Repost III: Setting Up For the Bris

Just to make clear: This is not advice on how to set up the celebratory meal and/or buffet

The original post on this subject can be found here.

While the link above will suffice, just remember these few tips.

If there is a ceremony (as opposed to a very private affair), the bris should be in a prominent place in the room

There should be good lighting, so the mohel can see what he is doing!

Every mohel needs a table to lay out his supplies. It should be larger than a TV table. A card table or most folding tables are adequate.

There either need to be one or two chairs available - for the Chair of Elijah (Kisei Eliyahu). If the chairs available are barstool height, there should be some kind of stepstool available for the Sandak to put his legs so he can easily hold the baby. 

It is also very helpful for a private room to be designated or arranged (if in a venue outside of the home) for the mohel to examine the baby before hand and afterwards, particularly if he intends to check the bandage before leaving. 

Repost II: Planning the Bris Celebration Party (Budgeting tips as well)

You may or may not have been to a bris before. People have brisses in every kind of venue, from a synagogue to a JCC, a country club party room to a restaurant, a relative's (or friend's) house to the home of the baby.

Sometimes I joke that "I won't do a bris in a church" (even though I'm being serious, but it sounds funny).

There are a number of other celebrations that come with the birth of a boy - such as a Kiddush on Shabbos in Shul, a Shalom Zachar, or a Brit Yitzchak. Those are mentioned here

Now we will focus solely on the The Bris Itself 

The link above (two lines up) goes into detail, but here are a few things you'll want to consider.

How Elaborate? It's a matter of taste, size of guest list, and - of course - budget. 

Repost I: Planning in Advance

 Since this website is in blog form, unless people search for what they are looking for, some of the early blog posts don't get much attention - though that's where much of the important stuff is!

You can always go here for the most important info preparing you for the bris and the ceremony:

http://www.mohelinsouthflorida.com/2015/01/the-basic-information-all-you-need-to.html

Over the coming weeks, I'll be posting things that have been written before, in a little bit more of an organized fashion, so newcomers can find things closer to the top of the blog roll.

FIRST TOPIC: PLANNING IN ADVANCE (this first appeared here, in the first blog post ever!):

It is edited from there to reflect things I've seen and experienced since this was first written. 

PLANNING AHEAD  <-- That link is to a similar discussion of this nature

 Sometimes it is helpful - BEFORE baby comes - to think things out, to decide who will do what once baby arrives. 

Purchases - Baby Supplies

     * Car Seat 

If you're going to have a hospital birth, you'll need a car seat for that ride home (with a home birth, you won't need one until you're ready to take the baby somewhere!). 

What's The Rush? On Having Baby and Caring For Him

Disclaimer: I am only a mohel. I am not in the "birthing business." I leave that to the OBs and the Midwives. I am also not a doctor - though I do specialize in circumcision and care for the post-op circumcision spot.

Many years ago, I wrote this in response to a recall on Children's Tylenol, addressing (in layman's terms) whether Tylenol for a cranky post-bris baby was a good idea.

I've also given a few tidbits that I've picked up over the years, which I wrote about here. There's a link there to another article I wrote on this topic as well. It's mostly "parenting suggestions" for parents to get the most out of the experience of caring for the baby post-bris, and even longer term, such as how to avoid diaper rashes, misshaped heads, the question of feeding baby on a schedule... etc

To the medicating question, however, I'll add... WHAT'S the rush to medicate? Is the bandage too tight? Is there a bandage at all? Has the baby been fed? Is he able to urinate? Does he have a clean diaper? See that he is comfortable! Most babies ARE consolable after the bris. Most babies are FINE after the bris, when clean, fed, held, etc. 

EVERY medical intervention has potential, unanticipated side effects.  EVERY ONE. Tread with much caution. Read labels. Never make hasty decisions. Research. Don’t take one person’s word or advice without seeking information from other sources. 

Here I'd like to offer another anecdotal piece of advice, and that is to choose your health provider very carefully. 

A lengthy discourse on the significance of a Bris Milah Celebratory Meal

 I don't have the time to translate this right now... and some of it goes off on tangents that include the language of a Ketubah. But here is a comment on the meal held over the arrival of Yisro to the Israelite encampment, and specifically to Moshe's tent, where a meal was held in his honor. Some are of the view that the celebration was over Yisro's circumcision, thus making the meal a Celebratory Bris Meal! The author is Rabbi Yochanan Luria in his Meshivas Nefesh.

משיבת נפש שמות פרק יח פסוק יב 

(יב) ויבא אהרן וכל זקני ישראל לאכל לחם עם חתן משה וכו'. ראוי לדרוש לנישואין, גם מקצת לדרוש ברית מילה, וכן דרשתי. פירש"י ומשה היכן היה [כו'] אלא היה עומד ומשמש לפניהם, גם פי' על לפני האלקים מכאן שהנהנה מהסעודה שת"ח מסובים בה כאילו נהנה מזיו השכינה. לפי זה המקרא מסורס והיה ראוי פי' זה אם באו אחרים לאכול עם אהרן והזקינים. (מראה) [ונראה] לי שבכאן בא יתרו להתגייר שנאמר עתה ידעתי וכו', אמרו רז"ל במס' (תענית) וכריתות ובסמ"ג בסי' קי"ו שבג' דברים נכנסו אבותינו לברית, במילה וטבילה וקרבן וכו'. נ"ל גר הבא להתגייר צריך ג' דברים הללו, ולמדנו כולם מזאת הפרשה, מילה זאת היא סעודה של מצוה ע"כ אמר שבאו לאכל לחם לפני האלקים, ואמר ויבא אהרן וכל זקני ישראל ולא הזכיר משה, להודיענו שבא לטבול על פי הדיינים כמו משפט, וא"כ משה היה פסול לדיין. והרצאת דמים אמר בפירש ויקח יתרו עולה וזבחים.

Birkat Hamazon for a Bris

 Sometimes there are no bentchers.  And sometimes the bentchers don’t have the Bris Milah additions. 

So here is a nice website that has ALL versions of Birkat Hamazon, As well as a special button to click for a Bris 

ברכתהמזון.com

Included below is the Ashkenazic version

Give Thanks to God for He is Good

One of the features of the Bris Milah ceremony includes the recitation of the verse הודו לה' כי טוב כי לעולם חסדו, which is translated in the title above.  It seems strange to say this, since we hear a baby crying and can only imagine that he does not feel that what is going on is so good. 

Chizkuni on Parshas Shemos gives the following explanation for why we'd say הודו לה' כי טוב כי לעולם חסדו at a bris. In the context of baby Moshe being born, the Torah describes how he is seen to be GOOD ( טוב), and it based on the Midrashic notion that he was born without a foreskin, in other words, he was born circumcised: כי טוב הוא -  נולד מהול. ולפי שכתוב בו כי טוב על שם שנולד מהול נהגו העם לומר הודו לה' כי טוב על המילה

We mention the idea that we are experiencing כי טוב after the baby has been circumcised, because that is the way Moshe is described in the Torah as soon as it was discovered that he was circumcised. 

This makes this a blessing that the child is now on the same status as the baby who grew to become Moshe Rabbenu! That is indeed something worth celebrating - a celebration of incredible potential!

Another reference to giving thanks is cross-linked in this blog post: 

The Changing Landscape

The new year on the secular calendar is an apt time to reflect on where we're at in the MOHELINSOUTHFLORIDA.COM world.

When I moved to Florida 16.5 years ago, there were a handful of mohels that were the "go-to" mohels in South Florida. One has moved to another state. Another has pulled back from being as busy for personal reasons. Another remains the most experienced "go-to" in some communities, but not the only "go-to." Others have increased their clientele and have become more prominent/known/busy. Still a couple of others are limited in their clientele to particular counties, or primarily service a more uniform style of families  

Since that time, a number of mohels have moved to South Florida - in particular in the last five years - and have changed the landscape a bit. I can't say if the birthrate has changed. That's for the census people and the statisticians to look into. But more mohels definitely means the work is being spread around more.

On a personal note I have always found the summer time to be the busiest time of year - especially with teachers planning babies at that time, and other people planning to enjoy their newborns in the slower times that summer brings.

Assimilation - the good kind

 I was trained by a Sefardi Mohel in Israel, so I am quite comfortable with the Sefardic (or other Edot Mizrach) Brit ceremonies. Since Sefardim love to have great rabbis be the Sandak (though many will go the "traditional" route of having a grandfather fill that role), I was privileged to meet Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef many times, as well as Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi Doron, and even Rabbi Yitzchak Kaduri, who was close to 100 years old at the time, and lived to be somewhere between 103-108 (no one knows exactly when he was born).

A few Random Items With One Common Theme

The Importance of Bedside Manner

 Thank God, I had several brisses this week, and along with them had a few unique experiences, beyond dealing directly with the parents and the baby - which is of course run-of-the-mill (though always a different dynamic).

1. First Story

At one bris, a couple who had their son circumcised a few months ago on a Shabbos (with a different mohel) asked me about something the mohel had done on Friday. He used a Probe to separate the foreskin from the glans, somewhere between 16-20 hours before the bris. They wanted to know if this is normal. (a few things emerge from this: a. it is (in my opinion) unnecessarily uncomfortable to the baby, b. it causes swelling, c. it might cause the baby to bleed)

While there may be different feelings about this, I'll tell you how I answered.