While we completed the construction of our own mikvah, we used the one in Dej, about a 45-minute drive. The Dejer Rebbe visits Romania often, and built this mikvah to use during his visits. In winter, the heating apparatus doesn’t always work, and the water temperature can reach 20 below! As the rebbetzin in charge of escorting women to the mikvah, many of them for the first time in their lives, it’s a difficult “sell.”
It took months to convince Adina to use the mikvah. She’d grown up frum, but had abandoned that way of life years ago. It wasn’t easy, but I finally got her to accompany me to Dej. It was a frigid winter night, and I was nervous about the heating. When we got there, my worst fears were realized. The water was freezing.
I texted my husband frantically. What should I do? It took so much effort to get her here!
Maybe you can convince her to toivel just this once, he texted back. Promise her that next time, she’ll be able to use our new, heated mikvah in Cluj.
Adina surpassed my expectations. She agreed to toivel in the freezing waters, and even returned to the Dej mikvah a few more times after that! Now, baruch Hashem, we have a beautiful mikvah right here in our Chabad house. The days of cracking the ice and defying hypothermia are over!
