A Chabad rabbi, Yehuda Teichtal, faces a lawsuit and possible criminal prosecution in Germany for having metzitzah b'peh (MBP), the direct mouth-to-bloody-penis sucking done to babies by mohels after the foreskin has been cut off, done to his infant son in violation of German law that requires the highest level of current medical practice to be followed. Israel's chief rabbis' reversal on a plan to ban MBP appears to have taken place to protect Teichtal and Chabad from those legal actions.
A Chabad rabbi, Yehuda Teichtal, faces a lawsuit and possible criminal prosecution in Germany for having metzitzah b'peh (MBP), the direct mouth-to-bloody-penis sucking done to babies by mohels after the foreskin has been cut off, done to his infant son in violation of German law that requires the highest level of current medical practice to be followed. Israel's chief rabbis' reversal on a plan to ban MBP appears to have taken place to protect Teichtal and Chabad from those legal actions.
And that's too bad, because two weeks ago, after an Israeli study that found that 30% of all neonatal herpes infections in Israel come from MBP was publicized there, Israel’s state-funded haredi chief rabbis were reportedly set to release a letter to mohels telling them that metzitzah b’peh (MBP), the direct mouth—to-bloody-penis sucking done by many mohels after removing the baby’s foreskin, is potentially dangerous and should no longer be done. Bolstering their ban was another new Israeli study that indicates that neonates may get subclinical herpes infections in proximity to the time of the MBP, but get stronger infections from it later on. The study also provides support of the theory that some of the increased rate of learning disabilities and special education requirements may be coming from this form of MBP-transmitted HSV=1 infections.
Haredi leaders strong pressured the chief rabbis to drop their planned ban after word of it leaked. Teichtal's legal predicament appears to be the straw that broke the weak backs of Israel's chief rabbis.
The JTA reports:
…Rabbi Moshe Morsiano [sic], chair of the Division of Circumcision for the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, said in his letter dated April 22 that there is no justification for avoiding metzitzah b'peh "unless the mohel [ritual circumciser] has a sore in his mouth, or some infectious disease."
The Jewish legal opinion came from Morsiano after the complaint was lodged against Teichtal. Berlin's state prosecutor is looking into the merits of the complaint.…
In his letter, Morsiano concluded that "this committee requires that the mohel obtain the family’s permission before performing this act in the traditional manner.”…
Other earlier reports have Marciano's letter reading this way:
"In circumstances where there is concern the baby might be exposed to bacterial infection, the oral exsanguinations ritual known as metzitza will be carried out via glass bell-shaped tube, and in all circumstances [only] with parental consent."
Herpes is a virus, not bacterial.
At any rate, it is clear that Marciano wrote to Teichtal to try to keep Teichtal and the Israeli mohel seen touching his finger to his mouth a moment before starting the circumcision out of prison, and to save circumcision in Germany – because what Chabad's Teichtal had done in front of TV cameras, no less, could very well end child ritual circumcision there.
However, Marciano's letter also requires parental consent before MBP can be done, and that argues against the positions of the Central Rabbinical Congress (controlled by Satmar), Agudath Israel of America, a Chabad-led mohels' group and the other haredim who are suing New York City to stop the city's informed consent requirement.
But I'm confident that if Marciano's letter is ever used by the city in support of its own position on informed consent, haredi rabbis, including Marciano and Israel's chief rabbis, will find a way to supoort the American haredim and oppose their own letter.
After all, it isn't the truth that matters, it isn't the danger to babies that matters. What matters is protecting haredi rabbis from the legal coonsequences of their actions, consequences they absolutely deserve and which are long overdue.