Cutting the ribbon at the opening of the Bat Sheva-Chaya Esther Mikva are, from left, Rabbi Elazar Teitz, Greg Raykher, Rabbi Avrohom Kanelsky, Simon Garber, Danny Kahane, Rabbi Yossi Kanelsky, Lina Garber, Shterney Kanelsky, and Rabbi Mordechai Kanelsky.
Photo courtesy Bris Avrohom
July 3, 2008
As others oohed and aahed while touring Bris Avrohom’s luxurious new Hillside mikva at its June 29 dedication, there were women among the onlookers who had a knowing air of “been here, done that.”
That didn’t mean they don’t plan to return — on the contrary. Those women were among the 10 brides taking part in the Chabad center’s annual mass wedding — its 23rd — also held that day. Over the past few weeks leading up to Sunday’s double celebration, they had the chance to try out the new ritual bath. All those interviewed said it was an extraordinary experience both physically and spiritually, and they intend to do it again.
Marsha Gornaya of Paramus said she had never before gone through the ritual immersion, “and it was really wonderful.” She grew up in St. Petersburg — “what is still Leningrad for me” — in a family that was Jewish but with little engagement in ritual practice, and came to the United States in 1989.
“Who would want to leave here?” asked one of the people taking the tour on Sunday. Those around her nodded in agreement.
Women in the Bris Avrohom community have until now used the mikva — recently renovated — at the Jewish Educational Center’s nearby Bruriah High School for Girls in Elizabeth.
Now they have their own: The Bat Sheva-Chaya Esther Mikva was constructed in the extensive garden behind the home of Bris Avrohom’s leader, Rabbi Mordechai Kanelsky, and his wife, Shterney, on Salem Avenue in Hillside. Like the mass weddings, building the mikva is part of the Kanelskys’ commitment to bringing the region’s Russian-speaking Jews back to Torah-observant Judaism; it is, however, open to all, for a fee of $25 per visit.
The ritual bath is named in memory of the Kanelskys’ infant daughter, who died in 2003, and Chaya Esther Zaltzman, the rebbetzin’s mother, who was killed in a car crash the following year.
Shterney Kanelsky — herself, like her husband, an immigrant from Russia — told the crowd of around 400 assembled under a white tent of the extensive efforts it took for her mother to use a mikva. Every month, she had to journey 36 hours by train to the only one available to her, in Moscow; an hour later she would begin the return trip. “The train ticket cost my father a week’s wages,” she said.
‘Spiritual accomplishment’
Shterney said that absolute devotion to the value of immersion in a mikva — regarded as a boon to marriage, spiritual well-being, and a blessing for “future children” — is what inspired her and her husband and the community members who labored with them to raise the funds — over $1 million, according to her husband — and oversee the long and complicated construction.
Their son, Rabbi Yossi Kanelsky, outreach director for Bris Avrohom and head of its Old Bridge center, was master of ceremonies for the dedication and the wedding. He said their goal in making the mikva so luxurious was not only to meet every halachic requirement but also “that one should want to use it and appreciate it.”
To that end, the facility has fastidious security and privacy arrangements, with camera monitors at the entrance. Inside, one steps into what looks like a first-rate spa — complete with soft music, flowers, a large fish tank, and marbled surfaces. Each of the preparation rooms is equipped with a Jacuzzi (with a disinfectant rinse triggered with a push button after each use), a toilet, a phone, and a hair dryer. Each mikva user receives her own complimentary bag of toiletry and grooming products.
The mikva itself is about as far as possible from the old-world image of dim, dank ritual baths. The mosaic of blue tiles and backdrop of ferns and fresh orchids make it look more like a high-tech mountain pool.
The facility also includes a men’s side, with a separate entrance and — like the women’s side — a special preparation room reserved for those approaching marriage.
On a lower level, there are rooms for classes about mikva use and a library of books and videos on the subject.
Shterney Kanelsky said the dedication brought up very difficult mixed feelings for her — the heartache of losing her mother and baby daughter, but also the joy of honoring her mother’s teaching about the blessings of the mikva. “My mother is kvelling in Gan Eden [heaven] that so many people will be using this mikva — and without the devastating experiences women used to have to go through to do it,” she said.
Bris Avrohom unveiled its new million-dollar Bat Sheva-Chaya Esther mikva on Sunday, June 29, prior to its 23rd group wedding for Soviet immigrant couples.
Photo by Elaine Durbach
