Les bains juifs aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles

Abstract

Jewish Baths — 12th-13th Centuries - Medieval Jewish communities, especially the large ones, would normally have a ritual bath as part of their sacred space. These mikvao't (singular : mikve or mikva) were supposed to render women ritually pure, and in some cases, men as well. Archeologists discovered such mikvao 't in Roman Palestine as well as in Western Europe of the high and later middle ages. The most elaborate of these is the one that exists in Speyer, Germany. It is also the most ancient example.