Technically, tight braids are a problem for immersion, and they are considered a chatzitza. Different rabbonim, though, do take different positions on the matter. for example, I did a quick online search of the question about immersing with dreadlocks, and out of 4 "ask the rabbi" sites I found, 2 said it is ok to immerse in the mikva with dreadlocks and 2 said it is a problem. All four sites I found were dati leumi websites/organizations/rabbonim.
According to the Mynet report, the mikva lady would not let her immerse, even though the woman told her that he rabbi had told her she could go to the mikva like that. The mikva lady, and another one that was called in to help, responded that their rabbonim do not allow dreadlocks immersion as they consider it a chatzitza.
A member of the mikva department of the religious council of Jerusalem responded that the mikva ladies are not allowed to get involved in such things and are only there to assist women who need assistance or if a woman asks a halachic question - they are not allowed to initiate on their own, and such instructions are repeatedly sent out to the mikva ladies around town.
This does raise the issue, again, of what the purpose of a mikva lady is, and what she is allowed to do. If she sees a clear chatzitza, is she not supposed to tell the woman immersing? Maybe the woman missed something and would want to know.
Personally I would say that a mikva lady seeing a problem should be able to mention something like that, but once the woman says she already checked it with her rabbi, she should be allowed to continue to immerse without interruption.
Normally though, the purpose of the mikva is really just to make sure the womans hair goes completely under the water when immersing, and to let her know upon egress from the water that her immersion was kosher. Beyond that, her involvement should mostly be limited to situations in which the woman immersing asks for help, or if she spots something that clearly might have been missed.
The issue of being machmir at someone else's expense is extremely difficult. What if this woman, or another woman, went home, having been turned away from the mikva, and tells her husband that she immersed, when she really did not? What if she left with a bad taste, and next time she refuses to go? All because the mikva lady wanted to be machmir. Is that chumra really worth it?
Rabbonim go out of their way to make it very easy for women to go to the mikva, allowing things in very lenient ways, out of concern that otherwise some women might just stop going. An example that comes to mind that i recently learned - the Shulchan Aruch says that it is prohibited to heat the mikva.water. Even during the week.
Can you imagine a woman going to a freezing cold mikva? Really they should be. However, the rabbonim have decided to be lenient and allow it - across the board. There is no such a thing as a cold mikva for women. The reason is because if we made women immerse in a cold mikva, many women would just not bother going. They might tell their husbands they went, but in actuality there is a concern that they might not actually immerse. So they are lenient and find a way around the prohibition to make it easy for women to immerse, and to not give them an excuse to not immerse.
Sure there is place to prohibit dreadlocks. But if a woman comes in and says she already consulted with her rabbi who allows it, it is not the place of the mikva lady to be more stringent on her.
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A woman with dreadlocks would most likely be considered a sub-group that are okay with having their hair this way. As long as it is a minority of the overall body together with it being an obstruction that doesn't bother the person it is okay. The poskim do deal with a certain hairstyle that was common that caused an obstruction in the hair. People believed that demons were the cause of this hairstyle and were afraid to change it. The poskim allowed them to immerse in the mikvah as a result. The halacha does require for there to be at least a subgroup that aren't bothered by this particular obstruction; in this case I believe you do have this.
ReplyDeleteThe incident is reprehensible. The two balaniot involved should be banned from being mikvah ladies. A few years ago, I had correspondence with a number of women who had similar or worse experiences in mikvah. All were determined to carry out the mitzvah, but were disgusted and discouraged nonetheless. Mikvah ladies such as these actively discourage women from this mitzvah.
ReplyDeleteThis post almost gets to a point but otherwise I just see men here making assumptions and judgements based on 'nidmeh li' and that Judaism is supposed to be approaching.
ReplyDeleteWhat really is the responsibility of the balaniot? If someone comes to the mikvah and just wants to enjoy the spa-like atmosphere and goes to dunk, but does not go fully underneath the water, or does not clean under her nails, or anything else, but claims that 'my rabbi said it was ok', so what are the balaniot there for? How far back must religion bend to make Judaism approachable? And if the balaniot insist that they cannot accept a kula, then they should be burnt at the stake? Come on, so the mikvahs are just spas to make women comfortable about their mitzvah?
I'm sorry, but I can't imagine going to even the nicest mikveh just to "enjoy the spa-like atmosphere". And most mikvaos are not as nice as the nice, fancy ones that are specifically built to be spa-like. (Serviceable, modern, pleasant and clean, but not much more). I don't know where the misconception comes from that mikvaos are built like spas, other than maybe propaganda about the beauty of this mitzvah or wishful thinking on the part of men.
DeleteJosh: Please show me in poskim where there is a role for a balanit as gatekeeper.
DeleteThe only purpose of the balanit or other companion is to assist the woman who comes to immerse. That assistance is to help the woman ensure that she is entirely immersed (since she can't see that herself), and possibly to provide a safety factor (since mikvaot used to be dark, often isolated places), and possibly so she has a Jewish person to see/meet when she comes out. Everything else falls under the heading of assistance. Or interference. Where in tradition or poskim do we find a balanit as a gatekeeper?
The Torah pretty adamantly placed responsibility for nidah issues on the woman herself. V'safra lah. Hazal emphasize this. It is a violation of her responsibility to bar the mikvah because someone does like her application of halachah.
And actually, yes; if a woman just wanted to jump in for a swim, she is allowed to do so. Whether or not what she has done qualifies as tevilah is ultimately HER responsibility. Others have a duty to assist her, maybe to educate her; but not to regulate her.
I heard a story of a young woman who is not religious and was going to the mikva for the first time before her wedding. She told me about how the balanit told her she should remove her nose ring. She said that she couldnt and didnt want to. So the balanit said - ok just twist it in the water. She told me that the balanit was so nice that she STILL GOES TO THE MIKVA! Those women have tremendous power
ReplyDelete