[Avodah] Beris Milah on Shabbos when Father isn't Jewish

[Micha Berger]

I mentioned in the past I had this question halakhah lemaaseh. I knew
of an intermarried couple who lived nowhere near the nearest Jewish
community. They would have just had the boy circumcized in the hospital
rather than to pay what one of the nearer mohalim wanted to come down for
the weekend. Yes, the nearest Chabad house had a mohel, who (of course)
would come at cost... IFF he hadn't had a beris in his own minhan that
same Shabbos.

So the question I asked was whether I should donate (or raise donations)
for the beris to be bizmano. My LOR asked his rav... long story short,
as I best remember at a little more than two decades later:

The pasuq says "bayom hashemini yimol besar arlaso" -- it's the father who
is told "on the eight day", even if it's on Shabbos. Implied: If the father
has no chiyuv, such as our case or if r"l the father didn't survive to see
his son's beris, there is no one whose chiyuv overrides Shabbos. (If the
father is alive but not there, you'd still violate Shabbos.)

Well, someone asked R' Asher Weiss.
<https://en.tvunah.org/2017/10/19/brit-mila-shabbos-father-non-jew>.
He didn't rule the same way, but does mention that is -- or at least
was -- a machloqes amoraim. However, RAW holds a consensus has emerged
to do the beris.

Perhaps RDC didn't think the consensus was solid enough to warrant my
spending or raising that kind of money for someone else's beris. Or
perhaps it was closer to the way I remembered it and RDC doesn't agree
with how the consensus emerged.

    Brit mila on Shabbos when father is non Jew
    Posted by: Rabbi Akiva Dershowitz

    Question: Does everyone agree that a brit is done on Shabbat even
	if the father is a goy?
    ...
    Answer: No, this is a dispute among the achronim [halachic authorities
	of the last 500 years]. The halachic ruling is that we do in
	fact perform the bris mila on Shabbos.

	See Derisha Y:D 266:20, Nachalas Shiva [kuntress hamila siman 1],
	Shu't Binyan Tzion [Vol. 1:21].

The nearest I could find in Hebrew (as the Hebrew always has more
discussion) is "Beris beShabbos leVen Me'uberes sheNisgayrah" at
<http://j.mp/2yFQuZV>. There the question is whether the velad's milah
is a normal beris or lesheim geirus, and RAW still holds the milah should
be on Shabbos. It's a fun sugya, worth a read. But doesn't focus on our
question.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             You cannot propel yourself forward
micha at aishdas.org        by patting yourself on the back.
http://www.aishdas.org                   -Anonymous
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