The House of Secrets: The Hidden World of the Mikveh

The first book to look at the experiences of women who use the mikveh—a bath used to achieve ritual purity by observant Jewish women. Jewish women must visit this ritual bath before marriage and monthly after menstruation before sexual relations with their husbands may resume. Yet despite the strict Orthodox roots of the practice, many women from all streams of Judaism use the mikveh, often for personal reasons that have more to do with faith than religion.