Total Immersion

Today, Rosh Chodesh Elul, begins an intensive 40 day period of Teshuva- Return, spiritual cleansing and transformation...

Historically, following the episode of the Golden Calf and breaking of the Luchot, Moshe Rabbeinu ascended Mount Sinai for the second time, and after 40 days of intensive prayer, D'veikut and Teshuva, returned to Am Yisrael with the Luchot Sheniot (second Tablets)- a symbol of Tikun and Hashem's forgiveness.

Since then, these 40 days on the Jewish calendar have been tagged as "Yemei Rachamim v'Ratzon"- days where Hashem's mercy is manifest, an opportune time for Teshuva and Divine yearning, of purity and spiritual transformation: a Mikvah in Time.

According to Halachik standards, a Kosher mikvah must contain 40 Se'ah (about 200 gallons) of flowing or gathered rain water, and each Se'ah is made up of 24 "Lugg" of water...

The Taharah/purity, spiritual rejuvination and fresh start that we can attain in the 40 se'ah of a Mikvah, is represented in time by the 40 days stretching from Rosh Chodesh Elul to Yom Kipur (10th of Tishrei).

The Mikvah's 960 Lug correspond to the 960 hours of the time period we are now beginning(40 days x 24 hrs.); every moment is an opportunity for us to immerse ourselves in the Teshuvah process, to Return to our Source and be purified...

The Mikvah is a fundamental and culminating step in the conversion ("transformation")process, and the key to monthly marital rejuvination.

The idea that 40 represents a measurement symbolzing transformation and spiritual development toward a new status is a theme that runs throughout Jewish life and history:

>LIFE: 40 days from conception to the point where a fetus is considered by Jewish Law to be a life; transformed from potential to actual existence...
>THE FLOOD: The world and all of creation needed to be transformed and "fixed" during the 40 day/night Mikvah-Mabul
>MT. SINAI: Millions of individuals are transformed into a Nation while Moshe ascends the Mountain for 40 days/ nights
>MIDBAR: It took 40 years of desert transformation until we merited to enter Eretz Yisrael
>SHABBAT: The Laws of Shabbos are based on 39 categories of work performed in the building of the mishkan- the Gemarah categorizes the list of melachot as "One less than 40" (Same goes for the 40-1 Malkot/ Rabbinically administered lashes, that transform a person who is guilty into a new man with a clean slate...)

Kabbalistically, even the form of the letter "Mem" (40 in numerology/ gematriah) represents this theme: at the beginning or in the middle of a word, the "Mem" is broken, open and incomplete; at the end of a word its appearance is transformed to being a "whole" letter, closed and complete.

May Hashem help us and strengthen us, so that we may make the most of this great opportunity- to be transformed and purified- and blessed with a Chodesh Tov & Shanah Tovah.

(For more, please see Rav Aryeh Kaplan ztl's Waters of Eden)