How Does the Jewish Ritual of Circumcision Work?

Okay, so, How do rabbis do circumcisions? All right. That’s a good one.

All right. This is a great question. I got to experience this firsthand because my son, though we’re not Jewish, was born in Israel and he was circumcised by a rabbi. Now, rabbis that do circumcisions actually have the term Mohel, m o h e l, and that’s all they do. And so this guy came over to our apartment and it was done in about 15 minutes. They have a very fast process for doing this, and it’s actually very pain-free for the baby. So typically, when a baby is born in a Jewish home, they wait until the eighth day to have a big party, and it’s called the Brit Milah, or it’s a cutting ceremony. Essentially that’s what Brit means, cutting of the covenant. And so people will come over to the house and everyone will stand around and the men will go and join in and they will watch this child be circumcised, and everyone will rejoice because they’re coming into the covenant that God made with the Jewish people. It’s a big party, and then they’ll announce the name of the baby and everyone will be happy and have fun. It’s like a baby shower only on the eighth day, and there’s some cutting involved with the young boy, so.