Colby Woodsmen Team member Zach McClimon carries a block of ice Sunday from a pond in Freeman Township. The Beth Israel Congregation in Waterville plans to use the ice in a community mikvah, a Jewish ritual bath. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

FREEMAN TOWNSHIP — On his family’s frozen pond Sunday morning, Austin Thorndike revved up his chain saw and made the first cut.

The water sprayed over his head, but Thorndike did not flinch as he made three more deep cuts into the ice, forming a square. He grabbed his ice tongs, wedged them into the water and pulled out an ice block weighing 50 pounds and striped with thick translucent layers.

More than 3 tons of ice were harvested Sunday by Jewish community leaders, families and a group of Colby College students. It is the second year that Beth Israel Synagogue in Waterville has harvested ice for its mikvah, a Jewish ritual bath used in rites of renewal and purification, including conversion ceremonies, before weddings or in times of transition.

While immersions happen frequently, the Waterville synagogue is unique in how it harvests ice from a frozen pond for mikvah water, Rabbi Rachel Isaacs said.

“It’s not something that most people do,” Isaacs said. “It’s just nice to do something Jewish that is physical and related to nature and outdoors, and it required a lot of teamwork and muscle, and that brought people together.”

The ice blocks were pushed, carried and sledded across the snow as students loaded them into Thorndike’s trailer for the hour’s drive to Waterville. At the synagogue, the ice would reach its destination: A limestone filtering space that allows water to flow into the adjoining mikvah pool.

Beth Israel Synagogue at 291 Main St. opened its mikvah last March. There is one other mikvah in Maine, making the Waterville synagogue a destination for those on the precipice of an important Jewish moment, such as conversion or marriage.

Volunteers slide blocks of ice Sunday toward Connor Ransom, left, a Colby College student and the captain of the Colby Woodsmen Team, which competes in timbersports, as Ransom loads the ice near the mikvah, a Jewish ritual bath, at Beth Israel Synagogue at 291 Main St. in Waterville. Volunteers harvested more than 3 tons of ice from a pond in Freeman Township for the mikvah. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

The catch is that the mikvah requires natural flowing water. There is no naturally occurring water under the synagogue, and leaders had concerns that using pipes to collect rainwater would cause them to freeze.

By Jewish law, standing water cannot be transported from another location and fed into the bath, but there is no rule against transporting ice, said Melanie Weiss, the executive director of Beth Israel Synagogue.

“You’re not allowed to transport Mayyim Hayyim, living water, for purpose of the mikvah,” Weiss said. “Lake ice is not water, but it was water and it will be water again.”

Thorndike, who lives in Avon, converted to Judaism at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. His only option for ritual immersion was a lake. The opening of Beth Israel Synagogue’s mikvah gave people another option, where the ice Thorndike harvests keeps the bath full all year.

It is rewarding to give other people a space to convert, Thorndike said.

“It’s nice that they can have a nice, comfortable way to convert to Judaism,” Thorndike said. “Because, honestly, even in July and August, the water in Maine is not nice, and I did it in October, so it was kind of like Navy SEAL training in the water. But it’s good that we (harvested the ice). There’s not been a mikvah come online in Maine in a long time, so it’s pretty cool to be part of that.”

Ice harvesting has long been a part of Maine’s culture. Before refrigerators, ice was the state’s biggest export.

Beth Israel Synagogue originally tried to contract with a company in Bristol last year to order ice for the mikvah, but the volume was too big and the ice too unreliable, Weiss said.

“We started exploring other options,” Weiss said. “And Austin said, ‘I know how to cut ice, and I would love to do this for the synagogue.’ It was so much fun that we decided that this would be a thing we did.”

Volunteers from Colby College in Waterville were rounded up to load the ice and deliver it safely to the mikvah, Weiss said. The volunteers were from Colby Hillel, part of Hillel International, the world’s largest Jewish campus organization, and from the Colby men’s rugby team and the Colby Woodsmen Team, which competes in timbersports.

“They’re going to do the schlepping,” Weiss said.

Tim Gatto, left, and Cameron Rogers, students at Colby College in Waterville and members of the Colby Woodsmen Team, which competes in timbersports, load blocks of ice Sunday that have been harvested from a pond in Freeman Township. Volunteers harvested more than 3 tons of ice from the pond for the mikvah, a Jewish ritual bath, at Beth Israel Synagogue at 291 Main St. in Waterville. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

Connor Ransom, the captain of the Colby Woodsmen, said the ice harvest Sunday was an opportunity for team members to give back to the community, while doing what they love: Cutting and hauling heavy things.

“It’s awesome to be able to do some volunteer work, and great to get people on the team out here to do that,” Ransom said. “It’s a lot of fun when we’re able to help do good for the town.”

Since opening, the mikvah at Beth Israel Synagogue has hosted about 50 immersions involving people from across Maine, Isaacs said. Five synagogues and the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine pay Beth Israel so their congregants can use the mikvah.

While mikvahs were historically used before marriage, before becoming Jewish and before sexual relations, the modern day use of the ritual bath has expanded to include many types of new beginnings, including gender transitions, graduations and bar and bat mitzvahs.

Noting and celebrating the passage of time is a big part of the religion, Isaacs said.

“A big part of Judaism is being able to say that certain time begins and other time ends,” Isaacs said. “And mikvah is a way to say, ‘One era has ended, and another has begun.’ It’s great in rural America because conversion is a feature of small-town and rural American Jewish life, so we need to do a lot of conversions.”

Thorndike’s talent for ice cutting and access to the frozen pond serve as a bridge for others looking to convert or start anew, Weiss said.

“He’s the only one who can do this for us,” Weiss said. “It’s a very special role to have.”