And Sought To Put Him To Death

The Brit Milah of Moses Michael Gonzales took place on the eighth-day,
16th of Sivan, 5771 which corresponds to Saturday, June 18, 2011

A week before my son was born I had a dream about his circumcision. In the dream we were at our church building celebrating with our entire community before the ceremony when I realized I had not yet told the mohel about my son's birth. It was only a couple of minutes before we were to begin the Brit Milah (Covenant of Circumcision) liturgy and the mohel was not there. He lives in Fort Collins, which is at least an hour away, and at this point I wasn't even sure if he was available to make it. My gut was filled with anxiety as I looked out my bedroom window, beating my fist on the window seal wondering what to do (don't ask me how I got to my bedroom—it's a dream!). I thought, "How could I, a leader in our community, be so negligent and miss this important detail?" I woke up convinced that this dream was true. I was still beating myself up and my gut was filled with nervousness. It all seemed so real. I turned to my wife, put my hand under the covers, reached out and felt her belly. Ah, relief. She was still pregnant. It was only a dream. The anxiety left but the thoughts remained.

The Covenant of Circumcision is one of those appointed times that doesn't give you a lot of time to plan—only eight days. We knew we were having a boy so we knew we would be needing the services of a mohel. We contacted a mohel one month prior and made him aware of our son's expected due date and the fact that Margaret usually gives birth two-weeks early. Our son was actually born four days after the due date which really through us all for a loop (see: In Uncharted Territory). A few hours after the birth I contacted the mohel to tell him the news and found out that he was going to be out of town on the eighth-day. I felt anxiety starting to develop deep in my gut. 

On top of the short notice after the birth of a son, what makes it even trickier when planning for a circumcision is when the eighth-day falls on Shabbat (Sabbath) or a Moed (Feast Day). In our case it fell on Shabbat. That's why you should always have a 'Plan B' in case the mohel is not available or something goes wrong with the logistics. My fallback plan was to have a local pediatrician perform the circumcision; however, this plan only works Monday thru Friday during normal business hours. The anxiety began to intensify.

It is the responsibility of the father to make sure that his infant son is circumcised—that would be me. Also, the elders are to live exemplary lives for their community to follow—that would also be me. You could say that I had a lot riding on my shoulders at this point and it was feeling like a ton of bricks. I had recently announced to the community that everyone would be invited to the ceremony and once I found out that the ceremony fell on Shabbat, I knew that there would be a good turnout of members. My concern was that my dream was coming true. I did not have a mohel lined up yet and everyone was going to show up and see that I was not prepared. Huh-boy. I was now feeling the same anxiety that I did after the dream.

I don't want to come across legalistic about the situation, but I believe that circumcision is important—important to Adonai. If we desire to follow the Torah, then we should do whatever we can to perform the circumcision of our infant boys at the appointed time. The ordeal I was in brought to mind the incident in Exodus 4:24-26 concerning Moses and his wife Zipporah. This is an odd passage about the circumcision of Moses's son that has drawn much attention and debate. The popular explanation of this passage is that Moses—the appointed leader of his people, the representative of Adonai, and the person chosen to deliver the Torah to Israel—had procrastinated and neglected to circumcise his own son. Because of this, Adonai came down and "sought to put him to death." Now, I don't think that my life, or anyone's life for that matter, would be in danger if the circumcision of an infant son is neglected. But the fact that I am the leader of my home, a leader in a Torah-Community and I am a teacher of the Torah means that I will someday have to answer for my negligence and my bad example. I would never make anyone feel guilty about not circumcising their sons or doing it on the 'wrong' day, but I will strongly recommend to the families in our community to try as hard as they can to do it and do it on the eighth-day.

Through the providence of Adonai, after a couple of days of butterflies in my stomach, I was reconnected with the mohel who circumcised my second son, Aaron, on Yom Kippur 5767 (2006). I confirmed the date and scheduled the ceremony. The community was there and everything went off without a hitch. My third son, Moses, was circumcised on the eighth-day as commanded. Baruch HaShem! After all of that I have now come to realize that the circumcision was the easy part; now comes the commitment and diligence in bringing him up in the discipline and instruction of Adonai (Ephesians 6:4).

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