Erev Shabbos Jewish Blogging (kind of like Friday Cat Blogging, but with fewer cats and more Jews)

[gnomi]

Apparently, Mayor Bloomberg of New York is considering regulating against metzitzah b'peh, which the Times describes as the rite during which the mohel "sucks the blood from the circumcision wound to clean it." When mabfan told me of the Times article, the following exchange occurred:

gnomi: This might be a problem.
gnomi: Just in general.
mabfan: hm
gnomi: I mean, Bloomberg regulating against brisses can't go well.
mabfan: Nope.
mabfan: I have his home phone number if you want to call him
mabfan: He's in the book
gnomi: Heh. "Hello, Mr. Mayor? I don't live in New York, but I think you're going to cause yourself a lot of trouble if you regulate against brisses."

Comments

[sethg]

First, the mayor is not planning to forbid metzitzah b'peh; some of the chassidim are just upset because the Health Department is discouraging the practice, which involves putting one's mouth directly on the, umm, circumcision site. The Health Department is concerned about reports of herpes being spread through this method; the chassidim think the risk of this happening is acceptably low.

Second, The prevailing practice among misnagdim is to do the metzitzah through a tube, to prevent direct contact of bodily fluids, and the RCA recommends doing it this way. See Hirhurim for more details on the halakhic issues; scroll down to "Metzitzah I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII" on the "Jewish Pracice" section of the sidebar and follow the links.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

First, the mayor is not planning to forbid metzitzah b'peh

Please note -- I never said he was. I just reported the fact that the Times said he's considering regulation.