Musings Of A Shliach From Montana

By: Rabbi Chaim Bruk

The mikvah under construction in the summer of 2008

Current mikvah demolition, upgrading the Montana Mikvah for the future

It feels like it was ages ago.

When I think back to 2007, when I was a young 25-year-old, I’m impressed with my younger self. It was in March of that year that Chavie and I moved out to Montana, only to learn there was no mikvah here at the time. But we made it happen. Indeed, with the help of some incredible Jewish donors from the United States and overseas, including Brazil, Australia, and Eretz Yisroel, we built a magnificent mikvah that has brought the mitzvah and berachah of taharas hamishpacha, family purity, to Big Sky Country. Locals, visitors, and Chabad shluchos have used this foundational space of purity, which is a fundamental mitzvah.

During those first two years before the mikvah was built, Chavie and I would drive each month to Salt Lake City, Utah to use the mikvah built by our colleagues Rabbi Benny and Sharonne Zippel. It’s a seven-hour drive each way, and in addition to being a long drive, during the winter months, the roads are sleek and treacherous, so the trips were arduous. Chavie flew a couple of times, which has its own challenges, but we mostly drove, and the long trips were a great incentive to building a local mikvah.

Often when living in a frum community it’s hard to fathom how complicated mikvah can be. Some women drive four hours each way to use the mikvah in Bozeman, while others can’t make it at night, so with their rav’s direction, they come the next morning. These holy women must deal with real questions, such as what does one do on a stormy night when the roads are horrific? And what do you do when mikvah night is on Friday night or even Motzaei Shabbos? What about on a three-day yom tov? Yet, the devotion of Jewish women to this incredible mitzvah is noteworthy and praiseworthy. They go through fire and water to fulfill their sacred duty to bring the joy of intimacy and the blessing of purity to their marriages.

After seventeen years, many parts of our mikvah were deteriorating and in need of fixing. Tiles cracking, jacuzzi jets malfunctioning, paint peeling, all the normal wear and tear. We kept vacillating about fixing it, but decided that since Montana is a growing community, we should since we expect it to get much use in the near future and it could use a “face lift” to ensure that it remains a warm, welcoming environment for the ladies. Chavie invited Brochie Spritzer, (@brochiespritzer), an incredible interior designer from New York, to oversee the project and the plans are magnificent. Baruch Hashem, we raised $154,000 of the $250,000 needed to make it happen and demolition started last week.

If any of my weekly readers would like to take part in this incredible project, please reach out. Every donation is welcome. We need to raise $96,000 to wrap it up and your help would be awesome. Please reach out at: [email protected] or call me at: 406-577-2078.

In this week’s parashah, we read about the angels coming to notify Avraham Avinu and Sarah Imeinu that they will have a baby. Did you ever wonder where Sarah’s mikvah was? We are taught that our patriarchs and matriarchs fulfilled the mitzvos before they were commanded to, so what mikvah did Sarah use? Rav Moshe Basula, a 16th century Italian rav, wrote a sefer called “Masaos Eretz Yisrael,” after visiting Israel in 1520 and 1526. In it, he writes: “at one in the morning, I arrived in Chevron…I went to pray at the resting place of ourAvos and Imahos, and nearby I saw a large mikvah with a stone ladder to enter the pool, and it was said that this was the mikvah that was used by Sarah Imeinu.” This is mentioned in other sefarim as well.

Knowing that our beautiful mitzvah of mikvah goes all the way back to Sarah is really inspiring. Knowing that for thousands of years, Jewish women have been devoted to bringing purity to their families and homes warms the heart. Whether it was our grandmothers breaking the ice in Eastern Europe to toivel monthly, or women who did it in hiding under the Spanish Inquisition, or whether it’s the Chabad shluchos who must fly each month to use the mikvah, it’s awe-inspiring.

Chavie and I have five beautiful adopted children but haven’t yet merited to have a biological child. Often, using the mikvah is a mitzvah that is associated with the blessing of having a child. Yet, it’s not just about the blessing of a child; it’s also about the blessing of life, love, and a healthy marriage. Despite not having been zocheh yet to zara chaya vekayama, I see immense value in this deep mitzvah. While mikvah is not a “logical” mitzvah, as none of its properties are logical, we just do them because Hashem says so. I do believe that they are brilliant, a gift that only an infinite G-d could create to bring so much excitement and warmth to a Jewish marriage.

I once read a great story shared by Rebbetzin Fay Kranz Greene, the Rebbe’s shlucha to the Virginias, who together with her late husband Reb Yankel pioneered so much in the world of shlichus. She writes as follows:

“This story happened almost 40 years ago, when I was a young Chabad emissary in Richmond, Virginia. I had five children and very much wanted to have another. My youngest child was already 7 years old. One night, I had an appointment at the mikvah, and because there was no designated attendant in those days, we went with a “buddy” who was going the same night. It was also our job to fill the mikvah and empty it.

“On that particular evening, my buddy was the wife of another Richmond rabbi. As we began to fill the mikvah, we quickly realized that the water wasn’t hot. We filled it anyway, hoping that it would at least become lukewarm. But it was not to be. I was the first one to immerse, and as soon as I put my toe in, I realized that the water was freezing!

“In general, I’m averse to cold water. I never go swimming unless it’s 90 degrees outside and the pool is in Miami. So, I said, ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can go in.’ My buddy tested the water and said, ‘You’re right, it’s freezing. I’m not going in either.’

“Now I felt bad. Not only was I not going to fulfill the mitzvah that night, but I would be responsible for another woman not going either. I started to recall the stories I had heard about the Chabad women in Russia who dug holes in the freezing ice and snow to immerse themselves. I decided I had to do it and convinced myself that I would surely survive.

“And I did!

“My buddy decided that she was going to be brave as well, and we both walked out of the building feeling triumphant. In our small way, we had connected with the bravery of those incredible women in Russia.

“We both forgot about the incident until nine months later when we met at our local hospital. Both of us were pregnant, and both of us were in labor. We had the same doctor, and we both had C-sections. In our minds, G-d paid us back tenfold for our miniscule speck of self-sacrifice and bravery. I gave birth to my youngest child, a little girl. My friend had a baby boy.

“Fast-forward 35 years. That little girl is now a mom of a 4-year-old, delivered in New York via C-section. She and her family moved to Richmond and when she was expecting her second child, she looked for a doctor who would encourage her to have a regular delivery. She went from one doctor to another; no one was willing to take that chance. In desperation, she made an appointment with the same doctor I had used so many years ago. He was still practicing.

“She said to him: ‘Doctor, my name is Sarah Kranz Ciment, and you delivered me 35 years ago. But I’m sure you don’t remember.’

“’Were you born on a Friday?’ he asked her.

“She was incredulous. ‘Yes, I was. How can you possibly remember that?’

“‘I remember because I have a crystal clear picture of your late father on the phone with the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s secretary just before Shabbos. He was asking the Rebbe for a blessing because your mother needed a C-section.’

“That phone call to the Rebbe clearly stayed with the doctor all these years. And, thank G d, she hasn’t had another C-section since. One good decision made in an ice cold mikvah more than three decades earlier had brought warmth, nachas, and joy to two families.”

Mikvah is special and a foundation of Jewish continuity. If you’d like to be part of the Montana Mikvah project, reach out today. We’re counting on you. n

Rabbi Chaim Bruk is co-CEO of Chabad Lubavitch of Montana and spiritual leader of The Shul of Bozeman. For comments or to partner in our holy work, e-mail [email protected] or visit JewishMontana.com/Donate.