The stakes are high: husbands and wives forsaking intimacy until a solution is found.
This has been the reality for Tasmanian Jews who’ve found themselves without access to a mikvah, or a ritual bath for women.
While there had been a kosher mikvah built in 1988 in Hobart, it had fallen into disrepair, and women had been traveling to Melbourne for their needs. Until covid-19, that is.
How to rebuild a facility and source the right water to fill it in just a few days?
Enter a community spanning states, and Tasmania’s only ice manufacturer (who had shut down production by this point, by the way).
Press play to hear Rochel Gordon from the Chabad of Tasmania explain the ritual of the mikvah and the lengths they’ve gone to to put one together during a pandemic!
Listen to On Your Afternoon with Helen Shield.