Source: News Journal

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Local/03AreaEAST02012105.htm

On January 21, 2005 News Journal reported, "it's a women's ritual as ancient as the Hebrew scriptures. But in modern times, the concept of visiting a ritual bath -- or 'mikveh' -- has become as foreign to most Jews as it is to the rest of the population. So it was with more than a little curiosity that about 100 Jewish women from Volusia and Flagler counties gathered Tuesday night at Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Daytona to see the Ormond Beach synagogue's lavish new spa-like mikveh building, and hear a New York expert describe the benefits of marital relations -- biblical style. Orthodox Jews believe that Sarah, wife of the biblical patriarch Abraham, was the first to regularly immerse herself in a mikveh -- a body of 'living water' -- in compliance with the religion's laws of family purity... Over the past 15 years, however, a growing number of mainstream Jewish women, including feminists, have begun embracing the ritual as a liberating celebration of life transitions. Women who have experienced a rape, surgery or other trauma sometimes also participate in the ritual to renew themselves."