The only thing that can make shul\u00a0on 2nd day Rosh Hashanah even\u00a0longer is when you know the service will be followed by your sons brit.\u00a0 I spent 2 and a half hours trying not to think of the awful wails and terrible screams that were to follow.\u00a0 We had met the mohel the day before, he drove up in major traffic from Ramat Gan, especially to perform the mitzvah and\u00a0arrived in\u00a0Karmiel\u00a0minutes before\u00a0chag.\u00a0 Apparently, despite having a population of 50,000, Karmiel is still a one-horse town as far as mohels are concerned.\u00a0 Not one in the entire town.\u00a0 This one was recommended by a friends brother [another mohel] , and when I spoke to him on the phone and explained that I had to discharge myself from the hospital as they were really\u00a0concerned about the baby’s jaundice,\u00a0he gave me 3 tasks to do.\u00a0 This included a “segulah”, where he asked me to wash the baby’s hands.\u00a0 In other words, do netilat yadayim but without the brachah.\u00a0 Husband was a little sceptical about that one but I am happy to try anything, so we did.<\/p>\n
The next day, I took him along to the doctor who said he wasn’t even yellow enough to merit another blood test! (I was relieved, the poor kid had 4\u00a0holes in his heel from all the bilirubin testing at the hospital.\u00a0 I don’t get that place.\u00a0\u00a0They are so keen to monitor <\/em>conditions such as jaundice, until they get to the level where they require light therapy, it doesn’t occur to them that if they release<\/em> the patient\u00a0they may actually be able to access simple, natural, treatments.)\u00a0 Anyway the treatments worked and it seems that this mohel is something of an expert when it comes to treating jaundice.\u00a0<\/p>\n When we met him he turned out to be one of those deeply holy sefardi men with lovely peyot, a humble manner\u00a0and a reassuringly holy beard.\u00a0 His wife\u00a0acts as a kind of assisstant,\u00a0helping him to change the\u00a0dressings,\u00a0and she turned out to be very kind too.\u00a0 When it came to the dreaded moment, I heard a little cry and my friend said, “oh, he must have done it already.”\u00a0 “No no” I said wisely, “he probably just took off his nappy and put some antiseptic on or something.\u00a0 This is nothing.”\u00a0 But it turned out I was wrong.\u00a0 He was so quick, it was over in seconds.\u00a0 I had never seen anything like it.\u00a0 Barely a yelp from Little Ronnie.\u00a0 The buildup had been a hundred times worse than the event.<\/p>\n Our community were absolutely wonderful.\u00a0 They provided all our meals for yom tov, and for the seudat brit we basically crashed a communal luncheon, bringing along our own guests, and it turned out to be a riot.\u00a0 I got\u00a0rather tipsy\u00a0on aged kiddush wine (well I hadn’t drunk for about 2 and half years so it didn’t take much) and there was a lot of banter and speeches from all the families, who were quite literally from all 4 corners of the earth.\u00a0 It was great fun.\u00a0 Little Ronnie read out his poem (ok, so he’s not that advanced, I read it out on his behalf) and the mohel spoke beautifully about the\u00a0holiness of having a brit on Rosh Hashanah.\u00a0 I was so happy with him, I had to restrain myself from giving him a huge hug.\u00a0 Got husband to do it for me.\u00a0 Anyway, if anyone out here needs a mohel, check out David Dadon.\u00a0 He’s awesome.<\/p>\n Went along to tipat chalav nurse this morning.\u00a0 Wanted to give her a roloking for having booked me an appointment so late in my pregnancy when\u00a0I had\u00a0told her in no uncertain terms my baby wouldn’t wait for her to get back from holiday.\u00a0 The hospital had been in a real tiz as they knew nothing about me, and it made the birth quite stressful. \u00a0Whilst sitting outside the surgery watching all the other newborns taking their bottles (and people say this is the land flowing with milk and honey??) I waited outside her office for 25 minutes, til she came out, did a double take and asked how long\u00a0I had been sitting there.\u00a0 “Since 11” I reply.\u00a0 She asked why I hadn’t gone in.\u00a0 Er, coz\u00a0 she had people running in and out of her office and I was waiting to be called??? It seems doctors come out and get you, with nurses you are supposed to barge in.\u00a0 Sigh.\u00a0 I will never ever <\/em>understand the etiquette in this country.<\/p>\n Must go.\u00a0 Husband is cleaning.\u00a0 Must encourage this behaviour by commenting on his skill and brilliance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The only thing that can make shul\u00a0on 2nd day Rosh Hashanah even\u00a0longer is when you know the service will be followed by your sons brit.\u00a0 I spent 2 and a half hours trying not to think of the awful wails and terrible screams that were to follow.\u00a0 We had met the mohel the day before, … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8889,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aliyah"],"yoast_head":"\n