The Bris for the six-weeks-old son of Shluchim to Limassol, Cypress, Rabbi Yair and Geula Baitz, took place today in the international arrivals terminal of Ben Gurion airport. Immediately after the Bris, the family flew back home to Cyprus.
By Anash.org reporter
The Bris for the six-weeks-old son of Shluchim to Limassol, Cypress, Rabbi Yair and Geula Baitz, took place today in the international arrivals terminal of Ben Gurion airport.
Attempts by Rabbi Baitz to bring a mohel to Limassol, Cypress, proved unsuccessful due to travel restrictions, and for the family to bring the baby to Israel for the bris, would require the parents and baby to spend two weeks in isolation.
Finally, the solution is found: Rabbi Baitz obtained a private plane and they flew with the baby from Larnaca, Cypress, to Tel Aviv, Israel. The Bris was performed there in the new ‘Fattal’ lounge of the empty terminal.
Family members were already waiting for them in the airport, including Rabbi Baitz’s father-in-law, Rabbi Boaz Yurkowitz, Rov of the Chabad community in Lod, Chabad activist Rabbi Yaakov Globerman, and the mohel Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Junik from Nachlat Har Chabad.
And so, without the parents and the baby needing to cross the borders into Israel, the one-and-a-half-month-old was given a bris. The boy’s grandfather Rabbi Boaz Yurkowitz was honored with reciting the Brochos, and the boy was given the name Elimelech Halevy.
Immediately after the Bris, the family flew back home to Cyprus. They will not have to enter quarantine when then return because they never crossed an international border.
Working with the Israeli and Cypriot Foreign and Health ministries to obtain special permission for this arrangement were Chief Rabbi of Cyprus Rabbi Aryeh Ze’ev Raskin, activist Rabbi Yaakov Gloiberman, and Israel’s Minister of Interior Rabbi Aryeh Deri.
