Rav Soloveitchik Delays a Bris for Jaundice

Rabbi Meiselman’s son Naftali Yehudah was born late Sunday evening, June 16, 1974. The b’ris should have been scheduled for Monday, June 24. After a few days, he was still seriously jaundiced. On Sunday morning, June 23, the bilirubin count dropped dramatically and the hospital released him. The head neonatologist of Evanston Hospital said that there was absolutely no reason not to have the b’ris on the following day. Furthermore, he added that there would have been no reason to postpone the b’ris, even if he were still jaundiced. In his opinion, the jaundice did not present any danger for a b’ris milah. Rabbi Soloveitchik, Rabbi Meiselman’s rebbe, said to delay the b’ris for seven days from Sunday morning, when the dangerous jaundice disappeared. Rabbi Meiselman argued that the doctor had said that there was currently no danger and that even previously there had not been a danger for a b’ris milah. Rabbi Soloveitchik was adamant. “Chazal said that a b’ris milah on a jaundiced baby is a danger and therefore we have to wait seven days after the illness disappears, as we do with any other illness.”