrew word mikveh is “place of hope.” Today, when humanity seems to be on the brink of both enlightenment and self-inflicted destruction, I am grateful to have this spiritual practice to arouse my sense of hope.

The Jewish understanding of gender, spirituality, and the earth offers a foundation for ecofeminist views on patriarchal wars and environmental degradation now and in the past. Women at the mikveh pray for fertility, peace, everything.

Understanding the mikveh and all that evolves around it provides me with a context for interacting with people of other faiths and traditions – people with whom we share the future of humanity. I understand how according to Jewish heritage women are revered. I know about how we eat, how we bathe, and how we value life.

We find in Judaism the acknowledgement of the Earth as female, and a connectivity between the women and the Shehina through the mikveh. According to the ancient teachings, the age of peace and the time of the redemption will arrive in the merit of the women.

Many people are dunking in the mikveh without an obligatory bracha (blessing) this week, to purify and cleanse the soul in preparation for the coming new year. Whether or not you take that plunge, May Hashem bless us all this year to grow in our spiritual maturity, unity, and love for one another in joy, success, and good health! Shana tova u’metukah!

Wendy Kenin is a Jewish ecofeminist and lives in Berkeley, CA. She is married and has four children. By day, she is the social strategist at UpStart Bay Area, an organization that specializes in community organizing through communications and teaching emerging Jewish organizations to maximize their impact using social media. By night, she is a doula and founder of Imeinu Birth Collective and blogs at Green Birth. Wendy tweets as @greendoula on birth, Judaism, peace, and social and environmental justice.

This piece was first published by Layda.org.