Saturday, April 04, 2009

Bris milah or Bircas Hachama which comes first?

R' Elyashiv was asked this question by one of his grandchildren who had a baby last Wednesday. R' Elyashiv's psak was that first you do Bircas Hachama and then the mila. The reason for the pask is not given but I would guess that it has to with the fact that Bircas Hachama is a mitzva that has a very short time (only the first 3 hours) while milah is all day.

1 comment:

Larry Lennhoff said...

I'd guess it was because Brit Mila is the more frequent mitzvah. It is initially the responsibility of the father, who is likely to have children than once every 28 years.

IMO this hypothesis is testable - a ger or better yet a BT who was did not have a brit as a child would be obligated to do the Bircas Hachama first, since once every 28 years is usually more frequent than once per lifetime.