The first time I heard about manicured nails as an impediment to mikvah was a dozen years ago in a Kallah teachers-training class taught by Rebbetzin Peshi Neuburger, a legend in the world of kallah education. I don’t mean a halachic impediment – I mean an impediment for a woman who might refuse to remove her manicure before immersion. I was younger, then, and certain-er, and I thought this frivolous. Were your nails more important than this foundational halachic observance? I couldn’t imagine who would feel that way, or act on it.
I’m now at the end of a four-year course of study in the International Halacha Scholars’ Program for women of Midreshet Lindenbaum. Our last year of study has covered the laws of niddah, from the canonical sources of the halacha in pesukim and the Gemara through contemporary poskim. But we have also heard and read from yoatzot halacha and women Torah leaders about their experience guiding women through the lived practice of halacha.
A manicure is still not all that important to me. But I understand more about the women for whom it is – both in its presence as a basic element of personal grooming, and in its absence as an announcement to the world that you’ve just gone to mikvah. I know more about the halacha, and the room that it has for not considering a well-maintained manicure (especially long-lasting ones) as a chatzitza. And most importantly, I have learned (re-learned?) one of the fundamental lessons of adulthood: that my experience is not everyone’s, and that what is necessary or unnecessary for me is not a benchmark of what is necessary or unnecessary for everyone.
