Tikkun – Ari Kristan
As a child, Tucker Lieberman could barely stand to take showers. When he passed the bathroom mirror, he would ?go into what almost seemed like a mild state of shock, with chills and painful, uncontrollable shaking? because the girl?s body that he saw didn?t accord with his understanding of himself as a young man. Even after having chest surgery, taking hormones, and living as a man for seven years, he avoided undressing in men?s locker rooms. Nonetheless, in March of 2005, he and a friend entered Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikvah and Education Center in Newton, Massachusetts, undressed, and experienced Judaism?s most intimate ritual?immersion in the mikvah (ritual bath).
Mikvah immersion can be a daunting experience for anyone whose body does not conform to commonly held expectations. It requires the participant to completely disrobe, enter a bath, and dip below the surface of the water. In immersions that are governed by Jewish law, such as for conversion or family purity, a guide must witness the ritual to ensure that the participant has immersed completely. The vulnerability involved in the process may be daunting for transgender people who, like Tucker, are born into bodies that do not match their gender identity. Along with this vulnerability, they face the knowledge that traditional communities would exclude transgendered people from the mikvah, and perhaps from their communities as well.