Can someone please explain why it is that only married women use the Mikveh in the first place?! Then perhaps this whole issue will become self explanatory!

Or even care about them?

Then you did not understand the article. If single women go she can think its okay to have sexual relations which it is not by Jewish law. I know of a story where this married man in a high religious position was having sex with a single girl and stipulated that first she must go to the mikva so she can be pure for him, he is a public hypocrite and B"H had to transfer his job so that this affair would not get out in public. So now do you understand.

The reason is that having a marital relation outside marriage is forbidden but does not constitute a violation of the written Torah (you can check by yourself, there is no prohibition stated in the Pentateuch). Having a relation with an impure woman, however, is a grave offense and is an explicit violation of the written Torah. Religious people who, no matter what, engage in a marital relationship are trying to reduce the gravity of that sin.

In Jewish rabbinic law, sexual intercourse is permitted only between two consenting Jewish adults of opposite sex who can be married. There has been no concubinage since the 2nd Temple period, so pretty much man can only have sex with his wife, if he wants to live in accordance with halachic law. In addition to this, even if they are married, men cannot have intercourse with Jewish women who are having their period, nor for about a week following, and when the period finishes the woman must immerse in a ritual bath (mikveh). A man who does not observe this prohibition is considered in violation of a very severe Torah commandment, and is liable to spiritual excision for it. So, the battle is that in preventing an infraction against rabbinic law (sex with a woman you're not married to), unmarried women who don't go to the mikveh can cause a man to undertake an infraction against Torah law. They don't want to be the cause of this, so they'd rather go to the mikvah and the rabbinate won't allow it. The rabbinate assumes that nobody who cares about the halacha would be sexually intimate with someone other than their wife, so they restrict access to the mikvah so that people will be encouraged to marry. They are very naive to act this way. They are also blind to their part in the problem. They are part of making divorce such a horrible experience that many married men and women prefer to try out a relationship for awhile before they get married, especially if they've experienced the rabbinate before, and since part of that is sexual intimacy, this conflict arises. I hope this explains the matter for you.

It's nobody's business why someone needs to dunk. Still, there is another important reason other than sexual relations: the need to purify oneself before visiting Har HaBayit, which some rabbis permit Jews to do, and others do not. But if you go, you should visit the mikveh first, men and women.

Mikva women should not ask thereby not taking on anything. This is the sort of thing a woman should be allowed to decide herself. If she wants to go to the Mikvah, she probably has some idea of why and why not, and is in a position to decide for herself. I regularly do not wear my wedding ring when I go, and no-one has ever asked me.

Thanks, Shai. I am completely aware of the rules (being an observant Jew) and was merely being a little sarcastic. I cannot understand and fathom a single (or divorced) woman going to the Mikveh before acting out, what is, in effect an unfaithful act, if it is with a married man. if it's with a single man, again, whilst probably not as halachically forbidden, find it a little hypocritical.

Chana your comment is not very G-dly! ...Why do Men use the Mikve? I think anyone should be able to use it ...it's between Hashem and the individual.

Then afterwards, they can go to the mikvah.

It is intrusive and illegal for the Balanit to demand personal information. This sounds like more haredi interference with private individuals When I went to a mikva in the past outside of my local area, the Balanit asked no questions and did not require ID (which I would not have given anyway). We both knew why I was there, and mitzvah was performed in a respectful and simple way.

How'd that turn out? Seriously (that is true by the way, among other nauseatingly cowardly appeasement policies to Chrstian europe ), I think this is a good topic, on the one hand you don't want to give halachic consent (Im not orthodox btw) to the dismantling of the jewish family, and sanction of playing the field ism for 20 years, on the other hand what were the marriage option in ancient Israel, in the Torah. Seems to me there was more inclusion of different unions. A real scholar commenting would be good.

It seems like the mikvah is a personal thing and while I don't approve of unmarried people having sexual relations, you shouldn't have to provide your identity over a private issue. If a woman is having sex outside of marriage, it would be better for her to go to the mikvah than not go, I guess. Ultimately, the issue could be clarified by posting signs in the mikvah explaining that sex outside of marriage is forbidden, even if taharat mishpacha is followed. It's not exactly analogous, but does a kosher butcher insist on knowing if you have two sets of pots to cook before he sells you meat, or does he sell it to you and if you take it home and cook it in a pot used for milk, it's not his concern?

WHY?!?!?!?!? It's gross - who would want to willingly bath in other women's used water, let alone submerge her head in the same water? feh!

You just don't get anything Jewish! Are you just as disgusted every time you get into a swimming pool or in the sea? Don't you worry about how many people have pee'd and spat and even worse in them?? Mikva water is the purest water there is, women have to thoroughly clean themselves before dipping and then leaving it right away. Your ignorance is quite sad really, or maybe it's just your prejudice, you obviously have no sentiments for authentic Judaism.

Mikve has the purpose of spiritual cleaning fore and foremost. The religious stablishment *has no right*to determine spiritual needs from people,either being them men ow women. If they do so,we might have the right to ask them which is the right of them not to go to the Army,or to hold Torah in the first place. They are no more Jews than all Jews and Jewess ,and there has no mention about "rabbis"in the Torah to begin with. If they want respect and recognition by all of us Jews,they must give respect to all of us lest we don't discriminate them like if not of our own but a sect apart to be rid of! Sorry,but reality is reality and rabbis must recognize that. I abhor this attitude!

Reform or not reform,all Jews have the right to follow their souls the way they feel fit. Israel has the obligation to offer the means and that's it,and rabbis have no right to control these ,according to their,sometimes ,devieted minds. No rabbi has the right to have monopoly to what do not belong to them but to G-d,since going to Mikveh is a mitzvah. If you don't want to be hated by your fellows,do not act in a way you will be.

Don't single women who want to do mikvah know they can immerse in any natural body of water like an ocean or a lake? They think they can only go to the dirty mikvah with some yenta standing over them? Seriously?

Mikveh is a purely a religious duty, hence religious parameters dictate when and when not the mikveh should be used. It is a same, that the only Jewish State (Theodore Hertzels' dream) discriminates against the very people that the state was founded to protect.

If services are open to all that behave appropriately on site, then it's acceptable to prevent misuse of mikveh facilities. It's easy to blame the religious, but it's not honest. Some single women are excluding themselves by their inappropriate intentions, and they alone are responsible for the outcome.

Bizarre.

I have been teaching Judaism for over 25 years. Many times the question has come of what happens if a woman is going to continue to have relations with her boyfriend until she is ready either to stop or to get married, my answer in that case is, go to the Mikvah, it is better halachakly and maybe the holy admosphere of the Mikveh, yes holy not disgusting, like some readers think will have an effect Jana

What exactly do you mean by: -all that behave appropriately on site -misuse -single women excluding themselves by their inappropriate intentions -they are alone responsable.

An organization that calls itself religious should refrain from making secular legal arguments and focus on arguments rooted in tradition. While promiscuity is looked on with scorn in Jewish tradition and runs against social mores, it is far graver an offense - one resulting in spiritual excision - for any man who has relations with her if she does not immerse. While the rabbis single out promiscuity as a question of values, the prohibition of a niddah is hard-coded in the Torah. What is more important, her virtue or her partner's soul?

The Mikvah is not the only place to immerse.

Sometimes,people are far from ocean,and sometimes people go through spiritual processes that they simply want to go to the mikvah,without giving explanations to anybody but to G-d. Who are them(rabbis) to forbid that? They are supplied by secular money mostly,so what is that to put such rules on those who finance them in the first place??? Even if it was not so,they are not the owners of Torah and they have no right to determine people's soul needs ,based in their prejudices or higienic fears or sometyhing like that. This is beyond ugly,principaly knowing that they are not that perfect at all,in any possible realm we could be talking or thinking about.

I mean rabbis and rebbetzins.

There is no mention of rabbis in the Torah,except in the Talmud,which is, of course, Torah too,but a posterior part ,who should not inutilize the first part, as sometimes it seems to do ,when we see such things, as that described in this article, happening. I don't think this is even related to Torah,but to some minds who don't have love and respect for whole Israel, and that is sometimes revolting.

Tired of the difficulties accessing Orthodox built/run mikvehs in Washington (which they needed to complete their conversions), one DC synagogue simply built their own as part of their renovation project. Of course, mikvehs in Israel are government funded, so there is no justification for denying access.