Every week, dozens of brissim are held in the Lederman shul with Hagaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky serving as the sandak, but one of the brissim held on Monday morning was anything but routine.
A bris was held on Monday for a baby whose father is currently serving a jail sentence, B’Chadrei Chareidim reported. Before the bris, the man’s relatives asked Harav Chaim if the father could say the pesukim and the name of the baby from his prison over the phone. Harav Chaim paskened that it was permissible for the father to say the pesukim by phone and appoint the mohel as his shaliach.
Harav Chaim served as the sandak and the father – as planned – said the pesukim over the phone and named the baby Neriya.
One of the participants at the bris told B’Chadrei Chareidim that “the family was very moved. They asked Harav Chaim for a bracha that the father will be released from jail quickly and be able to continue raising his children.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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7 Responses
in ail for??
I’m surprised Reb Chaim didn’t comment about the name, as he has said in the past that certain names aren’t names!
Interesting ruling. Was this done by video call? If not, how do you know the voice was the actual father?
ShlomoP, why would he have any comment about Neriya, which is a real name, not some made-up Israeli hippy “name”?
Swings, there was nothing to rule on. There’s no doubt that one can make a shliach over the phone, not just for a bris but even to give a get. The shliach knows it’s the person because he recognizes the voice.
Beside which, even if it turns out that it was someone else, so what? The bris doesn’t become posul just because the father didn’t authorize it! A get would be posul, and yet we allow a shliach to be appointed by phone.
How do you think it used to work before phones, when people would make a shliach by letter? You would sign your name and the people on the other side didn’t even know whether your signature was genuine. If you later challenged it and claimed that someone forged your name then a beis din could compare signatures.
One of the 48 neviim. Boruch ben Neriyah. Both father and son were neviim.
Milhouse you make valid points but shlikhut is a complicated issue. But hearing a voice over the phone even if you recognize said voice does not mean it is actually the person