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If a woman is going to the mikvah for herself and has a utensil that also has to be dipped in the mikvah, is there any halachic or public policy reason she can't take it with her?

Possible reasons I can think of:

  • Since she's going to a mikvah for a chiyuv kareis, maybe she shouldn't be touching unnecessary things, analogous to מטבילין כלים בתוך כלים לתרומה אבל לא לקדש.
  • I could imagine that mikvaos might make a blanket rule against dishes to avoid somebody showing up with service for 12 and delaying other people, or (thanks @MichoelR) with something that could break and lead to danger. (Obviously every mikvah can set its own policy, but is there a standard rule?)

If it is allowed, can the same bracha על הטבילה cover both the person and the utensil?

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    Yeah, and people drop things at a keilim mikveh and you get broken glass around. Bad.
    – MichoelR
    Aug 31 at 15:36

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This is an excellent question. Here are some thoughts that may help.

The practicality of the situation is somewhat hard to get, since she would have to leave go during the tevila and going that would obviate make it hard to be able retrieve afterwards.

Having said that, there are some halachic issues to consider as well. Firstly, the question of the bracha. If a separate bracha must be made, there’s an issue of making a bracha while undressed. Also it will be hefsek between the first bracha and the tevila if you say another bracha in between. The bracha of Al hatevila can be used, bdieved, for keilim according to the Pri Chadash YD 120:10 (end of the piece). However, there may be a problem of “chavilos” which means combining two separate mitzvohs into one bracha.

More practically, after she finishes her tevila she can wrap herself in a towel and then do the tevilas keilim afterwards. However most mikvaos do not allow keilim to bebe brought in due to safety concerns. They don’t allow it into the bor either because pieces can get through the filter, or they can break the filter.

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  • In terms of chavilos, is it different than one bracha for multiple utensils?
    – Heshy
    Aug 31 at 22:38
  • Yes. Multiple keilim are all one Mitzvah whereas the woman herself is an entirely separate mitzvah
    – Chatzkel
    Aug 31 at 23:16
  • It's not obvious to me that they're entirely separate. They're related. It's not like you said a single bracha על הנטילה on both washing hands and shaking a lulav.
    – Heshy
    Aug 31 at 23:20
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    @Chatzkel They seem at least as related as eruv techumin and eruv tavshilin and eruv chatzerot, but acharonim say you can say one blessing 'al mitzvot eiruvin'
    – Double AA ♦
    Sep 1 at 0:27
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    I agree @שלום . I have never heard chavilos used to proscribe using one blessing to be motzi multiple things. Consider tefillin. Or shema (and birkat hatorah)
    – Double AA ♦
    Sep 1 at 3:27

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