A
mohel (
Hebrew:מוהל,
plural mohelim, pronunciation:
moy'el,
mo'hel) is a
Jewish person trained in the practice of
Brit milah (circumcision).
Biblical origins
For Jews, circumcision is mandatory, as it is prescribed in the
Torah:
*In the Book of Genesis as a mark of the Covenant between God and the descendants of Abraham: "Throughout all generations, every male shall be circumcised when he is eight days old...This shall be my covenant in your flesh, an eternal covenant. The uncircumcised male whose foreskin has not been circumcised, shall have his soul cut off from his people; he has broken my Covenant" and
*In Leviticus: "God spoke to Moses, telling him to speak to the Israelites: When a woman conceives and gives birth to a boy ... on the eighth day, the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised."
Functions
Biblically, the infant's father (avi haben) is commanded to perform the
circumcision himself. However, as most fathers are not comfortable or do not have the training, they designate a mohel as a delegate. The mohel is specially trained in circumcision and the rituals surrounding the procedure. Many mohelim are doctors or
rabbis (and some are even both) or
cantors. However, all are required to receive appropriate training both from the religious and medical fields.
Traditionally, the mohel uses a knife and not scissors to circumcise the newborn; glass was never used. Today, doctors and some non-Orthodox mohalim use a perforating clamp before they cut the skin. The clamp makes it easier to be precise and shortens the recovery time. However, Orthodox mohalim have rejected perforating clamps, arguing that by crushing and killing the skin it causes a great amount of unnecessary pain to the newborn, cuts off the blood flow completely, which according to Jewish law is dangerous to the child and strictly forbidden, and also renders the orlah (foreskin) as cut prior to the proper ritual cut.
Under Jewish law, a mohel must draw blood from the circumcision wound. Most mohels do it by hand with a suction device, but some Orthodox groups use their mouth to draw blood after cutting the foreskin.
Women
All types of Judaism except for Orthodox Judaism allow female mohels, called
mohelot (pl. of
mohelet, f. of mohel)
.
As the Jewish News Weekly of Northern California states, "...there is no halachic prescription against female mohels, [but] none exist in the Orthodox [Jewish] world, where the preference is that the task be undertaken by a Jewish man." .
References
Category:Jewish religious occupations
Category:Hebrew words and phrases
Category:Circumcision
