Meditations for a man who does not have access to a Mikveh

B”H

From the Baal Shem Tov

Recite the following four prayers prior to washing the hands

1. For the sake of the union of the Holy One, blessed is He, with His Shechinah, to unite the Name Yud-Kay with Vav-Kay in a perfect union in the name of all Israel, “I wash my hands in purity and circle around Your altar, O God” (Psalms 26:6). And may it be Your will, Lord our God and God of our fathers, that this washing of my hands is regarded as if I had immersed in a pure mikveh of forty se’ah, and may I merit to draw down water from the Supernal Clarity that is sealed with the large letter yud[1][of the Divine Name] in the verse “And now may the strength of My Lord be magnified” (Numbers 14:17). (This explicitly excludes Aza and Azael, the spawn of Agras, who is Lilith).

• May it be Your will, Lord my God and God of my fathers, that the power of this propitious act of washing transform the attribute of strict justice and gevurah (harshness) – the gematria (numerical value) of which is 216 exactly equal to nikayon (cleanliness) – into the attribute of rachamim [compassion, the gematria of which] equals rachatz, ‘wash’, and with one added [called the kollel for the word as a whole] equals erchatz, as in the verse, “I wash [erchatz] my hands in purity and circle around Your altar, O God” (Psalms 26:6).

• And may it be Your will, Lord our God and God of our fathers, that by the power of this propitious act of washing [the hands] may there be sweetened with compassion the harsh judgments alluded to in the verse “God called the dry land, ‘Earth’” (Genesis 1:10), and may the name Ehyeh with the hai filling letters[2] shine upon me [thus]: אלף הה יוד הה which have the same gematria as mikve”h [=151], and may this intention arise before You as if I had immersed in a pure mikveh of 40 se’ah.
• And thus may it be Your will, Lord my God and God of my fathers, that just as I purify myself below, so too may my soul be purified above in Nahar di Nur, and by way of the Holy Name [in the verses] (Isaiah 26:4) “In the Lord (Yah), God (Adonai), is the might of the world.” (Psalms 90:17) “May the pleasantness of the Lord (Adonai), our God (Eloheinu), be upon us; our handiwork, establish for us; the work of our hands, establish it”.

After this he should wash his hands, concentrating on the letters of the Name of 72 letters  יוד הי ויו היeach letter on both hands, consecutively, starting with the right hand, then left, then right etc.

1) Right hand	י	Yud	2) Left hand	י	Yud
3) Right hand	ו	Vav	4) Left hand	ו	Vav
5) Right hand	ד	Dalet	6) Left hand	ד	Dalet
7) Right hand	ה	Hai	8) Left hand	ה	Hai
9) Right hand	י	Yud	10) Left hand	י	Yud
11) Right hand	ו	Vav	12) Left hand	ו	Vav
13) Right hand	י	Yud	14) Left hand	י	Yud
15) Right hand	ו	Vav	16) Left hand	ו	Vav
17) Right hand	ה	Hai	18) Left hand	ה	Hai
19) Right Hand	י	Yud	20) Left hand	י	Yud

Following this he should pour ten times on the right hand first, concentrating on the following letters with each pouring:

1) Right hand	י	Yud
2) Right hand	ו	Vav
3) Right hand	ד	Dalet
4) Right hand	ה	Hai
5) Right hand	י	Yud
6) Right hand	ו	Vav
7) Right hand	י	Yud
8) Right hand	ו	Vav
9) Right hand	ה	Hai
10) Right Hand	י	Yud

Then he should pour ten times on the left hand, concentrating on the following letters with each pouring:

1) Left hand	י	Yud
2) Left hand	ו	Vav
3) Left hand	ד	Dalet
4) Left hand	ה	Hai
5) Left hand	י	Yud
6) Left hand	ו	Vav
7) Left hand	י	Yud
8) Left hand	ו	Vav
9) Left hand	ה	Hai
10) Left Hand	י	Yud

Then he should recite the following:

(Yoma 85b): “Rabbi Akiva declared, “Fortunate are you O Israel, for before Whom are you purified, and Who purifies you? Your Father in Heaven, as the verse (Ezekiel 36:25) states, ‘Then I will sprinkle pure water upon you, that you may be cleansed; I will cleanse you from all your contamination and from all your idols.’ And [the verse] Jeremiah (17:13) states: ‘God is the mikveh of Israel’[3] – just as a mikveh purifies the impure, so too the Holy One, blessed is He, purifies Israel.”

Rabbi Nochum of Chernobyl ztz”l preferred to recite this paragraph instead, from Tractate Berachos 15a with Rashi’s commentary:

Rabbi Chiya bar Abba said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: Anyone who empties his bowels and then washes his hands and puts on tefillin and recites the Shema and then prays [the Amidah prayer] is regarded by the Torah as is he built an altar and offered up an offering, as it states (Psalms 26:6): “I wash my hands in purity and circle around Your altar, O God.” Rava said to him, “Isn’t the master of the opinion that it is as if he immersed himself [in a mikveh], since it is written, ‘erchatz’ [I will immerse in purity], not ‘architz’ [I will wash… my hands]?

Rashi comments: It is written  אֶרְחַץ בְּנִקָּיוֹן[I will immerse in purity], which implies [that I will immerse] the entire body, and it is not writtenאַרְחִיץ כַּפָּי [I will wash, implying the hands only]. Accordingly, this comes to teach us something additional – that washing the hands is regarded as if he immersed his entire body!

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[1] There is an entire alphabet throughout Tanach of letters larger than regular letters. According to the Zohar vol. 2 pp. 132b; 180b; vol. 3 pp. 2a, 165a; Tikunei Zohar 104b these letters are from the sefirah of binah (rather than malchus) and their ultimate source is in keser.

[2] ‘Filling letters’ – the letters of the Holy Names (e.g. Ehyeh) can be spelled out in full – Aleph, Hai, Fai for aleph; etc.

[3] The straightforward translation of mikveh in the verse is ‘hope.’ But Rabbi Akiva teaches the deeper allusion of the word – a pool of water for purifying those tainted by spiritual impurity.