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by Haviva Ner-David & Rachel Stock Spilker
by Haviva Ner-David & Rachel Stock Spilker
Illustrations by Meira Ner-David
Illustrations by Meira Ner-David
Meet Yonah, a quirky kid obsessed with fish, who is about to start kindergarten. The day before school starts, Yonah’s parents take her to the mikveh, a ritual immersion pool, to mark her transition from preschool to kindergarten. When her brother, who also went to the mikveh when he was starting kindergarten, tells her she’ll love the fish at the mikveh, she is excited to go. But when she goes into the pool to dunk, she can’t find the fish. Was her brother just teasing? Read Yonah and the Mikveh Fish to find out!
Yonah and the Mikveh Fish was born from the desire of Rabbi Haviva Ner-David and Cantor Rachel Stock Spilker, both involved in the open mikveh movement, to introduce the ritual of full body mikveh immersion to children and their families. Mikveh is an experiential and meaningful option for people of all ages to mark transitions, significant occasions, and life cycle events.
Over the past twenty years, there has been a mikveh renaissance in the progressive Jewish world. Open community mikvaot (plural of mikveh)—where people can immerse how and when they choose—are popping up around the globe. By following lovable Yonah at the mikveh as she prepares for kindergarten, children and adults will begin, we hope, to imagine going to the mikveh themselves.
"Yonah's dip in the mikveh before starting kindergarten gives children a loving, simple, kid-friendly, and clear introduction to this basic Jewish tradition. With this humorous and moving story, Rabbi Haviva Ner-David and Cantor Rachel Stock Spilker have filled a major gap in Jewish children's literature." -- Allison Slater Ofanansky, author of National Jewish Book Award winner The Patchwork Torah, and the more recent A Sweet Meeting on Mimouna Night and Esther Didn't Dream of Being Queen
"Yonah and the Mikveh Fish is a delightful book. Each page is a work of art, with expressive and adorable illustrations that bring the characters and story alive. What seems a simple tale is actually a deep, spiritual introduction to this ancient sacred ritual. There is so much heart in the words and images, you will fall in love and want to read the book again and again with the children in your life. But Yonah and the Mikveh Fish is not just for kids. It's for all who seek to deepen and expand our faith journey and get in touch with our inner playful and wonder-filled child." — Sister Monica Clare, Sister Superior, Community of St. John Baptist
Details
Details
Dragonfeather Books
32 pp. ● 8.5x8.5
$14.95 (pb) ● $5.99 (eb)
ISBN 978-1-960373-20-5 (pb)
JUVENILE FICTION / Religious / Jewish
JUVENILE FICTION / Social Themes / New Experience
JUVENILE FICTION / Social Themes / Religion & Faith
Publication date: March 14 2023
"The mikveh has been reborn. In this charming story about the new uses of mikvah, young readers are able to peer inside its welcoming waters with excitement and anticipation. This picture book will go a long way in also allaying the fears of anyone using the mikveh—for whatever reason—for the first time." — Rabbi Kerry Olitzky, former executive director of Big Tent Judaism (formerly Jewish Outreach Institute), author of many children’s books, including Miryam’s Dance (Apples and Honey Press) with Rachel Stock Spilker
"I love everything about this book. With delightful story-telling and illustrations, this joyful book for children is engaging and fun and—added benefit—ripples outward our understanding of what mikveh can be." — Rabbi Susan Silverman, author of Casting Lots: Creating a Family in a Beautiful, Broken World
"Yonah and the Mikveh Fish is a story that I had to read twice. I wasn’t familiar with the Open Mikveh Movement, so I was a little shocked on my first reading. After doing some research, I reread the story and thoroughly enjoyed it. Mikveh had been kept eexclusively in the purview of the traditional community and to realize that its evolving into a welcoming and celebratory experience for any Jewish family was exciting. If the children listening to the story have had a prior introduction to a mikveh and how it can be used, then the story will delight them, especially when they discover what the 'Mikveh fish' are and how yummy they taste. The illustrations move the story along and enhance the text nicely." — Sylvia Rouss, In My Preschool, There is a Time for Everything
“Mysterious mikveh fish helps educate kids about ritual bath” — The Times of Israel
Haviva Ner-David is an ordained rabbi and interfaith-interspiritual minister, with a doctorate in philosophy and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing. She runs Shmaya: A Mikveh for Mind, Body and Soul, where she officiates ritual immersion ceremonies and offers group workshops. A certified spiritual companion with a specialty and dreamwork, she works with individuals and couples. Rabbi Ner-David is the author of two previous spiritual journey memoirs (Life on the Fringes: A Feminist Journey Towards Traditional Rabbinic Ordination; and Chanah’s Voice: A Rabbi Wrestles with Gender, Commandment and the Women’s Rituals of Baking, Bathing and Brightening). Dreaming Against the Current: A Rabbi’s Soul Journey is her third. She is also the author of a novel, Hope Valley, and a guidebook for engaged couples, Getting (and Staying) Married Jewishly: Preparing for your Life Together with Ancient and Modern Wisdom (due to be published in 2022). Rabbi Ner-David is involved in peace work, promoting a shared society for Jews, Christians and Muslims in Galilee, where she lives with Jacob, her life partner of thirty-two years, their seven children, and their dog and cat. She also lives with a genetic muscular disease called FSHD, which has been one of her greatest teachers.
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