Bris Avrohom’s 5000th Bris

  “Now I don’t only know I’m a Jew, I also feel like a Jew.” This is how the 5,000th person to have a bris through Bris Avrohom began his speech. He spoke at a celebration marking this occasion and addressed over 300 people who had come to celebrate.

The event, which took place erev Yud Shvat, demonstrated the gamut of activities sponsored by Bris Avrohom, directed by Rabbi Mordechai and Shterna Kanelsky. There was a ceremony in which women and girls received a Jewish name, pidyon ha’ben ceremonies for babies and older people who hadn’t had their pidyon ha’ben, and a bar mitzva celebration for boys and men (including a father and son). Some of them had just undergone a bris barely a month before.

The representative of the newly circumcised expressed their thanks, “Not only for the bris, but also for the warmth, and the attention to the small details.” He urged those who hadn’t yet had a bris to follow their lead.

Each newly circumcised male received a certificate attesting to his mesirus nefesh comparable to that of Avrohom Avinu, a siddur with Russian translation, a watch, and a picture of the Rebbe. Each bar mitzva boy received a tallis, a siddur, a silver-plated kiddush cup, and a picture of the Rebbe. A pair of silver candlesticks was given to married women, and a single candlestick to single girls, along with a picture of the Rebbe and a siddur with Russian translation.