In the Florida News

The front page of the IsraPost for this week has the following headline: "The Cruel and Forbidden Clamp." Then in blood red letters, "ATTENTION PARENTS!"

This is followed by a subheadline which reads "Today, there are tens of thousands of Jewish boys who were not circumcised according to Jewish law because of the use of the clamp. It is also a device which has been proven to be highly dangerous. Here in Florida, there are few mohelim who uses (sic) this forbidden clamp."

The by line is "Yaron Amit" who quotes himself in the article, as "Rabbi Yaron Amit" an apparent expert in bris milah. Halfway through the article, he makes the bold claim that "Rabbi Yaron Amit never sees complications arising from infections or other problems when circumcisions are performed properly, according to Jewish law."

WHY I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THIS ARTICLE

Let me make clear that I am not a fan of clamps (see the second half of this posting). I have written about this before (including the potential danger of a clamp), and I have also demonstrated the different methods some use in doing circumcisions and bris milah.

I am aware of the Halakhic (Jewish Law) challenges to the clamps, and that rabbinic authorities have outlawed them and said they should not be used.

HOWEVER, unless there was absolutely ZERO blood at the bris (highly unlikely), the bris is valid at least b'dieved (once it was already done that way), if not l'chatchila (in the first place).

TO SAY thousands of boys do not have valid circumcisions is an affront to thousands of people.

It is clear to me that the writer has a polemic against the clamp. And that is fine. And if he has a problem with specific mohels who he was obviously thinking about when he penned this article, he needs to wake up and smell the free market that is the United States of America.

Should parents do research and know what they are getting into when they hire a mohel? Absolutely. Should he spell out for them the method he uses when he circumcises? Yes.

But this article in the newspaper is nothing more than a cheap sansationalist advertising scheme by the author, to try to scare people and get them to call him and his organization to provide their bris milah services. All at the expense of thousands of people regarding whom he claims their circumcisions are invalid. [While everyone is entitled to promote themselves, such as mohelinsouthflorida.com, it is a different story when you go ahead and make claims against the validity of others' brisses, or seek to put them out of business. I am all for encouraging mohels to change their habits, and of parents being informed of what they should demand of the mohels they hire.)

My final point is against the ridiculous comment I quoted above, and it is this:
* There are dangers in using a clamp as he describes (possibility of amputating the tip of the glans or worse) - if the operator is unskilled and doesn't know what he is doing. Or if he becomes indifferent and careless.
* There are also dangers in not using any protective device such as the 'shield', as some of the mohels the author likely recommends are guilty of doing - they estimate the skin tissue they remove without marking the edge of the foreskin, and in some cases do not use the Halakhically sanctioned Jewish shield (a metal plate with a slit down the middle) because they feel a freehand bris is most authentic.
* But worst of all he claims he has never seen an infection or complication from a bris performed properly, according to Jewish Law, which he has defined as being "without a clamp."

SO I AM going to make one thing clear. What brings about infection is lack of sterility: Not using gloves, putting a mouth on a baby, and not having a completely sterile technique. What brings about complications is an unskilled operator. Neither accusation has anything to do with the use of a clamp - it is all about whether the person performing the circumcision is a pro or an impostor, a hack, a shrew, or a sensationalist who claims his kind of circumcision is the only kind that is "kosher" and all else is "forbidden and unkosher." That he claims he "hasn't seen" cases is simply because people don't come to him with the bad cases. They go to the hospital emergency room and leave the mohel out of the equation. Who wants to go back to a mohel when the baby got infected because of what the mohel did? Who wants the mohel to fix up a complication he created?

The mohel business is sometimes a very dirty business. Some mohels engage in mohel bashing and claim others are "butchers" or "very bad mohels" or the "kind of guy you just don't want touching your baby." I am not interested in participating in this ridiculous fray of mohels.

He's YOUR baby, you have a right to choose whom you'll hire.
You have the responsibility to ask all the right questions to every mohel you interview before you settle on the one you want
And you also must take care to know what you are looking for to have the right kind of experience for your needs.  Always remember that the wrong attitude is not to ask.

See my frequently asked questions blog post, and the shorter version of the FAQ page