Mikveh

Mikveh(In Hebrew: מִקְוֶה) a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism. The word “mikveh”, as used in the Old Testament , literally means a “collection”.

Ritual immersion is the total submersion of the body in a pool of water. This pool and its water are precisely prescribed by Jewish law. Immersion, tevillah, is the common core component of every Jewish conversion process, for male and female, adult and child, ignoramus and scholar.

Several religious functions are served by this powerful symbol of submerging in water. In the days of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem, the mikveh was used by all Jews who wanted to enter the precincts of the Sanctuary. The law required of every person inside the Temple grounds to be in a spiritually pure state appropriate to the pristine spirituality of the Sanctuary itself.

Throughout Jewish history, unmarried women have immersed in the mikveh prior to their wedding; married women immersed at the end of seven days of stainless purity from the end of each monthly menstrual cycle, in preparation for the resumption of family relations in their most fertile days.

A major function of immersion in the mikveh is used for the conversion to Judaism. The sages declare that a gentile who wishes to become a Jew must undergo the identical process by which Jewish ancestors converted. As Jews performed immersion at Mt. Sinaito complete the conversion process they had begun with circumcision as they left Egypt, so converts in every age must immerse in a mikveh.

Credits:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikveh

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/life/Life_Events/Conversion/Conversion_Process/Mikveh.shtml