Tools of the Trade VII - The MARKER

We've been through all the standard items that just about every mohel uses or should use. Now we get into the realm of what makes one mohel demonstrate his being more responsible than another mohel.

The only place which I'll leave open for debate is the Magen shield v. the MOGEN clamp. While I don't recommend the clamp (I don't own one and have never used one) for both safety reasons and halakhic reasons, if the operator using it knows what he is doing, I believe the bris is kosher at least b'dieved (not in the ideal sense, but nonetheless kosher).

HOWEVER, using a surgical pen to mark the edge of the foreskin is what truly makes a mohel a cut above (no pun intended) everyone else.

The foreskin, as everyone likely knows, is very malleable. It is designed to accommodate a significant amount of stretching. As such, when the mohel pulls on it to set it up for circumcision, he can no longer tell where the proper edge of the foreskin is, UNLESS IT HAS BEEN MARKED. Surgeons mark any incision they are going to make. Does a baby deserve any less care in the effort to give him an aesthetically-pleasing circumcision?

So this tool should be in every mohel's arsenal. And every mohel should take the extra minute or two to mark the foreskin, and he should be blessed to follow the mark when circumcising, so the baby can have not just a circumcision, but a nice-looking circumcision. As even as possible all around, with the proper amount of foreskin - not more, not less - being removed, per our sacred Mitzvah.