Mikveh: the phenomenon of Jewish solemity (ritual baths in Bohemia)

Resumé This diplom work is devoted to the ritual purification of the Hebrew in mikva. Mikva is a Hebrew ritual bath which must fulfull certain religious regulations to be understood as properly religious. All the regulations and order regarding the functioning, construction and water, which is allowed to be used, are stated in Misna in the tractate Mikwa'ot. The basis for the ritual adequacy of mikva is water which should have inflow and outflow. Mikva serves to renew ritual cleanliness of a person who became ritually unclean. This ritual dates back to the times when Desater made a commandment to Sinaji. The first people who practiced the ritual were supposedly priests. Those were impurified after the contact with a dead body, carrion of an animal or a snake; after emission of semen or spermatorrhoea. During the times of the first Church the whole population including children cleaned themselves from different impurities. After the deconstruction of the Church the law regualting cleanliness and impurities changed. Today mikva is visited by women firstly before wedding, then after each menstruation period and after giving birth. Men are no longer obliged to practise the ritual after the deconstruction of the Church however even today orhodox Hebrew and chasids clean themselves before important Hebrew..