Kitzur Chapter 37- The Ritual Immersion of Utensils

Chapter 37 of the Kitzur focuses on the ritual immersion of utensils. All new metal and glass utensils require a dip in the mikveh, the Jewish ritual bath. One walking the streets of Meah Shearim in Jerusalem will notice these little ritual baths scattered about the neighborhood, as Jews arrive with their new spatulas and salad tongs to dunk them in water and raise them to a level of holiness. Personally I never quite understood the reason for this practice, asking why our utensils need to reach a certain state of purity. Humans I understand, but utensils?

The law states that metal and glass utensils require the mikveh, however wooden utensils do not. I thought to myself - "why metal and glass but not wood?" Perhaps it has something to do with the natural state of being of the wooden object. A utensil made of wood does not require chemical reactions or engineering in a blacksmith's workshop or glassblower's studio. The wood comes straight from the earth, and is thus already in a state of purity and holiness. It is in it's original state of God's creation. The metal and glass however require further steps - some type of chemical reaction must take place to create metal and glass objects. The materials lose their natural state - they are melded and fused together. They become distanced from their original state of creation, from God, and thus lose their level of holiness and purity.

As I read this chapter, I was reminded of a hiking trip I went on several years ago in Thailand with my wife Jenny. Our tour guide, Simsak, had prepared a wonderful lunch for us. As we sat down alongside a river for lunch, he ran off for a moment with his machete, and returned with three large leaves. We asked what they were for, and he replied that the leaves were our plates. There was something wonderful about eating our meal on a leaf, rather than a plate. There was a connection to nature and food that I had never experienced before.

Perhaps the reason we need a mikvah for our metal and glass utensils is to symbolically return them to nature; to immerse them in fresh water is to bring them back into God's realm, to return them in a symbolic sense back to a natural state, just like wood or leaves. We think so much now about the food we eat and intentionality about eating foods that are natural and organic. Chapter 37 teaches us to also be aware of the utensils we use, and how eating off of natural surfaces can elevate holiness and bring us to a higher awareness of creation and God.

Shabbat Shalom.