Reply To: NYC Board of Health Votes to Regulate Bris Milah

I too would be thrilled to go to jail for this; standing up for the Torah HaKedosha. Nevertheless, failure to comply with this new NYC DOH regulation is only similar to parking in a No Parking zone or a restaurant violating how hot the NYC DOH requires meat be cooked at. (The latter example is, too, a NYC DOH regulatory violation.) All those violations, as well as violating this new NYC DOH rule on MBP, merely result in — at most — a fine.

Except violating the Bris Milah regulation isn’t enforceable, as even in the unlikley event that the DOH can determine who the Mohel was (since neither the parents nor the mohelim will be answering the DOH’s questions), they still won’t be able to determine or prove whether metzitza was done b’peh or with a tube. (The latter remains unregulated and requires no consent form.)

Aside from the fact they won’t even know which Bris Milahs to investigate (to issue a fine for not signing a form) in the first place. This is despite the fact that every Mohel performing MBP will now routinely be flouting this new regulation.