By Rabbi Zalman Goldblatt

I’ve had the zechus of performing brissim for many years. Each one is memorable and impactful in its own way. One thing I’ve learned is that a bris is never just a bris. Time and again, you see how one mitzvah leads to another in ways nobody could have predicted.

Recently, I was invited to perform a bris at a family’s home. It was a small, intimate gathering with close family members.

While helping prepare for the bris, I was assisting the baby’s uncle with putting on a tallis for his kibbud. He admitted that he didn’t know how. To help him feel comfortable, I joked that I also didn’t know how to put on a tallis before I got married.

He laughed and made a few awkward comments about it, but he wanted to wear the tallis, and we continued.

The bris itself was beautiful. There were proud parents, emotional grandparents, and all the warmth and simcha that accompany such a special occasion. The baby was named after the mother’s grandfather, who was also this young man’s grandfather, and the family shared moving memories about him.

After the bris, the young man’s mother, the grandmother of the newborn, approached me. She explained that her son had become very unaffiliated after high school due to some negative experiences with teachers. As a result, he had distanced himself from religion and had little interest in Jewish involvement.

“I’m done with religion,” he had told her.

She shared that he has a Jewish girlfriend who had been encouraging him to speak with their local shliach and consider getting married according to Torah, but until now, he had refused, insisting that he was done with anything religious and wanted nothing to do with it.

“Now,” she continued, “after participating in the bris, seeing the baby named after his grandfather, wearing a tallis for the first time, and being part of the family’s simcha, something was awakened inside him. For the first time, he decided that he is willing to meet with the local shliach and consider taking the next steps toward a Jewish marriage.”

Indeed, a bris isn’t just a bris.

One mitzvah leads to another. Mitzvah goreres mitzvah.