Ignorance is bris

Today was Zachary's eighth day of life by the Jewish calendar and therefore his brit milah. (The Jewish calendar is lunar-solar; Jewish days begin at sundown, so the fact that Zachary was born at 10:12 pm last Wednesday meant that his bris was today.) Though I've been to a few over the years, I never knew much about the traditions, and certainly had never really paid enough attention to know about the various roles. Luckily, our mohel (a local Conservative doctor) was extremely helpful and patient in the planning and explanations of various traditions. He also uses topical anesthetics and novacaine to make it a bit less painful and traumatic for the baby (and perhaps almost as much so for the parents). Zachary's two grandmothers acted as the kvatters (bringing the baby into the ceremony), and his grandfather (papa) was the sondek (who holds the baby during the ceremony). [Trivia: I found it interesting that two of the designated roles aren't even Hebrew words; sondek is Greek and kvatter is Yiddish.]

As the opportunities for actual baby viewing and holding before/after a bris are pretty minimal, I was able to use a bit of my geekiness to help somewhat with that, putting a bunch of photos from our various online albums (including those taken by our friends) onto the Xbox 360, which uses fancy Ken Burns-like panning effects to make them look even a bit fancier. My bubbie was basically placing orders for her favorites from the slideshow, and I think all of the grandparents want it turned into a DVD or something. Now we just need to figure out a soundtrack...

It was so wonderful to be surrounded by so many supportive friends and family. On the family front, my brother, mom and Meh's parents were of course here (Meh's mom spent much of the actual ceremony offering support upstairs with Meh). Wait, let me start over -- as I've been frequently forgetting, all family relationships now reset to reflect Zachary's point of view; this is going to take some getting used to! So his uncle and two grandmothers were there to support him. His great-grandmother (bubbie, who I think is still being called bubbie, or perhaps great-bubbie?), great aunt and great uncle had flown in from Maryland as well, and they were all so supportive and loving.

As far as friends, we had more than thirty in attendance, all of whom were so supportive and warm (not to mention many of them skipping work to join us for the mid-day ceremony) -- it really made the fact that minor surgery was going to happen a bit more bearable and less stressful. Everyone wanted to help out -- two friends catered the entire event spectacularly (we've got an enormous collection of bagels, lox, caprese tomatoes, and couscous to plow through in the next few weeks), others helped us with setup, bringing a few items, shlepping of chairs, and shuttling one of my closest college friends from/to the airport, who himself flew in from Los Angeles just for the day. (I teased him about "pulling a Scott", since my USC course had featured many such Seattle-LA day trips.) He actually ended up acting as the "anesthesiologist", offering Zachary a piece of gauze soaked in sugar water/wine during the ceremony.

True to form, Zachary was quiet (and possibly dozing) during all of the ceremony, only getting a bit fussy long afterwards, when the mohel discussed care and such. Everyone was so supportive and the mood was actually quite happy and joyous, with lots of singing (so many great singers in the room from our various choirs, Meh said she really appreciated hearing the beautiful harmonies from upstairs) and then dancing after the baby naming, with everyone circling and dancing around us and Zachary.

Speaking of the naming, the bris is also where you announce a son's hebrew name. Zachary's is is Hallel David. Hallel (הלל , 'praise to G-d') is for both of my grandfathers (whoops, Zachary's paternal great-grandfathers), who were both named Henry. David (דָּוִד , 'beloved') was Zachary's paternal paternal great-grandfather's middle name -- and of course Zachary's own English middle name too. I realized afterwards that Hallel also works well with my own Hebrew name Pesach (פֶּסַח , 'Passover'), since Hallel is a part of the seder (the meal-oriented observance on Passover), and actually the part where most of the singing occurs, so that works for the musical parents too!

Okay, enough Hebrew etymology for the time being. Thank you once again so much to all of our family and friends from near and far who were able to join us at the bris!