Day of Brit When Father’s and Doctor’s Time Conflict
QUESTION
Washington, D.C.
A baby boy was born Wednesday night. Sunset was 8:04. The father initially thought he was born at 8:06, however, the birth certificate says 7:58. Does this qualify as a safeik?
ANSWER
In such a case we would follow the doctor’s recording of the time and rule that the birth occurred on Wednesday before sunset, and the brit will be on the following Wednesday.
To understand why, we have to consider two scenarios:
- The most likely scenario is that the father’s time is not the moment of halakhic birth. According to halakha, the halakhic time of birth is when the majority of […]