Completely Immersed in a Mitzvah
After the first Yom Kippur which we spent in the Lyon yeshiva, the congregants dispersed to their homes to break the fast. I had to stay a few minutes longer in order to take care of some urgent matters.
Suddenly, a woman appeared at the yeshiva with her mother. She wished to immerse in the yeshiva’s mikveh. The mikveh had been used throughout the day for men and had become very dirty. It was therefore unfit for her use. Those in charge had hung a note that the mikveh was temporarily not in service. The name and address of another mikveh was written at the bottom.
- The magnificent mikveh in Lyon
But the woman refused to go elsewhere. She stubbornly insisted on immersing only in the yeshiva’s mikveh. She averred that if she could not use our mikveh that very evening, she would simply go home and immerse another time.
I was in a quandary in the face of her persistence. There was no point in pointing out that the water was filthy. She was not interested in listening. Then I remembered that Chazal exhort us to begin building the sukkah immediately after Yom Kippur as a way of demonstrating our desire to begin the new year with a mitzvah. Realizing that I would not manage to begin building my sukkah that night, I decided to open my new year with a different mitzvah. I set forth to cleaning the mikveh and even called upon a woman to be in attendance, so that this woman could immerse according to halachah.
I emptied the dirty water and scrubbed the place clean until it sparkled like new. I must have spent at least two hours on the job. The woman sat and waited until I was finished.
When I was finally done and turned to go home, it was with a feeling of tremendous satisfaction. I had never before felt this way. My heart swelled within me. I had merited performing an extraordinary mitzvah, with no thought of recompense.
Aside from the fact that I was a direct catalyst for the observance of taharat hamishpachah, I did an act of kindness with this woman. Who knows if she would have bothered visiting another mikveh had I not acceded to her demands to immerse here?
