On the 50th day it is tradition to have a mikveh service. [We also have a picnic] What is a Mikveh service? you may say. And why hold a mikveh service on Shavuot / Pentecost?
The concept of ceremo­nial washings (Hebrew word t'vilah "to totally immerse"). is as old as the Torah itself. God commanded the Hebrew people to wash their clothing before he gave them the Law at Mt.Sinai (Exodus 19:10). When God performed the miraculous, and a leper was healed, the described ceremony took place. Desig­nated sacrifices were brought to the Tabernacle or Temple, after it was confirmed by the priest that a true healing had taken place. The person was immersed in water after the healing was validated. This was not meant for physical cleansing. Since this immersion took place after the healing, it clearly signifies a spiritual cleansing.
a special pool constructed, called a mikveh. The name is derived from the Hebrew word for "collection or gathering" and speaks of a place where the waters of the immersion are gathered. The earliest biblical usage for the specific word mikveh is found in Genesis 1:9, where God called for the collection of the waters during the creation week.
**The practice of mikveh was quite common in the second Temple period, as shown by the large number of references to this custom in the Talmud. The ritual immersions for healings and service continued as prescribed by the Torah. Especially interesting is the practice of t'vilah for Gentile converts to Judaism. According to the discussions of the Talmud, this custom had been instituted some time before the first century.
The main school of rabbinic thought, (beyt Hillel "house of Hillel"), and requirements for non-Jews to join Israel was to be Mikvehed.
Hillel argued that mikveh symbolized repentance and spiritual cleansing. Built upon this analogy of the mikveh by applying it to the verse in Ezekiel that speaks of new spiritual life:
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols (Ezekiel 36:25).
Indeed, the waters of the mikveh still hold rich spiritual lessons for those who would take a closer look at this custom appointed by God.
the mikveh's meaning. The Bible draws a distinction be­tween the holy and the profane, between the clean and unclean. The waters of the mikveh, according to the rabbis, teach the Jewish people a great deal concerning these truths. The waters symbolize spiritual cleansing, as seen in the mikveh for Gentile converts to Rabbinic Judaism. For traditional Jews, the ritual immersion is also a graphic reminder of their need for God's cleansing and new life.
The mikveh relates to an experience of death and resurrection, and also to the reentry into the womb and reemergence. Immersing fully, you are like the fetus in the womb, and when you come up out of the mikveh you are as reborn. The individual who has sinned and become impure is transformed; he dies and is resurrected and becomes a new creation, like a newborn child.
These thoughts may sound familiar to those who remem­ber Yeshua's dialogue with a certain rabbi (John 3), as well as Saul's description of the Messianic mikveh.Saul of Tarsus drew strongly on these lessons as he taught the Messianic believers in Rome about their faith-walk with Yeshua. In describing the reality of their salvation, he wrote:
Don't you know that those of us who have been immersed into the Messiah Yeshua have been immersed into his death? Through immersion into his death we were buried with him; so that just as, through the glory of the Father, the Messiah was raised from the dead, likewise we too might live a new life (Romans 6:3-4).
With this understanding of the mikveh, it should become more meaningful. The mikveh can be appreciated as a beautiful custom appointed by God to remind all of the need for new spiritual life and a pure walk in this world.
The most prominent example of t'vilah in the New Testa­ment is found in the early chapters of the Gospels. There was a prophet in that generation who practiced t'vilah as an integral part of his ministry, and was therefore known as Yokhanan the Immerser ("John the Baptizer").
It was during those days that Yochanan the Immerser arrived in the desert of Y'hudah and began proclaim­ing the message, "Turn from your sins to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!" This is the man Yesha'yahu (Isaiah] was talking about when he said,
The voice of someone crying out;
'In the desert prepare the way of Adonai!
Make straight paths for him!
Yochanan wore clothes of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and ;!" wild honey. People went out to him from Yerushalayim, from all Y'hudah, and from the whole region around the Yarden [Jordan]. Confessing their sins, they were immersed by him in the YardenRiver (Matthew 3:1-6).
*This account matches many of the details already known about mikveh and its significance in the Jewish culture. Yokhanan was sent to prepare the way for Messiah. In so doing, he preached the message: turn and repent.
From the chronologi­cal studies of the Gospels, it is believed by many that this event took place in the fall of the year. This message (Tshuvahl "Repent!") is a familiar one for Jewish people during that time of year (the High Holy Days).
The Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) It is the most focused time of year, where Israel assesses her spiritual condition and turns back to God .
Yokhanan [John the immerser] was preaching at the time of Rosh Hashanah, it is consistent to think that the Jewish men would naturally consider taking a mikveh. This is a sign of inward cleansing to be spiritually prepare for the. Holy Days. This was even more true for those traditional Jews who were receiving Yokhanan's exhortation to be ready for the coming Messiah. They identified with his message and took the sign of cleans­ing through the mikveh in the Jordan River.
The spiritual lessons of the Jewish mikveh perfectly picture what God has done for the believer in the Messiah. Believers have been buried, as it were, with Yeshua and raised up by his resurrection power.
What better way to show that believers have been buried with Messiah than to actually go under the water. In addition, the coming up out of the water provides
a graphic representation of being raised up with Yeshua.
Not surprisingly, the mikveh continued to be very significant
throughout the Gospel accounts, even to the last message of
Yeshua. As he was commissioning his disciples to their new
work, he said:
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make people from all nations; into talmidim, immersing them into the reality of the b'shem Ha'Av, Yeshua HaMashiakh v'Ruakh RaKodesh [Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit], and teach­ing them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember! I will be with you always, yes, even until the end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20).
Shortly after the resurrection of Yeshua, mention is made of what might be called the "Messianic mikveh." On the day of Shavuot (Pentecost), as recorded in
Acts 2, thousands of Jewish people had gathered to celebrate the feast After the outpouring of the Ruakh HaKodesh [Holy Spirit] on the Messianic remnant, Shim'on gave his powerful message about the messiahship of Yeshua. The wonderful results were the salvation of three thousand Jewish people at one time. These new disciples now had a logistical problem. In obedience to the command of Yeshua, these new believers were ex­horted to receive the mikveh as a sign of their faith commit­ment.
(In Acts 2, how many people come to believe in Yeshua on the day of Shavuot?
When Moses comes down from the monition with the 10 Commandments, how many people died?
Remember, it was Shavuot that Moses comes down from the monition with the 10 Commandments. And it was Shavuot when the Holly Spirit comes down from above)
the Messianic mikveh, a sign of what God has done for believers, is an important testimony of one's faith. One should not overlook the fact that a Messianic mikveh will often serve as a public testimony to the world that there is a growing remnant of Jews and Gentiles who call on Messiah's name.
The New Testament confirms virtually all the customs of the Hebrew Scriptures, including the spiritual importance of the waters of the mikveh. It does not confer salvation but, as with the example of the healed person in Leviticus, it is a wonderful symbol of a healing that has already taken place. Shim'on, in his letter to some Jewish believers, summarized the significance of this Messianic under­standing of the mikveh:
This also prefigures what delivers us now, the water of immersion, which is not the removal of dirt from the body, but one's pledge to keep a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah
(1 Peter 3:21).
Every person needs to ask if he or she has found the new life illustrated in the waters of the mikveh. Every believer needs to take the sign (immersion in a mikveh) of their salvation in Yeshua the Messiah. May this God-appointed custom be a source of great joy for those who have been touched by the power of the living God.
