Miami Al posits myrhh/mikveh connection
said...
Note: I also think the fact that the young Yeshiva Bochurs, and the occaisional Rabbi, in a drunken D'var Torah will talk about Esther being "raped every night" by the King, which is preposterous. Any time she was brought to the King's chamber, no doubt to attempt to produce an heir, she would have been pampered and prepared for days... where do we think the requirements to prepare for Mikveh come from? The poor person's version of the Near Eastern preparations!
posted by Shira Salamone at 1:21 PM
2 Comments:
Not equating it to Mikveh. Equating the "preparations" for Mikveh, which are cultural, with the pampering that was done for the King's women in Persia...
Most Jewish pampering is combined with references to "being like a King/Queen" -- the royalty in question are Middle Eastern royalty, not Disney royalty!
The similarity is interesting, but so's the difference, it occurs to me: while the Persian prep *added* myrhh and spices, the mikveh prep requires the *removal* of make-up, nail polish, rings, and anything else that could prevent the water of the mikveh from touching every exterior surface of the body. In that sense, one might make a case that the preparations for immersion in a mikveh are both a symbolic re-enactment of the Persian royal sex-preparation rituals and a repudiation of them.
Post a Comment
<< Home