There are many traditions and customs practiced in our community and in most Sephardic communities at the time of the Berit Milah.

Among them:

The father of the baby and the Sandak (the person honored to hold the baby as, the Mohel performs the circumcision), both wear a Talit for the ceremony.

After the Berit, all guests are welcome to come to the Sandak and receive a personal blessing from him. The Sandak should prepare himself for this special moment, bearing the merit and responsibly involved in blessing properly each individual.

The family of the baby brings red apples and distributes them among the male guests, after the Berit.

Some families in our community have the custom to do the Berit Itzchak, the night before the Berit Mila. This ceremony takes place after Arbit. In preparation for the Berit Mila the attendees read some texts from the Torah, the Talmud and excerpts from the Zohar. These texts refer to the importance of the Berit Milah, beginning of course, with Abraham Abinu. At the end of the ceremony, the attendees bless the baby and wish him and his family HaShem’s blessings.

In some Ashkenazi communities, the night before the circumcision, young children come to the home of the newborn baby and recite Torah verses. This ceremony is called vacht nacht in Yiddish, “night of watching.

The morning of the Berit, the father should make every effort to attend services (Shacharit) before the Berit.

Our community custom is that, when somebody in the community has a Berit Mila, even if he himself is not present there, we skip the recitation of ANA (Viduy-confession) in all of the community Minyanim (for Shacharit only!).

Today is the 29 of Iyar, 5771/ 44 days of Omer, 5771

One of the first rabbinic luminaries to arrive to America in colonial times was Rabbi Raphael Chaim Yitzchak Karigal. Rabbi Karigal was born in 1732 in the ancient Sephardi kehillah of Hebron in Eretz Israel.

In 1772 Rabbi Karigal arrived to Newport, Rhode Island, a major Jewish community in the colonial era. The Newport kehillah – “Kahal Kadosh Yeshuat Yisrael” – had been founded in 1658, the second Jewish community to be established in North America. (New York had been the first, in 1654.) Like all colonial kehillot, it followed Sephardic practices in both minhag and organizational structure. The beautiful Touro Synagogue, which was constructed by the kehillah in the 1800’s, is still standing. It is a National Historical Site and the oldest synagogue extant in the United States. The outstanding beauty of its architectural lines is still impressive today.

In Newport, Rabbi Karigal was received with great honor, as the most outstanding talmid hakham to have visited the town until then. While in Newport, Rabbi Karigal came into contact with one of the leading non-Jewish intellectuals of colonial life, Rev. Ezra Stiles. Stiles was president of Yale College (click HERE to read “How Hebrew came to Yale”) and a famous Protestant minister. He was very impressed with the demeanor and bearing of Rabbi Karigal and left detailed descriptions of Rabbi Karigal and his actions in his letters and diary. The character and learning of a true talmid chacham were so unusual in eighteenth century America that Stiles became one of Rabbi Karigal’s greatest admirers. He asked him many questions concerning the Jewish religion and the Hebrew language and carefully recorded the answers he received.

On account of the nature of its content, it is generally designated in English as the “Ethics of the Fathers”.

The use of the word Abot (=fathers), in the title, is of very ancient date. There are various explanations for it. Samuel de Uceda, in his collective commentary Midrash Shemuel, says that as this tractate of the Mishnah contains advice and good counsel, which, for the most part, come from a parent, the Rabbis mentioned in it adopt the role of “fathers,” and are therefore so designated. Additionally, this treatise is the basis of all subsequent ethical and moral teachings and doctrines, and the Rabbis are, in consequence, the “fathers” or prototypes of all ethical teachers and moralists that will come after them.

Rabbi Gershom Mendes Seixas was born in New York on January 15, 1745. He was the son of Isaac Mendes Seixas and Rachel Levy, both descendants of Sephardic families who emigrated from Portugal and Spain to the New World, settling in the small but influential Jewish community of New York.

His father, Isaac, was a merchant and one of the founders of Shearith Israel, the oldest synagogue in North America.

From a young age, Gershom dedicated himself to the study of Torah. At that time, there were no yeshivot or rabbinical centers in America, but he studied Torah, Tanakh, and Jewish tradition with local teachers and books brought from Europe. Although he lacked formal rabbinic studies, due to his knowledge, fluency in Hebrew, and leadership, he was appointed as hazzan (cantor), preacher, and religious guide at Shearith Israel—a role that in Sephardic communities was equivalent to that of Hakham or Rabbi .

Education and Religious Leadership

He was fluent in English and Hebrew and had knowledge of Spanish and Portuguese, reflecting his Sephardic heritage. In 1768, at just 23 years old, he was appointed hazzan and religious leader of Shearith Israel. During the War of Independence, his leadership was put to the test. The Jewish community was divided between loyalists to the British Crown and patriots. Gershom firmly supported independence. When British troops occupied New York in 1776, he left the city along with other patriots, relocating to Philadelphia.

Patriotism and Service in Philadelphia

In 1780, he left Stratford and settled in Philadelphia, the revolutionary capital. There he was appointed hazzan and rabbi of Mikveh Israel, the second oldest congregation in the United States. During the critical years of the war, he officiated, preached, and kept Jewish religious life alive in the community. When the war ended and New Yorkers began to return, Mikveh Israel did not want to let him go, but Seixas returned to New York, where he would reside for the rest of his life.

Family and Personal Life

He had two children with his first wife, Elkaleh Cohen. After her passing, he married Hannah Manuel, with whom he had ten children. His descendants continued to be influential in American Jewish life, maintaining the Seixas surname as a symbol of Sephardic pride.

His brothers were also prominent figures in Jewish communal and American civic life:

• Isaac Mendes Seixas was an officer in the New Jersey militia during the American Revolution and fought in George Washington’s army. He died in 1780.
• Moses Mendes Seixas was a successful merchant and president of the Jewish community in Newport, Rhode Island. He received George Washington and wrote a very famous letter to the first American president.
• Benjamin Mendes Seixas was a successful merchant and a founder of the New York Stock Exchange.

Community and Civic Roles

His duties as hazzan were not limited to leading prayers. He was also responsible for education, circumcision, kosher ritual slaughter (shechita), and was the main religious and community authority of New York’s Jews, a small and united community.

Seixas also represented Jews to broader society. Between 1784 and 1815, he served as a Regent of Columbia College alongside figures such as Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, being the first Jew to hold such a position at an American university. He held this post for over three decades, reflecting the integration of Jews into American civic life.

Sermons and Teachings

A distinctive feature of his service at Shearith Israel was his custom of delivering sermons in English, something that reflected his new role as a comprehensive spiritual guide and would be vital for his influence in his American homeland.

Members of the congregation transcribed and preserved his sermons.

Among them stand out:

• His prayer for Thanksgiving Day in 1789, where he spoke of the duty of Jews to thank God for living in a country of freedom.
• His Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur messages, emphasizing moral responsibility and the importance of mitzvot as a guarantee of Jewish continuity.

He died on July 2, 1816, in New York at the age of 71, and was buried in the old Shearith Israel cemetery. Today, he is remembered as the first American Jewish leader to openly support independence—a patriot who trusted that the United States would be a place where Jews could practice their religion with freedom and dignity.

As historians note, “Seixas was to American Judaism what George Washington was to the United States: a founding father.” His life and legacy symbolize the integration of Jews into America without ever renouncing their faith and traditions.

At George Washington’s inauguration, he offered the following prayer, reflecting both his patriotism and faith

April 30, 1789 | Congregation Shearith Israel, New York

 

“Our God and God of our fathers: We implore You to pour out Your blessings upon the President of the United States and upon all those in authority under him. May they be strengthened with Your power to fulfill the duties of their respective offices with honesty and integrity. May they be guided by wisdom, advised by understanding, and sustained by Your strength.

May this government be a blessing to all the inhabitants of this land; may it promote the honor of Your holy Name and knowledge of You and Your law, so that justice and peace prevail, truth flourish in the days of our lives, and we may be allowed to see the coming of the Redeemer in peace. Amen.”

Today is the 21st day of Iyar, 5771/ 36 days of Omer (5 weeks, 1 day)

Maimonides tells us that we should care for the intellectual development of our children, instructing them in the principles of our faith. For Maimonides, intellectual development, is a prerequisite and the key for the right spiritual development.

“We must teach our children that God is One, which means among other things, that we must not serve or consider the existence of any other supernatural power. God Almighty is the only one to Whom we should direct our prayers….”

“Then, we teach them that God Almighty does not posses a body, and that there is no resemblance whatsoever between Him and His creatures.”

“We should expect our children to challenge this last assumption, because in the Torah and Prophets there are verses which seemingly imply that God has a body (=the Torah mentions: “the Hand of God; and God saw; and God appeared, etc.”). We must clarify to them that certain words in the Torah should be understood in a metaphorical way. And certain terms should be understood as mere homonyms (=words that are written the same way, but have a different meaning)…”

“Our children should learn to follow the teachings of the Oral Law, found among other books in the “Targum Onkelos” (=the official Jewish translation of the Torah–to Aramaic– written almost 2000 years ago, which Maimonides considered an integral part of the Jewish Oral Law or Torah shebe’alpe)”

Adapted from MORE NEBUKHIM, Section 1, Chapter 35 -36.

Click HERE to watch Benjamin Netanyahu, addressing the US Congress (May 24th, 2011)

Last week we explained the importance of Berit Mila, the signal of Jewish identity of a Jewish male, in its reproductive organ. (The Jewish female, says rabbi Melamed, is herself –or her womb– the symbol of Jewish identity. Because Jewishness is transmitted/”reproduced” exclusively via the mother :only when the mother is Jewish, the baby is Jewish as well).

The Berit Mila is performed eight days after the baby is born. It is critical to know at what time exactly the baby was born. Illustration: Sunset (sheqia) in NYC is today at 8.13PM. If a baby is born before 8.13 PM the brit Mila will be done next Monday. But if is born after 8.42PM–(nighttime, 3 stars in NYC, for most opinions) the Berit Mila will be next Tuesday. Now, if the baby was born in between sunset and nightfall (twilight, ben hashemashot), a Rabbi or an expert Mohel should be consulted to establish if the Berit Mila should be performed Monday or Tuesday.

The Berit Mila ceremony should take place only during daytime, since the Torah specifically indicated bayom hashemini,.. “on the eighth day” (=daytime). Even when the Berit Mila is postponed, and not done on the eighth day, it should be done during daytime.

Ideally, the ceremony should be scheduled early in the morning, after Shacharit service. Jewish tradition says that one should be eager to perform a Mitzvah (zerizim makdimim laMitzvot). This is the standard Sephardic Minhag. Other Rabbis would say that the Berit Mila could be done in the afternoon, anytime before sundown, if more people -especially close relatives- will be able to attend the ceremony.

Berit Milah, means the “covenant of circumcision,”. It is the first Mitzva commanded to our patriarch Abraham (Bereshit 17:14) and the most important sign of Jewish identity of a Jewish male.

The Berit Mila is performed on a baby boy, usually eight days after he is born. It involves the removal of the foreskin by a Mohel, a ‘circumcision surgeon’, specially trained to safely perform the procedure.

The Berit Mila is called popularly by one word. In Yiddish they call it: “Bris” and in most Sephardic communities: “Mila”.

If the eighth day falls on a Shabbat, the Berit Mila is still performed. According to our tradition the performance of Berit Mila in its due time, overrides Shabbat. Still, except for what is needed for the actual performance of the circumcision, the rest of the Laws of Shabbat are not suspended.

Sometimes circumcision must be delayed and in extreme cases (hemophilia), suspended. If a doctor or an experienced Mohel considers that the baby is still not physically ready for the circumcision, the Berit Mila needs to be postponed until the baby is physically fit for it.

Examples:

The typical case of delayed circumcision is when the baby is premature and or less than 6 pounds (this criteria varies slightly according to different schools). Other common reason to delay the circumcision is jaundice, (yellowish skin) a temporary disease, that might affect as many as 60% of all newborn babies.

A doctor should be always consulted as to when the circumcision might be done.