Written by Chanie Gourarie

In Parshat Tazria we learn that impurity does come,
After a woman gives birth to a daughter or son,
How can this be when there is nothing greater,
Then partnering with Hashem, the creator.

A baby is holy, precious and dear,
The women’s body to a holy ark, does compare,
Because the baby is holy and pure,
When it leaves the womb the woman becomes impure.

When holiness departs impurity immediately sets in,
This is why a woman becomes impure when her cycle does begin,
Because for a holy life there was potential,
When that possibility is lost, to become pure, Mikvah is essential.

The Mikvah is a very special place,
With G-d you come face to face,
Its four walls might be plain,
But they represent the four letters of Hashem’s name.

Between the woman and the water nothing can intervene,
Only the woman and G-d, there is nothing in between.
In the water Hashem is found,
His love is felt all around.

When the woman emerges from the Mikvah she is as pure as can be,
She experiences a rebirth and is filled with a spiritual energy!
Let us go back in history,
In every generation, women kept this Mitzvah carefully.

Over Sarah’s tent, hovered a cloud of rain,
Representing the rain water that a Mikvah does contain,
To cleanse herself from idol worship, was Batya’s goal,
In saving Moshe’s life, she played a big role.

With the plague of blood the Egyptians were hit,
Because immersion in a Mikvah, they didn’t permit,
The well of Miriam in the desert the women did use,
To keep this Mitzvah they did choose.

To enter the Beit Hamikdash, the Jews had to be pure,
On Yom Kippur, the Kohen Gadol, would immerse 5 times more,
In Masada, the Jews were afraid of being killed,
Yet, Mikvaot, they didn’t hesitate to build.

In Soviet Russia the women had to break the ice,
To go to the river they didn’t think twice,
During the Holocaust, the Germans filled Mikvaot with cement,
But the women’s self sacrifice they could not prevent.

Jewish women were entrusted with the key,
For the special Mitzvah of Family Purity,
We are the next link in the chain,
Our commitment will forever remain!