CLOSE-UP
The Covenant
Continued from preceding page
A HAPPY & HEALTHY
PASSOVER
Tools of the trade. Most mohelim serve an apprenticeship with
another mohel.
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ham sandwich today and stop
tomorrow. You can go to a
ball game on Shabbat, but
next week go to services. I
think they're afraid that it's
a blemish that can't be
fixed."
Circumcisions are per-
formed almost universally on
baby boys in the United
States. Although the current
belief is that removal of the
foreskin is not a necessary
aid to hygiene (except in hot
or tropical climates), circum-
cisions will probably remain
popular with the American
public. Explains local pediat-
rician Dr. Jeffrey Devries:
"The biggest correlate on de-
ciding whether to circumcise
a baby — in studies on cir-
cumcisions for non-Jews — is
the circumcision status of the
father." In other words, if the
father is circumcised, he will
probably want his son cir-
cumised as well.
Jews do not circumcise for
hygiene, but in response to
Divine command. Still, the
"normalness" of circumcision
in America may be one rea-
son that brit milah is so
popular among American
Jews.
Dr. Devries recently per-
formed a brit on his newborn
soh, Daniel. "I look upon it as
the obligation of the father,"
he says, explaining why he
did not leave the job to a
mohel. "If the father is un-
able, the responsibility can
then fall to the mohel."
"The mitzvah is that the
father should do the cutting,
not just say the blessings,"
adds his wife, Dr. Sheri De-
vries. "We want to provide
our children with a Jewish
upbringing, and that includes
doing Jewish practices."
Dr. Jeffrey Devries has per-
formed medical circumcisions
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Friday, April 10, 1987
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before. Nevertheless, Rabbi
Zachariash was present at
Daniel's brit to fasten the
magen clamp, a device not
used in hospital circumci-
sions.
How does it feel to emulate
the Patriarch and circumcise
one's own son? "At the second
I did it I wasn't nervous," he
answers. "But the 24 hours
preceding it, I had cold feet."
One local woman, who
asked not to be identified,
had a small gathering at her
second son's brit after having
a hospital circumcision for
her first son.
Although not religious, she
says her love of Jewish tradi-
tions convinced her to have
the brit. Other equally pow-
erful factors persuaded her
not to • have a brit the first
time around. "After going
through the birth, I didn't
feel physically like having a
big party in the house. I
didn't want 200 people brea-
thing on my son."
It is unclear whether there
is trend among American
Jews toward or away from
brit milah. Doctors, rabbis
and mohelim do agree that
families who opt for a hospi-
tal circumcision instead of a
brit tend to be non-observant
or intermarried. Brit milah is
"one of the things that goes
across the board in Jewish
life," maintains Temple Is-
rael's Rabbi Loss.
The only ideologically-
based opposition to the cove-
nant comes from the
(Humanistic) Birmingham
Temple's Rabbi Sherwin
Wine, who regards the brit as
a male chauvinist ritual.
"Our general policy is that
while we recommend circum-
cision for hygienic reasons,
we don't have a brit milah,"
he says. Instead, boys and