How to Talk about Niddah

By Tova Warburg Sinensky

We talk about niddah. But are we talking about it in all the ways that our community needs?

In a recent Lehrhaus article regarding what our community might learn from the pandemic about mikveh governance and niddah education, Mijal Bitton and Elana Stein Hain write: “…as mikveh relates to matters that are deeply private – a woman’s menstrual cycle and a couple’s sexual life – its personal dimension were not typically the subject of public discussion. Even in communities where pandemic challenges around mikveh were discussed openly, women and men often kept their pain and anxiety concealed due to the private nature of this mitzvah.”

The pandemic has brought the need to provide spaces for women (and couples) to discuss their emotions surrounding the lived experience of niddah into sharper focus. continue>>

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