The Rabbinate versus Israeli (Jewish) Women: The Mikvah as a Contested Domain

This paper explores the multivocal symbolism and practices of the mikvah, the Jewish ritual bath. Based on a year of fieldwork in Beer Sheva, Israel, my goal is to analyze the mikvah both as a vehicle of male dominance and as a site where female power becomes visible. A comparison between the perspectives of the women who use the mikvah and of the Rabbinate shows different views of the place. While the Rabbinate sees the mikvah as a site of female obedience to Godly law, the women devise new reasons for immersing and talk about its benefits: enhancement of their own identity as women, wives and mothers. Some disagreements arise between the women and the Rabbinate. Through these quarrels we can see that women's power is ideological but not political.