Jerusalem – City Project Will Recycle Mikvah Water for Reuse

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    Jerusalem – The city of Jerusalem has planned a pilot program to reuse water from mikvaot (ritual baths). The water from each mikva will be purified daily and returned by the next morning.

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    Jerusalem municipal officials are working with the Health Ministry and the Religious Affairs council to assure that the project will be conducted in accordance with health standards as well as halakhah (Jewish Law).

    Municipal official Yitzchak Hanau, head of the municipality’s Religious Structures Branch, explained to Israel National News that Halakhically, mikvaot must have a minimum amount of rainwater, while the rest can be “drawn” water that “touches” the rainwater. “The recycled water that will be streamed back into the mikvah will be no different in that respect than the other ‘drawn’ water,” he said.

    There are 35 buildings with mikvaot in Jerusalem, and most of them have multiple mikvaot. Each mikvah contains many dozens of liters of water, and the water is replaced each day. Recycling the mikva water could save thousands of liters of water each year, which would also save money from the municipal budget.

    The Finance Committee is expected to approve the project in the near future. The pilot will cost 200,000 shekels to put into effect, and the first mikvah to be fitted with the water recycling network will be in the Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood in northern Jerusalem.

    Men are not required to immerse in a mikvah (other than before Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur), but many often do so – daily, only on Sabbath eve, or on other occasions – in accordance with custom. Married women, however, are required to immerse approximately once a month. Statistics for 2008 show that women’s mikvaot in Jerusalem were used 180,000 times in the course of the year.

    Hanou said that if the new project succeeds, it will have a dramatic impact. “As the pilot is expanded to more mikvaot,” he said, “it will become less expensive, it will save a significant amount of water, and will make Jerusalem a positive example for cities throughout the country,” he said.

    Jerusalem mikvaot do not used special filters, Hanou said. “Some of them are Halakhically OK, and some are not,” he said, “but we follow the rabbinic ruling not to use them at all, so as not to cause confusion. This is why the mikvah water must be replaced each day – and why our new system is so important.”

    In addition to the city’s 35 mikvaot, two more are under construction – in Ramat Beit HaKerem and the Old City – and construction on two others is about to begin, in Har Nof and Arnona. Work on a second mikvah in Har Homa is set to begin in six months’ time.


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    19 Comments
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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Having been to mikvot in yerushalayim and observing the level of sanitation (or lack thereof) I’m not sure that this will be a good idea. The amount of water they are saving is miniscule, but the idea of jumping into the recycled water from some of the eherlich yidden whose mikvah hygiene leaves much to be desired is questionable. They can use the money on better and more productive endeavors.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Har nod is not a growing community why do they need a nother mikva

    Paskunyak
    Paskunyak
    14 years ago

    I thought they already recycled the mikvah water into the soup!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    sodium chlorite is a better & healthier water purifier & pathogen destroyer than other chlorine, which is harmful to people.
    it is used in hospitals, slaughter houses, food processors, & water bottlers. it is approved by the fda.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    When in Jerusalem, use the Zupnick mikva. It is the most modern, clean and updated. Don’t judge by the cover! You’ll be in for a surprise, something not even seen in the U.S.A. and it is the most mehudar!

    Most Goyish Swimming Pools don't change the water all sumer long
    Most Goyish Swimming Pools don't change the water all sumer long
    14 years ago

    Womens Mikva’os are much cleaner than most irreligious swimming pools.

    Women’s mikvas usually have new water every day while most public swimming pools use the same water all the time.

    Filtration, Recycling and Natural Ecology
    Filtration, Recycling and Natural Ecology
    14 years ago

    Everyone nauseated and turned off by the concept of filtration and recycling is simply ignorant that all the water which they drink form the tap or bottled water every day, is recycled water and filtered naturally or by man made means.

    All the water we drink his filtered by Hashems natural methods of ecology.

    What this means in simple words is that regardless if you drink bottled water or well water or tap water all of this water was previously water which Hashem created 5770 years ago and has been recycled hundreds of thousands of times via natural ecological systems.

    What this means in even simpler words is that the cup of water which each and every human being drinks each and every day of their entire life previously drunk by thousands of people and animals, before you and excreted, filtered through the earth and rock and end up back, in to the water table and back in to your drinking cup to be re-consumed again, 100% perfectly recycled and 100% clean (hopefully – if industrial contamination did not hinder the natural process).

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Anyone reading this thread will never again step foot in a mikvah. I’m hoping that much of what was said here is inaccurate but if true, there is a big issue for those who like to be machmir on these issues as to whether public health concerns should take priority over the minhagim of when to toivel.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    .Chareidi Bashers you have shown your ignorance again. To my knowledge most Mikvous in N.Y. filter the water every night in the am the water is perfectly clean. Every public pool filters the water and is accepted by every Dept. of Health. Face reality you are getting sick of anything resembling religion
    This website was started by religious people for religious people if you can’t swallow the content there are plenty of sites to satisfy your fancy.