Wherever he’s called, Rav Aharon Rokach of Machnovka-Belz is a mohel without borders

Photos: Elchanan Kotler, Family archives

Rav Aharon Rokach, son of the Machnovka-Belz Rebbe in Bnei Brak, travels around the world bringing babies into the covenant of Avraham Avinu, never failing to see tremendous Divine assistance in the most far-flung places. Yet you don’t have to go to frozen Siberia to experience the connection of the Covenant — it’s a renewal that awaits every Jew on Rosh Hashanah, and at every bris you attend

You don’t have to wait until Rosh Hashanah in order to reaffirm your personal covenant with Hashem. All you have to do is attend a bris.

That’s why Rav Aharon Rokach, son of the Machnovka-Belz Rebbe, rav of the Machnovka kehillah in Elad, and a top-tier international mohel, encourages people to join in and really connect with the bris ceremony, not just to stop in, say mazel tov to the parents, and wash on a bagel.

“On Rosh Hashanah,” says Rav Rokach, “we reestablish the bris — the eternal covenant — with Hashem, which is similar to the bris of an eight-day old Jewish baby. The Zohar explains that the section of Chumash we always read the week before Rosh Hashanah, ‘Atem nitzavim hayom,’ means that every Jew stands before Hashem renewing the kesher, the covenant. And when this covenant is renewed, the person attains the level of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, a level higher than the angels, a level intimate with Hashem’s essence, and has the ability to wipe his slate clean.”

This renewal that awaits us on Rosh Hashanah, the Rav explains, happens to every Jewish boy when he has a bris, and the midrash similarly tells us that anyone who attends a bris has their sins forgiven — because more than just coming in to shake the parent’s hand, he’s there because he wants to be a part of this incredible process of spiritual connection. This bris-goer is saying, “I also want to be a part of this covenant, and I want to renew my own.”

Rav Rokach, therefore, will never refuse a request to perform a bris, even if it’s at the other end of the world from his home in Bnei Brak, and even if the parents of the newborn themselves are covered in layers of materialism or foreign ideologies, where they might even be expected to be outraged at the thought of “maiming” their baby.

“As far away as the parents might be, both geographically and spiritually, they still desire a connection to the eternal covenant, even if they don’t understand why,” Rav Rokach says. “And if Hashem has sent me to create this bond between Him and His beloved children, wherever they may be, how can I possibly refuse?”