Rav Yitzchak Yosef
In his weekly shiur last night at the Yazdim Shul, former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Rav Yitzchak Yosef shared a personal and little-known family story explaining why his father, Chacham Ovadia Yosef zt”l, made a lifelong decision to decline serving as sandek at the bris of twins.
Rav Yosef revealed that the decision stemmed from a traumatic incident many years earlier. According to his account, his father once served as sandek for twin boys. Several weeks later, one of the infants tragically passed away. The event left a profound mark on Rav Ovadia, who feared that serving as sandek for two children in succession might involve ayin hara.
“After that,” Rav Yitzchak Yosef related, “my father was afraid. He said perhaps it was ayin hara, that one person was sandek for two children one after the other.” From that point on, whenever Rav Ovadia was invited to such a bris, he firmly declined to serve as sandek for both infants, saying, “I will sit for one—bring someone else for the second.” Rav Yosef added that his father carried genuine pain over the episode and consistently refused thereafter.
During the same shiur, Rav Yosef offered practical guidance regarding the laws and customs of bris milah. He emphasized the importance of choosing a sandek who is a talmid chacham, while noting that the primary requirement for the mohel is professional competence. “A sandek, it is important to choose a talmid chochom,” he said. “As for the mohel, what matters most is that he knows how to perform the milah. If he is also a talmid chochom and available, that is preferable, but otherwise one may choose a skilled mohel.”
He concluded with sharp criticism of the practice of postponing a bris milah until the afternoon hours. Citing the ruling of the Or Zarua, he stressed that delaying the milah is considered a מצוה ביזוי, a degradation of the mitzvah. “Why do a bris at two in the afternoon?” he asked pointedly. “A person waits years, davens, perhaps has many daughters and finally merits a son—and then he delays the bris until the afternoon?” He urged parents to perform the bris before midday whenever possible, reiterating that delaying it unnecessarily diminishes the honor of the mitzvah.
Reprinted from the Matzav.com website.
