CLOSE-UP The Covenant Continued from preceding page A HAPPY & HEALTHY PASSOVER Tools of the trade. Most mohelim serve an apprenticeship with another mohel. FROM THE ENTIRE STAFF OF WALDRAKE PHARMA CY 5548 Drake Rd. • West Bloomfield * 661-0774 Studio In Harvard Row Mall - i 44 1 Q} I I I o NNW 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 , SP For A Limed Time 50%-70% OFF ALL NAME BRANDS RECEIVE A FREE MATCHING VALANCE ON ANY 1 00% Louver Drape Vertical Blind • Vertical Blinds • Levolor Blinds • Pleated Shades • Wood Blinds previoz orders excluded - 21728 W. Eleven Mile Rd. Harvard Row Mall Southfield, MI 48076 Free Professional Measure at No Obligation Free in Home Design Consulting 28 Friday, April 10, 1987 — I THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Hours: Mon.-Sat. 1 0-5 Thursday 10-8 352-8622 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