Mikvah at the Jewish Court in Speyer

I learned that there is a Mikvah here at the Jewish Court in Speyer. A mikvah is a bath that is used for cleansing of a person to achieve ritual purity in Judaism. This particular mikvah was built in the twelfth century together with the other structures in the complex. This makes the mikvah the oldest of its kind in Europe. Of all the structures here, it is the mikvah which seems to be the best preserved. It should not come as a surprise because the mikvah is mostly underground. The other structures above ground are in ruins and it is hard to know what it was previously. To visit the mikvah, one would need to descend a flight of stairs which goes underground. I thought it went deeper than I expected.

At the bottom was the expected pool of water. From my understanding, the waters of a mikvah should be deep enough to immerse a person. More importantly, the water should be “running”, that is, it should be taken from natural sources and never stored. So water that comes from natural spring or river should be okay to use as long as the water in the mikvah itself is allowed to flow out somewhere. I was a bit confused by this requirement since the mikvah is deep underground it might be difficult to get the water flowing out. Already I can see that this is a problem since the color of the pool is green making it quite unsightly. I don’t know if there really was a natural spring here but it sure doesn’t look like this mikvah can be used anytime soon. I was wondering if the water is not flowing, then how long has the water been there.

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