A Long-Term Care Reminder

One question that comes up a lot, particularly when a baby boy is 4-12 months of age is, "Why doesn't it look circumcized?" (I get this a lot more often when I wasn't the mohel, but every now and then if I was)

In most cases, "it" actually does look circumcised, except that a minor issue needs to be tweaked.

Before I continue, let me be clear that this may be difficult to understand without the visual image, but I will do my best!

Clench your fist, and look at the profile of your arm. Imagine the fist is the glans, and your arm is the penile shaft, and you understand what the penis should look like from the side. The glans should sit above the shaft, and its outer rim should be completely separate and distinct from the shaft.

UNFORTUNATELY, not all parents realize this should be the case, until it is slightly too late.

What do I mean by slightly too late? I mean

Let's Talk About Honorariums

From thefreedictionary.com:

hon·o·rar·i·um (n-râr-m)
       n. pl. hon·o·rar·i·ums or hon·o·rar·i·a (--)
A payment given to a professional person for services for which fees are not legally or traditionally required.
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In traditional sources, Jewish professionals - rabbis, teachers, mohels, shochets (ritual slaughterers), sofers (scribes who write Torahs, Tefillin and Mezuzahs) are not really supposed to take payment for their services rendered.
 
Practically speaking, if these people are not independently wealthy from other endeavors, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who would continue to work in these fields. In other words, if this is their full-time line of work, or something they do from which they rely on "supplemental income," then it is important to see that they are paid appropriately for services rendered.