Multiple Babies

It is a tremendous privilege to be asked to be the mohel for any and every bris.

It is an even bigger privilege when there is more than one baby - such as twins or triplets.

Believe it or not, the last five sets of twins I've dealt with have been boy and girl twins; obviously they were only single brisses.

But I've had my share of twin boy brisses, and, even less common, two sets of triplet boy brisses.

"How do you do it?" people ask. Simple! Have multiple sets of instruments! Now the event is no longer a set of triplets, but it is three brisses in succession. No less an incredible feat, but less stressful for the mohel who has three babies to concern himself with in either case.

The amazing thing is that like every bris and like every baby, the brisses never come out "exactly" the same. For that I guess even the mothers may be grateful because they have another method of identifying the difference in their newborns.

Quadruplets or quintuplets will be the highlight of my career, but I'm not waiting up nights for it to happen.

Though, come to think of it, the last day I spent with my mohel teacher in Israel (Rabbi Mordechai Sasson, the government supervisor of mohels in Israel), he had nine brisses. One of that day's brisses was a baby who was a quadruplet. They hired four mohels that day to give each a chance, rather than give them all to one mohel who really would have had a story to tell for the rest of his life.

While I attended one, I never presided over it. Yet.

All in good time.

Update: Twins bris early 2012  And Late 2012