Monday 6 September 2010

And on the eighth day...

Being in America is all about having new experiences, and today we attended our first bris milôh. This involves...well...a lot of things, but is basically a Jewish Christening (it's amazing how much that religion borrowed from Christianity!)

The baby in question was Arbel Raz, Shauli and Anat's new son. Arbel is the name of a rather picturesque mountain in Israel, one you can see the Sea of Galilee from, and is somewhere that Anat and Shauli walked in their younger days. It was also the only name, Shauli confided, that they managed to agree on.

The master of ceremonies was a local mohel, who admitted to being scared having to speak Hebrew in front of lots of Israelis. But everything went smoothly, and little Arbel got to have his first drink of wine. That's impressive, even by English standards.



Arbel, all dressed up and looking slightly nervous.



Delivered on a tray by the mohel's wife.



The ceremony gets underway.



The parents look on anxiously.



Afterwards, the feast begins!



Stealing another baby. We're collecting quite a family here.