Mendel Bluming | Blogger

As a parent, you need to make many decisions that will impact your child's future. Deciding whether to make a Bris is one of them. Here are the things you need to know before deciding what to do:    - A surgical circumcision is not a Bris. Apart from the missing blessings and prayers, the actual cut may be different. Which means one day when your son realizes that he didn't have a Bris, he may require a rather unpleasant procedure to get it fixed. A Bris is no big deal when you are a baby, but not quite as easy when you're older. - A Mohel is not an amateur. Quite the opposite. An experienced mohel does them almost daily, and has performed hundreds, or possibly thousands, over the years. The mohel who did my sons’ brisses claims to have done over 50,000. - Many Mohels are also medically qualified. Some are themselves surgeons, who will perform a Bris in their surgery rooms if you prefer.  - The risks involved with a bris or medical circumcision procedure are minim...

Question from a groom:    I understand the reason we break a glass at a wedding ceremony is to commemorate the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem some 2000 years ago. This indeed was a significant event in Jewish history, but it doesn't seem to have any personal relevance to me. What does a destroyed building have to do with my wedding? Here’s a Wedding/ Tisha B’Av thought: The destruction of the Temple has extreme personal relevance. It happened to you. The shattering of the glass commemorates not only the fall of Jerusalem, but also a cataclysmic shattering that happened to your very own temple, your soul. Before you were born, you and your soulmate were one - a single soul. Then, as your time to enter this world approached, G-d shattered that single soul into two parts, one male and one female. These two half souls were then born into the world to try and find each other and reunite. At the time, the split seemed tragic. Half of your soul went missing. What wa...