WATERVILLE, Maine — For the first time in decades, a synagogue in Waterville welcomed a new mikvah, which is a bath used in Judaism for ritual purification.
Located at the Beth Israel Synagogue, the structure was filled Saturday with large blocks of ice collected by more than a dozen Colby Students, and others, from a pond in Franklin County. Usually, the sacred pool is filled using rainwater. To Rabbi Rachel Isaacs, harvested ice was even more fitting.
"What I love most about it is, it brings together a Maine heritage industry with a Jewish ancient ritual," Isaacs said Sunday.
Mikvahs, or mikvot, have served as a foundational piece of Jewish community building throughout history, many times being built before synagogues. In Waterville, however, Isaacs says the congregation hasn’t had a Mikvah since around the time of its founding, in the early 1900s.
"If Waterville once had a mikvah, why can’t we have a mikvah now? So here we are a century later," Isaacs said.
To those who volunteered Sunday, helping fulfill the restoration carried deep meaning, even for those outside of the Jewish community.
As Colby senior Caitlin Kincaid puts it, "You learn by doing, and so I think the people who participated here today will be forever changed in a really positive way."