A SWIMMING POOL AS A MIQVEH Walter Jacob

QUESTION: May a swimming pool be used as a miqveh? What are the requirements for immersion which we would follow with converts in those communities in which ritual immersion is indicated or where the rabbi feels strongly about the inclusion of this ritual?(Rabbi D. Shapiro, White Plains , NY )*

ANSWER: We will deal briefly with the question of the use of the miqveh for conversion in Reform gerut as that has been dealt with in earlier responsa("Origin of the Migveh for Conversion" and"The Migveh and the Reform Convert"). The question of rituals which should be used to accept converts was debated in Germany in the eighteen-forties. This centered mainly around the requirement of circumcision(milah). Samuel Holdheim and the Reform Society were opposed to circumcision. Abraham Geiger and the vast majority emphasized it as a necessary rite. The issue was raised in America at the Philadelphia Conference of 1869 and again at the

Pittsburgh meeting in 1885; between these conferences various Reform rabbis had written pamphlets and articles on the question.

Tevilah was not debated and only generally included in these discussions. This was equally true in 1893 when considerable time was spent on debating"Initiatory Rites of Proselytes." The resolution which was passed called for acceptance of proselytes "without any initiatory rite"(C.CA.R. Yearbook, Vol. 11, p. 36). Those rabbis who recorded the reason for their opposition to the resolution dealt only wit milah, not tevilah.

The ritual of tevilah, therefore, quietly vanished without debate; it has similarly reappeared on the scene as a larger number of American Reform rabbis have made tevilah optional or mandatory for gerut. In many instances the traditional miqveh has been used. When none was available, immersion has taken place elsewhere. Let us turn to the requirements for a miqveh.

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