Wednesday, June 29, 2011

A working mohel's list arranged by age order; 18th century Sephardic organization.

This is pretty interesting. It's some pages from the book ברית יצחק (Amsterdam 1768), published by Selomoh Levy Maduro. In addition to the complete service for a bris milah, a nice part where everyone is supposed to pledge donations for the poor of Eretz Yisrael and Pidyon Shevuim according to one's ability, and a section for a service to say for a conversion - Amsterdam being the one place in Europe where it was legal to convert to Judaism - it also includes three pages listing all the mohelim currently serving the Sefardic communities of Western Europe and New World colonies. Not only that, it lists each one's year of birth, for the convenience of parents who want to know about such things. Among the list of 33 (!) mohelim in Amsterdam alone appears David Franco Mendes who is otherwise famed for his poetry and being Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto's closest disciple in Amsterdam. I did not know that he was a mohel also. I don't think it appears in his biographies.