Wednesday, July 23, 2008

In the right time

I recently overheard a friend of mine expressing his wish that the ברית of his baby boy should be בעיתו ובזמנו. This is one of my pet peeves. Being a Dikdukian in his own right, I explained my gripe: The way I see it, when we wish ויזכה להכניסו בבריתו של אברהם אבינו בזמנו we are wishing that the father merit to give his son a ברית on the eighth day. We are wishing the best of health upon the baby so that this may be so. That said, what we are hoping is that the ברית take place in its proper time. Therefore, I suggest that it should be בעיתה ובזמנה. Apparently, Artscroll does not agree with me as this is not the path they chose in the מי שברך in their גבאי handbook. However, the other version has meaning as well. It means we are wishing that the ברית take place at the proper time for the child, that he be healthy and not have any complications due to the ברית. As such, I would suggest that even if the baby is not well and the eighth day has passed, it is still appropriate to wish that the ברית be בזמנו, in the baby's proper time.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's a nice derasha, but since, once the 8th day has passed, having the bris in its proper time is entirely in the hands of the parents, it's not really much of a bracha. Before the 8th day, it's a bracha that the child should be healthy. After the eighth day, it's a bracha that the parents should do their halachic duty.

Anonymous said...

הייתי במקום שהתינוק נולד בערב שבת אחרי השקיעה והיה ברור שהברית ביום התשיעי או העשירי
אנשים בכל זאת אמרו בעיתו ובזמנו מחוסר ידיעה
יותר נכון בלשון נקבה אבל כך התרגלו

Shtikler said...

MDJ,
What I meant was that, for example, the מוהל shouldn't ח"ו do the ברית before it is safe for the baby.

Lion of Zion said...

i'm not convinced that the possessive suffix applies to the ברית rather the baby, but if you insist on feminine sufixes, please make sure to put in the mapik he.

shabbat shalom

Anonymous said...

Elie,
Under those circumstances, Sunday _is_ it's time.

Shtikler said...

I disagree. The time for a bris is on day 8. Simple as that. In such a case, the halachah is that there is no way to be sure that you are doing it on the right day so we push it off.

Anonymous said...

You are wishing a zechus and beris bezmano is a bigger zechus than not bizmano. Now, this sechus is for the father of the child not for the beris, so it is in lashon zokhor.

Shloime said...

The Belzer Ruv z"l used to say "be'ito" when the mohel says, "bizmano" when the doctor says!