The Power of Immersion

Most people think of a mikvah as a ritual. But it might just be the most profound encounter we can have with G-d.

Underground Discoveries

Visiting the underground Western Wall Tunnels in Jerusalem, to see the stones of the Kotel just as they were laid thousands of years ago, is an awe-inspiring experience. 

One of the most mind-blowing sights is the massive stone that stands at the entrance to the tunnel running along the Wall. This isn’t just big—it’s believed to be the largest building stone in the world. It weighs over 570 tons and measures 13.6 meters long, 4.6 meters wide, and 3 meters high.

For many years, experts thought the largest building stones were in the Egyptian pyramids. That is, until this giant stone was discovered. It’s amazing. It weighs more than a fully loaded bus—or even two Boeing airplanes!

The big mystery wasn’t just how big the stone was—it was how it got there. This was an era with no cranes or modern equipment. How could they possibly move something that massive? As the excavation continued, archaeologists found something nearby that offered a clue: a stone quarry.

According to researchers, the stone was carved higher up on the slope and rolled downhill into place. In other words, it was never lifted—just carefully guided downhill. Still, it’s a mystery that’s never been fully solved.

The Mikvahs

The discoveries didn’t stop there. In 2006, further excavations near the Kosel revealed a cluster of ancient mikvahs right near the Wall. 

These mikvahs were part of a large hall designed in a way that clearly separated those entering to immerse from those exiting. One of the mikvahs still has water in it to this day! It was built so that water flows in naturally on its own. 

In fact, wherever you go in archaeological digs across Israel, you’ll almost always find a mikvah. These are windows into the everyday lives of Jews in the time of the Second Temple. 

In this week’s parsha, Tazria-Metzora, we learn about the role of mikvah in becoming pure. It also showed up in last week’s Parsha, where the Torah first teaches that someone immersing in a mikvah becomes spiritually pure. “Only a spring or a pit, a gathering of water (mikveh mayim), will be pure” (Vayikra 11:36). But while the Torah tells us that a mikvah brings purity, it doesn’t explain why.

So what’s the deeper meaning of the mikvah? What’s it really about?

It’s true that the whole concept of ritual impurity and purity is a chok, a divine law beyond human logic. It has nothing to do with hygiene or physical cleanliness. You can stand in a shower all day and not become pure. On the flip side, even if the mikvah water isn’t so sparkling clean, it still makes a person spiritually pure.

Still, we can try to understand something about the idea behind the mikvah.

The Mikvah of Creation

Where’s the very first time the word “mikvah” appears in the Torah?

We don’t have to look far. In the very first chapter of Bereishit, during the creation of the world, G-d says on the third day: “Let the waters beneath the heavens be gathered (yikavu) into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And then it says, “And G-d called the dry land Earth, and the gathered waters (mikveh hamayim) He called Seas” (Bereishis 1:9–10). The word “mikvah” appears not in the context of purity, but in the story of creation.

But perhaps the creation story itself can help us understand the deeper meaning behind what a mikvah really is.

The Torah opens with the words, “In the beginning, G-d created the heavens and the earth.” The very next verse tells us, “The earth was chaos and void… and the spirit of G-d hovered over the water.” Before anything else existed, before the world took shape, there was just G-d—and water. The Midrash even says, “At the beginning of the world’s creation, G-d’s praise rose only from the water.” Everything was water, water above and water below.

The Rebbe explains that in those early moments of creation, the reality of the physical world wasn’t really felt yet—because the dry land hadn’t been revealed. The world hadn’t fully “arrived” as a separate existence; it was still submerged in that primal, G-dly ocean (see Likkutei Sichos 30:21)

Then G-d said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide between water and water.” G-d began shaping the world by separating the water—sending some above and some below. He introduced space. He began forming boundaries.

In order to create the sky, G-d had to shift the waters—some went up, some stayed below, and a whole new space was formed in between. Then we read: “Let the waters gather into one place, and let the dry land appear.” In other words, the land was always there—it was just covered. Once the water was gathered into one space—the world as we know it began to take shape.

What does this mean?

In the beginning, when the world was entirely covered in water, G-d’s presence was the only reality that could be sensed. But in order for there to be a world with actual beings—especially human beings—G-d had to create a tzimtzum, a contraction or concealment. He had to “make space” for the world to exist.

Why would G-d do that? The Rebbe explains that the ultimate purpose is not that the world should remain submerged in divine revelation. If we would all feel G-d so strongly, we would lose our free choice! G-d wants an actual world—with people living real lives, making real choices—and that we bring G-dliness into that space of our own free accord. G-d didn’t want the world to stay in its “all water” state, even though it was spiritually elevated. He hid that light so the dry land could appear—the world as we know it.

So perhaps the mikvah is that one place in the world that still resembles that original state—the world before tzimtzum, when G-dliness was openly felt. When a person immerses in the mikvah, they are stepping for a moment back into G-d’s reality.

What Makes a Mikvah

If that’s the case, shouldn’t we be immersing in the ocean? That would make more sense as a place of overwhelming G-dliness. What makes a mikvah special?

For a mikvah to be kosher, it must be filled either with spring water or rainwater. In other words, it must use either the “lower waters” or the “upper waters.” And most importantly, the water must reach the mikvah naturally, untouched by human hands.

Today, most mikvahs use rainwater—“upper waters.” The rain simply falls onto the mikvah roof and flows directly into a cistern underground.

In earlier generations, most mikvahs were built over springs, like the Arizal’s mikvah in Tzfas. (Anyone who has ever gone in will never forget it—the water is freezing!) People would often dig deep into the ground until they reached water, and you would need to go down a steep staircase to reach it. I once read about a mikvah in Germany that required going down nearly 100 steps to reach the spring and immerse.

All these mikvahs share one thing in common: when a person immerses in a mikvah, they’re stepping briefly into G-d’s world—as it was before tzimtzum.

Ashreichem Yisrael

Perhaps this is what Rabbi Akiva meant when he said, “Fortunate are you, Israel,” as he quoted the verse, “Mikveh Yisrael Hashem” (Yoma 85b). Usually, we understand that verse to mean “G-d is the hope of Israel”—with “mikveh” meaning “hope,” from the word “kivuy,” to long for or await. But 

Rabbi Akiva reads it differently.

When we immerse in the Mikvah, we are experiencing G-dliness. When we surround ourselves physically with His presence this is something that simply can’t be experienced on dry land.  It’s a total experience of connection.

Chassidus explains, the word “tovel” (to immerse) shares the same Hebrew letters as the word “bittul”—self-nullification. When a person immerses in the mikvah, they let go of their ego and their distractions. In that moment of bittul, they can truly connect with G-d.