Assimilation - the good kind

 I was trained by a Sefardi Mohel in Israel, so I am quite comfortable with the Sefardic (or other Edot Mizrach) Brit ceremonies. Since Sefardim love to have great rabbis be the Sandak (though many will go the "traditional" route of having a grandfather fill that role), I was privileged to meet Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef many times, as well as Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi Doron, and even Rabbi Yitzchak Kaduri, who was close to 100 years old at the time, and lived to be somewhere between 103-108 (no one knows exactly when he was born).

Anyway, this week I had two brisses with families from these traditions. One father told me that he was Yemenite, raised as a Syrian Jew (don't ask), and the other father grew up in the Ashkenazic world (going to Litvish yeshivas, etc), but has Yemenite heritage (and an Ashkenazic wife!).

As far as my job goes, things are mostly the same, but for the ceremonies surrounding the circumcision, both families did things a little differently than we might see.

In the latter case, the father created his own unique ceremony celebrating a blend (or perhaps an assimilation) of Ashkenazic and Yemenite traditions, which he printed out on a paper and handed out to everyone in attendance. Since it was "new," the group participation and response to the various tefillot was something I haven't experienced since being at a bris in a real yeshiva, where everyone is on board with being a full participant in the experience. Usually only some people are following along and participating per what is advised in the ceremony, while others are just watching and listening but not participating with the proper responses. 

My father would often joke when a woman from an Ashkenazic family married a man from a Sefardic tradition that they had a mixed-marriage. And it is true.

But insofar as mixed-marriage and assimilation goes, this is the best kind. Both parents are aligned in their thinking and in how they are going to raise their child. So if there are "discussions" about certain family traditions and practices, this is the face of the new Jew, a crossover and blend of different cultures mixing together in the Jewish melting pot that is our experience in the USA (as well as in Israel, and really everywhere!)

MAZAL TOV!