Rabbi Paysach Krohn may be retiring his bris bag, but after 57 years of milah, he is still using his gifts to bring Jews into the covenant

Photos: Shulim Goldring

The home at 84-09 120th Street was ordinary, its blend of brick and siding looking like any other in Kew Gardens, New York.

But the scene taking place on the inside told a very different story.

Rav Sholom Schwadron, legendary mashpia of the Chevron Yeshivah, stood across from Mrs. Hindy Krohn, seated next to her teenaged son. The widow of the late Reb Avrohom Krohn, niftar just months prior, was voicing pain over her recent loss, and the great Maggid of Yerushalayim was offering words of comfort.

But her son would reveal that the primary subject of their conversation was his older brother, the bechor.

“It’s hard for me to watch Paysach leave yeshivah,” Mrs. Krohn said with a sigh.

She lamented that her oldest son, who had been doing so well in Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, now had to leave to support the family. He had taken over his father’s role as a mohel, but that decision was weighing on him — and it weighed on his mother as well.

When she finished talking, Rav Sholom was quiet. But only for a moment.

“Zurg zach nisht,” he said, “der gantze velt vet noch heren zein Torah.” Don’t worry, the whole world will yet hear his Torah.

Over the years, the reputation of Reb Avrohom Krohn’s son as an excellent mohel would spread. But somehow, as he traveled from bris to bris, a reputation of a different sort would spread as well.

The excellent mohel knew how to write.

The excellent writer knew how to speak.

The excellent speaker knew how to give much needed chizuk and encouragement.

And it’s hard to track when, where, or how it all happened, but Rav Sholom’s brachah began to materialize.

Mrs. Krohn needn’t have worried.

The whole world was hearing her son’s Torah.