Mikveh in the context of "Ritual purity"

Ritual purification is a ritual prescribed by a religion through which a person is considered to be freed of uncleanliness, especially prior to the worship of a deity, and ritual purity is a state of ritual cleanliness. Ritual purification may also apply to objects and places. Ritual uncleanliness is not identical with ordinary physical impurity, such as dirt stains; nevertheless, body fluids are generally considered ritually unclean.

Most of these rituals existed long before the germ theory of disease, and figure prominently from the earliest known religious systems of the Ancient Near East. Some writers connect the rituals to taboos.

The Jewish-Medieval Heritage of Erfurt is a series of buildings in the Old Town part of Erfurt, Germany, recognized as an item of Jewish cultural heritage. It was inscribed into the UNESCO List of World Heritage Sites in Germany in 2023. It includes Erfurt's Old Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in Europe; the Erfurt Mikveh [de], a mikveh that was only rediscovered in 2007; and the Stone House [de], a 13th century residential building in Jewish ownership until present times.

In Judaism, ritual washing, or ablution, takes two main forms. Tevilah (Hebrew: טְבִילָה, romanized: ṭəb̲îlā) is a full body immersion in a mikveh, and netilat yadayim is the washing of the hands with a cup (see Handwashing in Judaism).

References to ritual washing are found in the Hebrew Bible, and are elaborated in the Mishnah and Talmud. They have been codified in various codes of Jewish law and tradition, such as Maimonides' Mishneh Torah (12th century) and Joseph Karo's Shulchan Aruch (16th century). These practices are most commonly observed within Orthodox Judaism. In Conservative Judaism, the practices are normative, with certain leniencies and exceptions. Ritual washing is not generally performed in Reform Judaism.

In Jewish religious law, there is a category of specific Jewish purity laws, defining what is ritually impure or pure: ṭum'ah (Hebrew: טומאה, pronounced [tumˈʔa]) and ṭaharah (Hebrew: טהרה, pronounced [tahaˈra]) are the state of being ritually "impure" and "pure", respectively. The Hebrew noun ṭum'ah, meaning "impurity", describes a state of ritual impurity. A person or object which contracts ṭum'ah is said to be ṭamé (טמא‎ Hebrew adjective, "ritually impure"), and thereby unsuited for certain holy activities and uses (kedushah, קְדֻשָּׁה‎‎ in Hebrew) until undergoing predefined purification actions that usually include the elapse of a specified time-period.

The contrasting Hebrew noun ṭaharah (טָהֳרָה‎) describes a state of ritual purity that qualifies the ṭahor (טָהוֹר‎; ritually pure person or object) to be used for kedushah. The most common method of achieving ṭaharah is by the person or object being immersed in a mikveh (ritual bath). This concept is connected with ritual washing in Judaism, and both ritually impure and ritually pure states have parallels in ritual purification in other world religions.

Holiness in Judaism, often referred to by the Hebrew word for holiness, Kedushah (Hebrew: קְדֻשָּׁה), is frequently used in Judaism to describe God; worldly places and items that have holy status, such as a Torah, other Torah literature, and Jewish ritual objects such as a menorah, tzitzit, tefillin, or mikveh; special days of the year; and people who are considered on a high spiritual level (a tzadik or a gadol).