Well the first big day in Noah’s life (other than being born, of course) has come and gone. Last Sunday was the eighth day following Noah’s birth, so in keeping with the Jewish tradition of brit milah (??????? ??????), the covenant of circumcision which began with Abraham’s circumcision of his son Isaac, some 30 of our closest friends and family joined us at our home.

The bris (the yiddish term) is a ceremony of ritual circumcision performed by a mohel in the presence of family and friends, followed by a celebratory meal. Fellow Brandeis alum and our Rabbi Hillel Norry of our synagogue Shearith Israel officiated. Dr. Daniel Goodman, who also performed the job admirably with Sam, was the mohel. And Joel Silverman provided a stupendously beautiful and impressive whole poached salmon. Anyway, here, in three parts (to get around Youtube’s 10-minute limit for single clips) is a video of the ceremony (shot by Johnny-on-the-spot Matt Simon, drafted at the last minute for the task) – note that no gore was captured whatsoever, so even the squeamish among us should be able to handle it! The words of Rabbi Norry are truly beautiful, Dr. Goodman also spoke eloquently on the subject and I rather like the tradition of reading aloud the letter Amy and I wrote to the newest member of our family. We will show him this video when he is old enough to understand our words.

Part One (4:55)

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q7daF6awg7A[/youtube]

Part Two (7:30)

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=omuoHQPoVaM[/youtube]

Part Three (5:27)

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=kZiMgvtmkr4[/youtube]