Here at Totally Spain, we have organised numerous custom trips for travelers interested in the history of the Jewish community in Spain & Portugal. In the

A recent post on Junior Ganymede mentions the ritual bath called a mikveh where Jews practiced ritual immersions in pools of water. The parallels to Christian baptism (which means to dip or immerse) are many. In both rituals the purpose of the immersion is a symbolic cleansing or refreshing. Ancient

A new year is approaching, and winter is settling in. As we prepare to jump into 2012, and think about what sort of resolutions we will be making, I can’t help but reflect on how the Jewish year be…

Study excerpts from the book Yad Ha-Chazaka. Rabbi Moses ben Maimon. Rambam

Bar Mitzvah. Red color. By Dmitry Sytnikov

Juwish family purity. Mikvah laws

While I’m a modern woman, I find the age-old—dare I say, ancient—traditions have deepened my spirituality the most. My favorite is the mikveh, the traditional Jewish communal bath where ritual purifications are performed. I will admit, the mikveh is an acquired taste. And I do take issue with some traditional aspects of it, such as […]

Magdala (the home of Mary Magdalene) There is a beautiful church , right on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, dedicated to the women from Galilee. This Mikvah is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve ritual purity. Most forms of ritual impurity can be purified through immersion in any natural collection of water. However, some impurities, such as a zav, require "living water", such as springs or groundwater wells.