Question: Is he bris date affected if the Jewish baby was delivered via ceasarian section?
Rabbi,
I know someone who will be having son this year. Under Jewish Law, the Bris is held eight days after the birth including Sabbath and/or a holiday unless the child is ill. However, if the woman has a C-section I have read it cannot be on Sabbath and/or a holiday. If the baby birth is by C-section, what is reason the Bris may not held on Sabbath or a holiday?
Thanks, Mark
Answer: Dear Mark,
I hope this question means you deserve a Mazal Tov. MAZAL TOV. May he grow up to be full of Torah, mitzvos and good deeds!!!
Now to your question. It will help if we crack open your Chumash (Bible) and look at Leviticus 12:2-3. "If a woman has matured a human seed and gives birth to a male (child), she shall be unclean for seven days; just as in the days of her separation during her period shall she be unclean. And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised."
The source for the ability to violate Shabbos comes from the emphasis on the eighth day. The Torah specifies the eighth day, and as such it overides other mitzvot, such as keeping the Sabbath.
We know from elsewhere (I don't want to get too far afield) that the commandment in the Torah here applies to natural birth only. And when the baby does not pass through the birth canal, he or she does not experience "birth" in the legal sense.
Thus, a baby born through a c-section does not have a specific command to do the bris on the eighth day as does a baby who undergoes a natural birth process.
The Shulchan Aruch rules (Yoreh Deah 262:3) that if the eighth day falls on a weekday, then we do the Bris on the eighth day. However, (Yoreh Deah 266:10) if the eighth day falls on Shabbos (Sabbath) or Yom Tov (holiday), the bris should take place after Shabbos/Yom Tov.
I highly recommend reading Rabbi Pesach Krohn's wonderful book on Bris Millah (published by Artscroll press).
Mazal Tov again,
Rabbi A. Page
