Concern for Pogum Wine at a Bris Mila
Finger in baby’s mouth. When the bracha “אשר קידש ידיד וכו'” is made after a bris, there is a minhag to repeat the posuk “ואומר לך בדמייך חיי ,” with the mohel putting his finger into the cup of wine and then into the baby’s mouth two times (שו''ע יו''ד סי' רס''ה ס''א ). [There is a minhag to create the shape of the letters shin-daled-yud with the fingers (ט''ז בשם הב''י ). Three consecutive fingers make a shin. Some bend the thumb to form a yud and bend the little finger to form a daled, then give the wine with the little finger (זכור לאברהם הספרדי ערך מילה ); others bend the index finger instead of the little finger to form a daled (עי' זוכר הברית פכ''ג סט''ז ).]
Concern for pogum. Some poskim discuss whether putting a finger in the baby’s mouth and then into the kos for the second dip makes the kos pogum or not. Some hold the kos does not become pogum because sucking a finger is not a normal manner of drinking (כוס ישועות ליקוט''ה פ''ג אות ח').
However, others are concerned, at least l’chatchila, about pogum, as they want to satisfy the opinion that even if a minute amount is missing from the kos, it becomes pogum (כף החיים סי' קפ''ב סכ''א). Others are concerned it is distasteful, as there is in fact saliva from the baby’s mouth in the kos. This is irrelevant to nullifying pogum wine, as there, the wine is botul in the greater amount of wine in the kos, but the fact is, there is still saliva in the cup.
Switching fingers. Thus, some mohelim switch fingers between the two times they touch the baby’s mouth, e.g., the first time they put the index finger in the baby’s mouth and the second time they change the letter forms of the shin-daled-yud and stick the little finger into the mouth. This way, the finger that was in the mouth the first time does not go back into the kos, avoiding any concern for a pogum kos. [An additional gain is that they fulfill two minhagim of forming the letters shin-daled-yud with the fingers, as described (above, 33) (אדמו''ר מראחמסטריווקא שליט''א, וכך נוהג אני הק').]
