Purity and Danger - The Ritual of Mikvah

 

As seen in the above image, a young girl looks at her bare self in the reflection of water. The bath in front of her is known as a mikveh, which is used to perform a ceremony of purification used for Orthodox Jewish women following menstruation. In Judaism, a woman who is menstruating is referred to as a niddah. When a woman occupies that status of niddah, there are certain rules which she must follow. She may not touch her husband and they may not sleep in the same bed. Following her period the woman then must wait seven days before returning to the regular status and is thus regarded as “clean” once she performs the mikveh. The mikveh includes fully emerging one's body in the water, cleaning oneself of all impurity, finally reciting a prayer, and being inspected. The article that this picture is from, The Mirror in the Mikveh. advocates for  young girls, aged 11 or 12, to begin using the mikveh. The author cites that it is a great way for young girls to learn about their own bodies in a pure way. Though the article claims that the mikveh is a way for young girls to become more comfortable with themselves, I think that the image portrays a more accurate idea of what practicing the mikveh can do to young girls. In looking at herself in the reflection, there is a more pure version of herself. A clean version. What about a young girl is inherently dirty prior to submerging herself in the mikveh? 

Douglas speaks about the concept of dirt within the work Purity and Danger, particularly bringing about concepts of how cultures have different traditions surrounding dirt. The term “matter out of place,” is the way that Douglas comes to define dirt. She claims that dirt is entirely contextual as society sets boundaries for where things should and should not be, anything that crosses these boundaries is considered matter out of place. In the example of the above image, the young girl looks at herself in the mikveh. The article asserts that young girls should use the mikveh not only to cleanse themselves, but also begin to explore their bodies. Given that a mikveh is a place where one symbolically transforms from impure to pure, it brings about society's ideas about what is “dirty” when it comes to puberty. It implies that an adolescent girl exploring her body in her own home is dirty and that it is only acceptable to learn about developing into a woman under the watch of a religious figure. Douglas states that the body is a symbol of society and that rituals concerning bodily excreta allow for sociologists to view power within social structure. Clearly, this example reveals how in the Orthodox Jewish culture the body is deemed as impure and how a woman can only feel free to see herself powerful religious figures deem appropriate. This social structure is extremely dangerous for young girls to be brought into at such a young age.