It's Always Different When It Is Your Child

On July 18th, a group of us headed to Johannesburg for Asher Raymond Epstein's bris. The bris was held at the beautiful house in Joburg that Jessi and Uri were renting for the first three months of Asher's life. Both sets of grandparents were able to be present and had brought with them a tini little kippah for Asher to wear. The ceremony was performed by a mohel team consisting of a surgeon and a rabbi. The procedure was much more medical than I expected with a large sterile surgical field set up. Grandpa Greene comforted Asher during the circumsicion. After the procedure the Rabbi performed more blessings and naming ceremony. Asher means happiness in Hebrew. After the naming ceremony, Uri's mother made a small toast. At Uri's bris, the family had opened a bottle of brandy for a toast. The brandy was saved and used for toasts at Uri's Bar Mitzvah and his wedding. A toast was again made with Uri's brandy and a new bottle was opened for Asher. Jessi, who works for PSI in Swaziland scaling up the circumsicion program, quickly realized that everything is different when your child is involved and was quite ready to have a drink of the brandy after the circumsicion.After a little love from his parents, Asher quickly recovered from the shock of the morning glad that this day can only happen once!