Friday, October 07, 2005

Bris in Mezibuz - after 65 years


A great story for the new year as reported in COL. Mezibuz (or Medzhibuzh or Medzyboz) in western Ukraine, is where the Baal Shem Tov spent much of his life and founded the "Chassidic Movement". Note that the mohel's wife deserves a good slice of the merit for letting him travel to the bris.

After giving birth to a boy a Jewish employee in the Chabad school in Khmelnitsky, Ukraine, asked the shliach, Rabbi Yehoshua Raskin, for help with the basic needs of the baby. Within an hour Rabbi Raskin made contact with 'Bris Yosef Yitzchak' asking Rabbi Yaacov Gisinowits of Donetsk to serve as Mohel.
Being that the 8th day since the birth of the child was Chai Elul, the bris was slated to be held in the newly renovated shul of the Baal Shem Tov. The Mohel arrived in a flight from Donetsk to Kiev and took a 5 hour ride to Khmelnitsky, all this, notwithstanding that his own wife had given birth to a daughter the day before. The bris was attended by Jews from Israel and Argentina who had arrived to the Tsiyon in Mezibuz. Following the bris, one of the attenders proclaimed that he, too, would like to undergo a bris.