HaShem's own mikvah

Things have been incredibly hectic as we try to get settled in a new home and I try to get settled in a new congregation at the same time. It has been hard to find time blog. This doesn’t mean that life has not been “blog-able”. It certainly has been.

For example....

Soon after Typhoon Nuri passed, Rabbi Martha and I officiated at our first conversions at the UJC. Rabbi Joel Oseran, a former UJC Rabbi who returned to Hong Kong for a “tour of duty” on an interim basis, was the Av Beit Din, as he had been working with our candidates. For reasons that I will not go into at the moment, there is no mikveh that the UJC can use for conversions. This is not to say there is no mikveh for us at all, just not one built by human hands. Our mikveh is the South China Sea.

So on a clear, storm-washed Sunday morning we assembled at Nam Wan, South Bay Beach (pictured above). It is a gorgeous, serene spot. A pacific reef egret was patrolling along the breakwater and a fishing boat was trolling just outside the shark net as we brought two beautiful souls tachat canfei haShechinah, under the wings of the divine presence. The beauty of the setting truly matched the beauty of the experience.

It is logistically a bit more difficult to use the ocean as our mikveh, but certainly worth the effort. This mikveh belongs to no one but God. It transcends all categories and barriers. What better place to become a Jew than in these waters that allude so eloquently to the boundless and unfathomable love of HaShem?