(Image: White towels)
I went to the mikvah from work, so I was wearing the same dress I wore to work that day. My rabbi and a friend from temple met me at the mikvah. I was converting with a Reform rabbi, so our temple didn't have a mikvah. In the city where I was living, the Conservative synagogue had a mikvah that they let us use. Here's my first tip: if your congregation doesn't have a mikvah and you have not seen the one you're going to use, go visit it before you go for the big day! I think I wouldn't have been so nervous had I actually seen a mikvah before then.
Once we arrived at the mikvah, I changed into my bath robe. Then the woman who ran the mikvah went inside with me, while the rabbi and my friend stayed outside the door (it was a slanted door, so they could hear what was going on in the mikvah). I immersed the three times and said the blessings each time. My second tip: each time you come out of the water, take a breath before you start reciting the blessing! I didn't the first time I came up, and I started choking on water midway through the blessing. My rabbi thought I was drowning.
After I came out of the mikvah and dressed, the rabbi went through a few prayers, asked me a few questions, and I took my Hebrew name. The rabbi, my friend, and I talked for a few minutes, and that was it! My third tip: make a plan for what you're going to do right after going to the mikvah. I didn't have a plan, and I wish that I would have had some plan. I left there feeling like this huge change had just taken place, but I didn't know what to do or where to go. Eventually, I just went home, but I wish that I would have done something else and shared the moment with someone. Do something special: have a fancy meal with loved ones, have a picnic in the park -- it doesn't matter what it is as long as it's something special to you. After you go to the mikvah, if you're anything like me, you're not going to want to be alone and you're not going to feel like jumping back into everyday life. This is an occasion to celebrate!
The next day was Shabbat, and the rabbi announced that I had gone to the mikvah and was officially Jewish. He also had me take an aliyah. Saturday night, a few of my friends had a small party for me and we made havdallah. My fourth and final tip: make sure to talk to your rabbi about what exactly is going to happen when you convert! As is probably pretty typical, I had been studying with my rabbi for so long by the time I converted that I didn't think to ask some basic questions about what would happen. Plus, he, more or less, assumed that I knew everything if I didn't ask him specifically. Ask questions, and tell him or her what you want. For example, I didn't have a beit din because my rabbi didn't convene them as a matter of course for conversions; however, in some ways, I kind of wish that I would have had one. If I would have told him that I wanted one, I'm sure he would have found a way to convene one.
SP, a female Reform convert who completed her conversion in Richmond, VA.
I went to the mikvah from work, so I was wearing the same dress I wore to work that day. My rabbi and a friend from temple met me at the mikvah. I was converting with a Reform rabbi, so our temple didn't have a mikvah. In the city where I was living, the Conservative synagogue had a mikvah that they let us use. Here's my first tip: if your congregation doesn't have a mikvah and you have not seen the one you're going to use, go visit it before you go for the big day! I think I wouldn't have been so nervous had I actually seen a mikvah before then.
Once we arrived at the mikvah, I changed into my bath robe. Then the woman who ran the mikvah went inside with me, while the rabbi and my friend stayed outside the door (it was a slanted door, so they could hear what was going on in the mikvah). I immersed the three times and said the blessings each time. My second tip: each time you come out of the water, take a breath before you start reciting the blessing! I didn't the first time I came up, and I started choking on water midway through the blessing. My rabbi thought I was drowning.
After I came out of the mikvah and dressed, the rabbi went through a few prayers, asked me a few questions, and I took my Hebrew name. The rabbi, my friend, and I talked for a few minutes, and that was it! My third tip: make a plan for what you're going to do right after going to the mikvah. I didn't have a plan, and I wish that I would have had some plan. I left there feeling like this huge change had just taken place, but I didn't know what to do or where to go. Eventually, I just went home, but I wish that I would have done something else and shared the moment with someone. Do something special: have a fancy meal with loved ones, have a picnic in the park -- it doesn't matter what it is as long as it's something special to you. After you go to the mikvah, if you're anything like me, you're not going to want to be alone and you're not going to feel like jumping back into everyday life. This is an occasion to celebrate!
The next day was Shabbat, and the rabbi announced that I had gone to the mikvah and was officially Jewish. He also had me take an aliyah. Saturday night, a few of my friends had a small party for me and we made havdallah. My fourth and final tip: make sure to talk to your rabbi about what exactly is going to happen when you convert! As is probably pretty typical, I had been studying with my rabbi for so long by the time I converted that I didn't think to ask some basic questions about what would happen. Plus, he, more or less, assumed that I knew everything if I didn't ask him specifically. Ask questions, and tell him or her what you want. For example, I didn't have a beit din because my rabbi didn't convene them as a matter of course for conversions; however, in some ways, I kind of wish that I would have had one. If I would have told him that I wanted one, I'm sure he would have found a way to convene one.
SP, a female Reform convert who completed her conversion in Richmond, VA.
RSS Feed