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Yom Tefillah Declared, Hearing on MBP Tuesday

Worldwide Jewry have come together following New York City’s assault on Mitzvas Milah – particularly metzitzah b’peh. Today, Zos Chanukah, has been declared as a day of mass prayer for the success of an action brought against the city in federal court.

The following is a statement released by the organizers:

As you may be aware, the New York City Health Department has recently adopted a new law regulating the performance of a Bris. It prohibits the practice of metzitzah b’peh (mbp) unless Mohalim convey the agency’s biased and baseless opinion that it is unsafe and they first obtain parental written informed consent.

The International Bris Association (Chabad), Central Rabbinical Congress of the USA & Canada (Satmar) and Agudath Israel of America, have united and filed in federal court a lawsuit opposing the city’s libel against Milah. A hearing on the motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent the City from enforcing its new regulation is set for this Tuesday December 18, Hay Teves.

The question may be asked what’s the big deal! Why go through the extraordinary expense and legal challenge of suing the City. After all, the new regulation does not completely prohibit mbp; it simply requires the mohel to obtain a signed consent form.

Actually, it’s a very big deal.

First, mbp is an integral part of the mitzvah of bris milah that has been safely practiced for thousands of years. This means that the City’s unprecedented effort to regulate mbp is in fact an effort to regulate the Mitzvah of bris milah itself.

Furthermore, this regulation is actually part of a larger campaign by the City designed to eradicate the practice of metzitzah b’peh altogether. The law is such that the mohel, when presenting the consent form to the parents, is required to transmit the Health Department’s advice that mbp is dangerous and should not be performed. The City has also published a pamphlet that is being distributed in New York City hospitals advocating to parents against the practice of mbp describing it as dangerous and deadly. In mounting such an aggressive campaign against a sacred religious practice, the City has unacceptably crossed a line.

At this stage, the City seeks to accomplish its goal of eradicating mbp through “advice” and “recommendations.” However, if the advice has not deterred its practice the City has indicated that it would attempt to ban the practice outright. Mayor Bloomberg himself, in a recent press conference, stated: “There are certain practices that doctors say are not safe and we will not permit those practices to the extent that we can stop them.”

All of this is being played out against a backdrop of recent high profile efforts in the United States and around the world that seek to ban bris milah altogether. The pretense of safety utilized by the City’s effort to regulate metzitzah b’peh can easily be extended by those who seek to regulate every aspect of Bris and even by those with an anti-circumcision agenda to prohibit the entire practice of bris milah.

The Departments claim that mbp carries a significant risk of transmitting infection is completely unfounded. In the court papers challenging the regulation, a number of distinguished experts in the fields of infectious disease and statistics have strongly challenged the integrity of the City’s position. In fact no case of neonatal herpes has ever been proven to have resulted from metzitzh b’peh.

So what we have here, for the very first time, is an aggressive campaign by a governmental body against an essential Mitzvah as bris milah. It does so by infringing on the Mohel’s freedom of speech – by forcing them to deliver an anti-mbp message which the Mohel fundamentally disagrees with. At the same time, it openly proclaims its larger goal of eventually prohibiting the practice of mbp outright and to impose other restrictions on the practice of bris milah. Given these ominous facts, prominent Rabbanim including Rabbanei Chabad have instructed to resist the City’s unprecedented intervention in the practice of bris milah.

A big deal indeed!

The legal papers filed by Jones Day, a world renowned top-tier law firm are strong, and present a powerful argument as to why the City’s new regulation should be declared unconstitutional.

However, in addition to the legal action it is through our Tifilos that we will experience the ultimate nitzachon. That is why posters have been placed all over Crown Heights and other communities calling for a Yom Tifilah designated for Zos Chanukah requesting Klal Yisroel to be mispallel, give extra Tzdakah and say Tihilim for the success of this monumental lawsuit to preserve our holy mesorah from undue governmental interference.

A Frelichen Chanukah!

Didan Natzach,

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10 Comments

  • Who cares anyway

    Nobody is stopping MBP
    All they are doing is asking that parents sign a waiver stating that they understand thy could be potential complications from it. Big deal.
    Who cares.
    Sign it and do the Bris!

  • Zos Chanukah

    a 2nd chanukah doesn’t he realize that history repeats itself and we always win so why start up?
    -and about his soda law…
    when we win we will have another holiday that means more soda so he is obviously not thinking
    (he woks together with Goim he has a goishe cup)-

  • ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS!!!

    Yeah, and all the hard working shluchim out there who are trying to get young parents to let their kid have a bris, after reading that it is “dangerous and deadly” (!!!!) they are going to agree, ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY ARE ALREADY SKEPTICAL?!?!?

    Wow, what happened to America? G-d, BLESS AMERICA!!!!

  • DeClasse- Intellectual

    This is part of the ongoingattack upon individual freedom since this administration has taken office. We have seen the attack on drinkingsoda, we have had the forced interference into the religious beliefs of our down the block neighbors about contreception, we have proposed censorship of the intgernet and now this. The lesson from Chanukah is that not lnly do we have to be vigilant about our freedoms and our religious beliefs, but we have to defend them at all times from poeple who think they know better. May HASHEM aid us in this venture against those who would ban mitzvos like the Hellinitic Greek attempted back then!!!!!!

  • Lot-s of other harmful practices r l

    There are so many other harmful things to outlaw that doctors advise against: drugs, guns, alcohol, “—marriage,” etc. Bloomberg wants to feel powerful. Those things that are truly dangerous and immoral he can’t seem to stop or effect; so he looks for things that he can exert his power against that no one takes seriously enough to waste time fighting – just to feel important.

    The guy has serious mental issues. He is addicted to power. The big mistake was for the city to fold and let him run for a third term. Term limits were started for a reason.