Page created on JCR-UK: 2003
Reformat by Louise Messek: 4 December 2011
Further reformat by David Shulman: 15 August 2014
Latest revision: 17 August 2014

The Circumcision Register of Asher Asher 1861 - 1865

transcribed by Rabbi Bernard Susser

 [Page 2]

WITH THE HELP OF THE LORD
THIS BOOK OF PRAYERS AND THE CUSTOMS OF THE MOHEL
ACCORDING TO RELIGION AND LAW IN ISRAEL
WAS WRITTEN
HERE IN THE VILLAGE OF BISHOPSBRIDGE
NEAR TO THE CITY OF GLASGOW, MAY ZION AND JERUSALEM BE REBUILT
AND WAS FINISHED
ON THE DAY OF THE CONSECRATION OF THE ALTAR, 2 TEVET
IN THE YEAR
BLESSED BE HE WHO IS FAITHFUL IN HIS COVENANT (= '620)

[= Wednesday 28 December 1859]

[Page 18]

AND THESE ARE THE NAMES OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WHO CAME INTO THE COVENANT THROUGH ME. AND AS I CIRCUMCISED THE FORESKINS OF THEIR FLESH SO MAY THE FORESKINS OF THEIR HEART BE CUT AWAY, TO LOVE THE LORD GOD WITH ALL THEIR HEART AND ALL THEIR SOUL. AND MAY HE IN HIS LOVING KINDNESS AND GOODNESS GRANT THEM THE MERIT TO GROW TO THE TORAH AND TO THE HUPPAH AND TO GOOD DEEDS, AND FROM THE FOUNT OF BLESSINGS MAY HE POUR OUT ALL GOOD FOR THEM, AND MAY HE GRANT THEM A GOOD AND LONG LIFE AND PEACE. AND MAY THEY FIND GRACE AND GOOD UNDERSTANDING IN THE EYES OF GOD AND MAN, AND MAY THE SCRIPTURAL VERSE BE FULFILLED FOR EACH OF THEM: 'AND THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD SHALL REST UPON HIM, A SPIRIT OF WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING, A SPIRIT OF COUNSEL AND STRENGTH, A SPIRIT OF KNOWLEDGE AND THE FEAR OF THE LORD' ( ). AND MAY THIS BE HIS WILL, AMEN.

INTRODUCTION

Asher gives the date of birth and the date of circumcision. I have given only the date of birth, noting in column 10) if there was a delay of more than eight days in performing the circumcision.
Asher gives both the Jewish as well as the secular dates of birth and circumcision, I have only quoted the secular date.
So many entries were not fully written up, that one must assume that the parties were not well known to Asher, and that he wrote up his register some time after the circumcision when he had forgotten the names of the parties.

NAMES
In the Ashkenasi tradition it is unusual to give a child the same personal name as a close living relative, such as the father or grandfather. Where then a child appears to bear the same name as its father one tends to think of it being born after the death of its father. Other possibilities, however, should be borne in mind. In no. 8, for example, the child is Naphtali b Naphtali. As the father is not a Jew, they turned to the mother's father's name to use as the patronymic. The maternal grandfather was perhaps dead when the child was born, so the grandfather's name was used both as a personal name for the child, in good Ashkenasi tradition, as well as for its patronymic.

ABBREVIATIONS & GLOSSARY

( ) Material in round brackets appears thus in the original. (Empty information has been removed from this reformat - LM 2011)
-- A double dash indicates that the appropriate entry was not filled in.
" " English names, dates and addresses in the Register are in English. Other comments in the Register in English are placed within inverted commas.

(Re-editing comment:  The following have been prepared as a table for ease of reference and not as originally presented - LM 2011; Table reformatted 2014 - DS)