How to explain bris to my 5 year old

amother

Mon, Feb 06 2023, 11:56 am

I took my kids this morning to a family bris. My DH is away this week so I walked in alone with all my kids. My bil who is a teen offered to take my 5 year old ds with him into the men section. I went upstairs with my other children. I looked down from the mechitza and saw my ds with my bil standing in the front watching the bris with a very clear view. I couldn't get him out and I saw my sons face and he looked very confused. After the bris on the way to yeshiva he kept asking what were they doing? Why so much blood? Why did the man lick the blood? He couldn't believe it. I am very unhappy my bil didn't have the sechel to keep him away. How do I answer these questions to my ds? I told him we'll discuss it when he gets home from yeshiva.

amother

Brass

Mon, Feb 06 2023, 12:04 pm

Hashem made boys with an extra piece of skin on their eiver. It's okay to leave it there, and for many years that's what all people did. Then Hashem gave a mitzvah to Avraham Avinu, and later to ALL of the Yidden, to cut off the extra piece of skin as a sign that we are always connected to Hashem.

Whenever we cut skin, even a little piece, it bleeds. That's how Hashem made us! Blood goes to all of the parts of the body and keeps us alive. So a bris also bleeds, but then it stops bleeding, just like when you get a booboo on another part of your body. For some babies it hurts only a little bit, for other babies it hurts more. But it's a very big mitzvah.

Part of the mitzvah of Bris Milah is keeping the baby safe! The Chachomim teach us that sucking away part of the blood helps keep the baby safe. That's called Metzitzah, and that's why it looked like the mohel was licking the blood. Of course he can't really lick the blood, blood isn't kosher! He just sucks some away and spits it out.

When you were a baby you also had a bris milah. And now every single minute you're doing a mitzvah, just by being a Jewish boy with a bris!

amother

Jetblack

Mon, Feb 06 2023, 12:13 pm

Btw, experienced Mohalim will tell you that it's not all that painful for a newborn to have a bris.

It's uncomfortable and also, many newborns hate being exposed and they start crying when they are undressed, not just cut.