The house of secrets : the hidden world of the mikveh / Varda Polak-Sahm ; translated from the Hebrew by Anne Hartstein Pace.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Polak-Sahm, Varda.

Standardized Title:

Bet ha-setarim. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mikveh.

Jewish women--Religious life.

Jewish women.

Purity, Ritual--Judaism.

Purity, Ritual.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (272 p.)

Place of Publication:

Boston : Beacon Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

For Orthodox Jews, immersion in a ritual bath-the mikveh-is the cornerstone of family life and is central to Jewish women's practice of their faith. Yet women from across the Jewish spectrum frequent the mikveh, often for surprising personal reasons. Roused by her own immersion experience, for years Varda Polak-Sahm, a secular Jew, patiently observed and interviewed women at the mikveh, gaining unprecedented access to this hidden world. The House of Secrets offers a richly nuanced, uncensored look at an experience that is for some holy and for others coercive, ultimately illuminating the remarkable power of ritual immersion. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Contents:

The place

The balaniyot

A dose of impurity

Blood and banishment

Purity and sexuality

Female rituals, sisterhood, and female authority

Between a woman and God

Between man and wife.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-8070-7743-7

OCLC:

646822995