Meet Noam Abraham, my new nephew. Adorable huh? So before his bris, I emailed his Mom, my sister Tanya, to let her know about the Tahdid or the steel sword ritual of the Jews of Morocco. I thought that given the fact that we are Moroccan Jews, it might be a fun thing to do.
It’s at midnight, the hour of the demons, that begin the Tahdid or ritual of the sword … The guests would sing with great faith while a family member would trace the walls, door and windows all around the room with a sword. By this gesture, they insured the new born protection against the “Jnouns” [demons] until the day he was circumcised, after which he would be protected by G_d as a member of the people of israel.
Clearly unimpressed with the idea of sword play in close proximity to her newborn son, my sister never responded to the email.
I wonder why she never calls me to babysit either?
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Dave, good-looking kid. Good stuff! Mazel-Tov a zillion times over. Let’s make a shiddach!!!!!
Hey brother,
Never commented cause never got the email…but hey thanks for plastering pics of my baby all over the net…he is definitely delicious and jewlicious. You can babysit as soon as you get that babysitter’s license…no kidding, it actually exists! Nah, you can watch him anytime…
Later,
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[…] have dark curly brown or black hair and that’s ok! Of course there’s no mention of the Morrocan pre-bris Tahdid sword ceremony – but I guess the guide is not meant to be exhaustive. For that you have […]