According to Rabbi Moshe Meiselman…whenever Chazal make a statement about realia, and do not indicate that they are speaking tentatively, then they are correct, and to doubt them is heresy. Rabbi Meiselman thus states, with regard to metzitzah [b'peh, the direct mouth-to-penis sucking haredi mohels do after cutting off the baby's foreskin] (pp. 239-40), that "Chazal's assessment overrides that of modern medicine," because "Chazal understood the situation better than the physicians." He stresses that "we rely upon their judgment unswervingly, even if medical opinion says otherwise.…[Therefore,] the mohel must suction the wound in a traditionally prescribed manner [with his mouth]."

Rabbi Moshe Meiselman

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Rabbi Natan Slifkin writes:

According to Rabbi Moshe Meiselman, in Torah, Chazal and Science, whenever Chazal make a statement about realia, and do not indicate that they are speaking tentatively, then they are correct, and to doubt them is heresy. Rabbi Meiselman thus states, with regard to metzitzah [b'peh, the direct mouth-to-penis sucking haredi mohels do after cutting off the baby's foreskin] (pp. 239-40), that "Chazal's assessment overrides that of modern medicine," because "Chazal understood the situation better than the physicians." He stresses that "we rely upon their judgment unswervingly, even if medical opinion says otherwise."



Following from this, Rabbi Meiselman states that "the mohel must suction the wound in a traditionally prescribed manner." Now, this could only mean that the mohel must suction the wound with his mouth. It is exceedingly strange, though, that Rabbi Meiselman avoids using the word "mouth" in this entire discussion. What is the reason for this? I'm not sure. Perhaps it is politically inexpedient for him to explicitly insist on metitzah b'peh, in the light of all the scandal revolving around the infant illness that it is has caused. Perhaps Rabbi Meiselman is trying to leave himself wiggle room to claim that he is not insisting on metzitzah b'peh but only on metzizah. But his meaning is clear. First, there is the context of the entire discussion - the entire controversy revolves around doing it with the mouth. Second, every reader will assume and understand that this is the intent - if he did not mean metzitzah b'peh, he would have to say so. Third, the phrase "traditionally prescribed manner" does not leave any room for doubt regarding his intentions.



In any case, while Rabbi Meiselman's views on this topic will be anathema to those who accept contemporary medical science and reject his extreme view regarding Chazal's authority, at least it is consistent with his overall approach. One cannot fault him for inconsistency.



Except that one can.



Dr. Shlomo Sprecher pointed out to me that Rabbi Meiselman is in fact revealing a fundamental problem here. Throughout the book, Rabbi Meiselman makes reference to "mori v'rebbi," his uncle and alleged mentor Rav Yosef B. Soloveitchik. A review of the book that appears in The Jewish Press claims that Rabbi Meiselman "had unlimited access to his uncle and rebbe, Rav Yosef Dov HaLevi Soloveitchik, zt”l, who guided him in attaining a profound, thorough and Torah-true perspective on this topic." But Rav Soloveitchik had a very different approach to metzitzah b'peh.…

Slifkin goes on write what is well known and has been reported here previously – Soloveitchik opposed metzitzah b'peh as did his father, Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik.

And so, of course, did the vast majority of haredi and Orthodox rabbis in Lithuania.

But what is most notable here (besides Meiselman's dishonesty) are two things.

First, a significant number of Yeshiva University students spend a year abroad studying in Meiselman's yeshiva in Israel and Meiselman used to the principal of Yeshiva University High Schools of Los Angeles.

The second is that Meiselman claims that anytime a rabbi of the Talmudic era said anything definitive about the physical world, science or medicine and the Talmud does not contradict him, that opinion is the truth and has to be followed because "Chazal understood the situation better than the physicians." And Meiselman says this about metzitzah b'peh – despite the well-documented deaths, injuries and maiming that have killed and sickened so many babies.

Meiselman is a fool.

Despite that very evident fact, YU students and other Americans will stream to learn from him next year just as they have this year and so many years before this. He is, after all, a "great" rabbi.

Related Posts:

1. History Of Metzitzah B'Peh.

2. History Of Disease Transmission And Death From Metzitzah B'Peh.

3. All Metzitzah B'Peh Posts.

[Hat Tip: Yochanan Lavie.]