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Thursday, July 01, 2010

Yishai Begins his Jewish Journey

To the  strains of a Sephardic piyut (religious poem) the new baby was passed from his mother to her brother's wife to her brother and around to uncles grandfathers and even a great-grandfather. Then he was placed on the knees of his father's rabbi (Rav Tzvi Kostiner of Yeshivat Midbara KaEden, Mitzpe Ramon)  who held him as the mohel performed the rite first performed by our father Abraham thousands of years ago. Abraham's life was a journey from his idolatrous upbringing to his discovery of one god, following that God's commandment to move to a new land and in that land to enter into a new covenant. 

Little Yishai was welcomed by a loving family and by words of Torah from his father, grandfathers and rabbis. There is much to teach Yishai and each other and I hope that over the years our family will continue in the path of unity and Torah that I was privileged to witness yesterday. 



9 comments:

Anonymous said...

amen-btw who in his family is sefardic? :-)
KT
amerbro

Risa Tzohar said...

Only the mohel and a few of Yishai's uncles and aunts.

However, Wittels is said to come from Vitals, a name of Jews who were expelled (or maybe ran away) from Spain during the inquisition. They moved east and ended up in the Ukraine 400 years later looking for all the world like Ashkenazim. But who knows?

Anonymous said...

Vital is a popular name among French Jews in the region of Avignon (South of France).
Lovely post Risa.
I had not seen the new layout which is beautiful (my favorite color is blue so you can understand why).

Risa Tzohar said...

Thank you Ilana-Davita. It's not suprising that Vital is found in southern France as well. My mother's maiden name is Wittels which is why I was pointing it out to my brother.

I like the new blogger templates which are a little nicer and easier to personalize than the old ones. I am still considering changing to wordpress because of all the nice blogs that others have like Leora and you. I guess for the meantime I"ll just be lazy and stick with this.

Jennifer in MamaLand said...

Mazel tov!!!

Anonymous said...

Another good point about Wordpress is commenting. It is much less of a hassle.

Mrs. S. said...

Mazal tov and much nachat!

Shabbat Shalom!

Chayah Nechama said...

Little Yishai was welcomed by a loving family
-/// thats the very best thing...mazal tovgood shabbos :)

Batya said...

Bli eyin haraa, and I danced at your wedding!

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