As mentioned above, it is the woman who is entrusted with the mission of bringing back that elusive degree of harmonious perfection which Adam and Eve experienced before their sin. We find an allusion to their assignment in the Hebrew word for woman, ishah.  The first two letters form the word aish, which means “fire” or the light of the soul. We find in the Kabbalah that the third, and final letter of the word ishah, hai, represents the physical world.

It is the woman's privilege and task to bring the spiritual, the soul, the aish, into the materialistic, physical world. She does this by setting the physical realm alight with spirituality by imbuing it with the flame of her soul. She immerses her body, the physical casing of her soul, in the waters of the mikveh in order to renew her link with that world in which body and soul co-exist in perfect harmony, the world which is beyond the grasp of evil and of death. It is from this world that the soul she and her husband share was hewn. Her immersion ensures that her re-union with her husband will bear the sublime scent of the Garden of Eden. It will be a recombination of two parts of one entity, in eternal love.

It is to such a union that we refer during the wedding ceremony, when we beseech G-d to “Gladden the beloved companions, as You gladdened your creature (Adam) in the Garden of Eden...” This blessing refers to the joy of Adam when he discovered that the Creator had provided him with a companion who was suited to him exactly.

With this new understanding of the meaning of mikveh, we come to a deeper appreciation of the significance of the woman's immersion each month. As mentioned above, the woman's visit to the mikveh is a function of her monthly cycle. Each month, the couple refrain from physical contact from the time when the woman's monthly period begins. This temporary separation continues until the wife counts seven “clean days” during which she does not experience any flow of blood. On the evening of the seventh day, before the couple renew their physical bond, the woman immerses in the mikveh. She also offers up a prayer that the Creator, the Source of holiness, imbue the renewed intimacy between her husband and herself with sanctity.

The woman's monthly cycle necessitates a visit to the mikveh every thirty days or so. This is because of the whisper of death inherent in an unfertilized egg, a potential for new life that was not realized. This process has been researched extensively by scientists who ponder why the body builds up, and then destroys, an ideal environment for the nurturing of a new life. This process is repeated, again and again, month after month, year after year. Science views this repeated preparation of a cradle for a new life and its subsequent discharge from the body, as a proof of inefficiency. Why not build up the lining of the womb only once, and then keep it in a constant state of readiness to nurture a fertilized egg?

The Torah gives us the answer. After Adam and Eve sinned, both were punished. The Creator told Eve: “I will greatly increase your suffering and your childbearing. In pain shall you bear children… yet, your craving will be for your husband, and he will rule over you” (Genesis 3:16).

Let us add that every stage of the monthly cycle and all the myriad physiological changes which accompany pregnancy – the increasing and decreasing excretion of various hormones, the expansion and contraction of muscles, all take place in a manner which provides the maximum care for an embryo to develop, for the fetus to grow, for giving birth and for nursing the infant. All is marvelously calculated so as to function efficiently in aiding the woman to fulfill her potential as the mother of the coming generation.