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What is it called when Jewish people get circumcised?
For thousands of years, Jewish families have marked the beginning of a boy’s life with a bris ceremony on the eighth day after birth. A bris includes a circumcision performed by a mohel, or a ritual circumciser, and a baby naming.
What is a certified mohel?
The mohel is specially trained in circumcision and the rituals surrounding the procedure. Many mohalim are doctors or rabbis (and some are both) or cantors and are required to receive appropriate training both from the religious and medical fields. Traditionally, the mohel uses a scalpel to circumcise the newborn.
What is a Jewish sandek?
sandek (plural sandeks) person honoured at a Jewish brit milah by holding the baby boy in his lap as the mohel performs the circumcision.
How do you become a certified mohel?
To become a mohel, one must receive religious and surgical training. The religious training is designed so you will understand brit milah in the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform movements and to view the mitzvah from a cultural and historical perspective.
Do you have to be a doctor to be a mohel?
Mohels, who typically perform circumcisions in private homes, can be doctors, but some are simply devout Jews—often, but not always, members of the clergy—who undergo technical training in order to learn how to perform the procedure.
What does a sandak do?
A sandek or sandak (Hebrew: סנדק “companion of child”) is a person honored at a Jewish brit milah (circumcision) ceremony, traditionally either by holding the baby boy on the knees or thighs while the mohel performs the brit milah, or by handing the baby to the mohel.
What is Kvater?
Kvater is a Yiddish term, also sometimes translated as “godfather,” for the man who, among Orthodox Ashkenazic Jews, takes the child from his mother, carries him into the room in which the circumcision is to be performed, and either hands the child to the sandak or places him in a chair from which he is handed to the …
How much do you pay a mohel?
Costs for a mohel’s services vary around the country. Currently in the Boston area mohel fees range from $500 to $700. In New York City that figure is $650-$850. Parents should know the fee their mohel is charging before engaging him or her so as to avoid any misunderstanding or embarrassment on the day of the bris.
Where can I find a mohel?
The best way to find a mohel is through a personal reference, whether a rabbi or a friend. Do not hesitate to call the local synagogue for the name of a mohel, even if you are not a member. If you choose a mohel through an ad, perhaps in a Jewish newspaper, be sure to get a few references.
Who performs a bris?
mohel
Traditionally a mohel is a rabbi, a cantor or another religious leader who performs the brit milah, or bris, a circumcision ceremony, on an 8-day-old Jewish boy. She found the options for her son’s bris less than appealing.
Do mohels use anesthesia?
Mohels have varied methods for comforting the baby, including a sugar solution, a drop of wine, or topical or injectable anesthesia. Physicians in the hospital may use topical or injectable anesthesia to make the baby more comfortable.
What is the difference between rabbi and rebbe?
Usage. Today, rebbe is used in the following ways: Rabbi, a teacher of Torah – Yeshiva students or cheder (elementary school) students, when talking to their teacher, would address him with the honorific Rebbe, as the Yiddish-German equivalent to the Hebrew word rabbi (רַבִּי rabi [ˈʁabi]).
What is the role of a Kvater?
In other communities, the kvater and kvaterin play a different role in the ceremony. They are a married couple, usually without children. The mother hands the baby to the kvaterin, who hands it to her husband, the kvater, who hands it to the baby’s father, who hands it to the sandek.