In some religions, membership or conversion is sealed with a so-called baptism. But is it really necessary and why?

In Jewish culture there is talk of the mikveh. The mikveh is an immersion bath consisting of a basin through which fresh, natural, unprocessed (living) water flows. The mikveh can be any lake, sea, ocean, river or even stream if it is deep enough at that point. The mikveh is entered completely naked and one should be completely immersed in the water for at least a moment, but without touching any part of the body to the floor, walls or water surface of the mikveh.

In the mikveh, diving is not only done for Giur, i.e. religious conversion, but also on various other occasions, such as women after each menstrual phase or birth and men on certain festivals, for example before every Shabbat or before Yom Kippur. For example, Hasids go to the mikveh every day before morning prayers and do tevilah. You should also do Tevila after contact with a dead body or an unclean animal, which is why keeping certain pets is somewhat controversial.

Diving in the Mikveh (Tevila) is considered a ritual purification of man before the Creator. So before you go into the mikveh, you shower or bathe thoroughly with soap and you also prepare well by taking off all jewelry and doing your hair and nails so that you are physically as clean as possible, of course and fine, for purification in the spirit!

Christian baptism was derived from this, which unfortunately has little trace of its origins left. There is no children's mikvah. So infant baptism also seems nonsensical and serves purely to secure the continued existence of church members.

In Judaism, however, there is not only the mikveh where ritual cleansing takes place. Netilat-Jadaijm (clean hands) is the term that prescribes the ritual cleansing of the hands. The Eternal has commanded us to wash our hands! Not just to clean, but to ritually cleanse. This practice was described by King Solomon (Shlomo) and shows us that the Creator cares about how we treat our bodies.

When ritually washing your hands, you first wash your hands thoroughly with soap. Then take a two-handled cup with a flat rim, i.e. without a spout, and fill it with cold, clear water. First pour the contents of the cup three times over one hand, then three times over the other hand including the wrists. Then the blessing is said: "Blessed are You, Eternal, our Lord, Ruler over all, who sanctifies us with His commandments and has commanded us to wash our hands."

You do this before every meal, including snacks, before every prayer, before a blessing (hence three times, as a reminder of the three "before"). But you also do it “after” some things. For example, after sleeping, after sexual intercourse, after touching unclean or dead material such as fingernails, toenails, hair, blood, semen, insects, ... but also after eating and after going to the toilet.

Unfortunately, it is not known how the people who traveled through the desert for over forty years did this. But the thousands of people also had to drink something, so somehow there must have been sufficient sources of water that were also sufficient for Tevila and Netilat-Jadaijm. The desert was probably not as desolate as it is today. Some learned speakers from Miriam's sources, who accompanied the people.

So do we still need the Tevila and Netilat-Jadaijm today? Naturally. But everyone has to answer for themselves whether the water from the tap is not enough, since there was no such thing in the past. It is important to keep the mind pure. Rituals can be very helpful at this point. Consistently following the rituals can demonstrably alleviate fears and insecurities. The psyche definitely also plays an important role. But the Eternal also gave us the psyche, so why not care for it as HE told us? Yeshua said he was “living water.” Shouldn't we then "purify" ourselves through his words and example? He set an example for us to imitate. He washed feet! Shouldn't we do the same then? Not just our own hands, not just our bodies as a whole, but also the feet of those around us? Yeshua's cousin Jochanan said that he himself baptizes with water, but his successor (Yeshua) will baptize with fire. The “baptism of fire” means that we purify ourselves spiritually and thereby enter into the community of faith with the Eternal, our Creator. In doing so, we uncover the powers of the Holy Spirit, i.e. God's Word, in our souls! The fire symbolizes on the one hand the word of God, with which we should fill our spirit, but on the other hand it also symbolizes the power that this purification through the word has.

We must say goodbye to the idea of sealing conversion into a religion with baptism. That was never the purpose! John "baptized" the people, not by sprinkling them with some water, but by presumably leading the people to purify their hearts and then perform a tevila. Not to become a "Christian" or even to demand taxes or duties from them, but to be able to stand spiritually "pure" before the Eternal and then accept his commandments and thus come into his covenant! By the way, John never ate grasshoppers. Firstly, because insects are considered "unclean". And secondly, this is a translation error. He ate carob from the carob tree. This is probably where the name of the tree comes from, which was widespread in the region where John the "Baptist" (should be called John the Teviler) traveled and worked and is really very nutritious and delicious.