Naked Rabbi

The Chicago Tribune published an article yesterday about the new Mikvah at Anshe Sholom B'nai Israel here in Chicago, which I thought was really pretty cool of them.  Since some of our favorite blog topics include Judaism, Chicago, and gender issues here at StereoSinai.com, it's like killing three birds with one stone for us.  Or, as we more sensitive types like to say, feeding three birds with one seed.  Or something.  Here's a video and an excerpt from the story:

In the seclusion of nightfall just days before her wedding, Leah Kahn stepped into the soothing lukewarm waters of a mikvah, drew in a deep breath and plunged into her new life.

After seven dunks in the ritual bath, the bride-to-be had symbolically washed away her identity as a single woman in a Jewish ritual she will partake in regularly for the rest of her child-bearing years.

The mikvah is traditionally the cornerstone of a Jewish congregation, and since this one opened in the spring at Anshe Sholom B'nai Israel in Lakeview, dozens of women have visited the ritual bath. Religious law requires immersion for converts and new brides, and married women must bathe in a mikvah after menstruation before resuming sexual relations with their husbands.

"It's emblematic of who we are as Jews," said Rabbi Asher Lopatin, head of the modern Orthodox congregation. "We celebrate family life. We celebrate integrating religion into our most intimate moments." ...

More...