Nishmat's Women’s Health and HalachaIn memory of Chaya Mirel bat R' Avraham

  • Hebrew
  • English
  • Espnaol
  • Francais
  • donate
Menu

Touching the attendant after immersion

31 October, 2016

Question:

I recently moved to a remote community to work in the synagogue. Amongst my duties, I have started working as the balanit of the mikveh. I have come across various minhagim that I was not familiar with and wanted to know the reason for: The first of these is that some women say they need to touch the mikveh attendant straight after immersing. Please can you let me know where this comes from?


Answer:

The Rema (Yoreh Deah 198:48) states that a woman emerging from the mikveh should take care to be met by a friend. This is meant to avoid a situation in which her first encounter out of the mikveh is with an impure creature, such as a dog or a pig. Some sources raise a concern that such an encounter could have a negative spiritual impact on a child conceived following the immersion, and would advise the woman to immerse again if this happened.

Therefore, by greeting the woman as she emerges from the water (there are opinions that she should shake her hand or make some type of physical contact), the balanit ensures that the woman's first encounter is with a pious person who will be a positive spiritual influence. (This is true even if the balanit is niddah at the time; the Rema is referring to a different, inherent type of impurity.)

Please feel free to get back to us with any further questions.

B'Hatzlacha!


This internet service does not preclude, override or replace the psak of any rabbinical authority. It is the responsibility of the questioner to inform us of any previous consultation or ruling. As even slight variation in circumstances may have Halachic consequences, views expressed concerning one case may not be applied to other, seemingly similar cases. All health and health-related information contained within Nishmat's Women's Health & Halacha Web site is intended to be general in nature and should not be used as a substitute for consulting with your health care professional. The advice is intended to offer a basis for individuals to discuss their medical condition with their health care provider but not individual advice. Although every effort is made to ensure that the material within Nishmat's Women's Health & Halacha Web site is accurate and timely, it is provided for the convenience of the Web site user but should not be considered official. Advice for actual medical practice should be obtained from a licensed health care professional.

For further questions or comments: 

The Nishmat Women's Health and Halacha Site is a public service of Nishmat, The Jeanie Schottenstein Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women. This project and others like it are made possible by contributions from people like you. If you have benefited from the service, and wish to enable us to help others, click here to donate.


Users of Internet filtering services: This site discusses sensitive subjects that some services filter without visual indication. A page that appears 100% complete might actually be missing critical Jewish-law or medical information. To ensure that you view the pages accurately, ask the filtering service to whitelist all pages under yoatzot.org.


Accessibility Toolbar