On January 1st kosher restaurant “Jerusalem” hosted the ceremony of redemption of the firstborn, which is held on the30th day after a birth of the first male child to a Jewish mother, if father does not belong to Cohanim family (priests in the Temple of Jerusalem).
The main reason was redemption of Yosef-Yitzchak — the firstborn of Yom Tov and Tzipora Shufotinskiy, activists of the Jewish community of Krivoy Rog. Rebbe’s shaliakh Rabbi Dovid Altman, who belongs to the Cohanim family, came all the way from Dnepropetrovsk specially for the ceremony.
The baby was dressed up and put on a prepared tray. Around him on the tray there were laying little bags with garlic and sugar. And the child was literally strewn with jewels.
According to the tradition, the Cohen asked the baby’s father, who has the obligation to redeem his son, what he prefers — to buy the baby or give it to Cohanim, whom, according to the Jewish law, all the first-born belong. Yom-Tov gave five silver coins to the Cohen and thus bought his son. And the Cohen, in his turn, gave the redeemed a special blessing that only direct descendants of the priests of the Jerusalem Temple can give.
However, among the people invited to the ceremony there were firstborn, who, for some reason, did not go through this procedure on the 30th day after their birth, and they were given the opportunity to do it now. The firstborn of Mendel Slobodskoy and Bella Gretskaya was redeemed by the baby’s father.
The other two firstborn were adults. According to the Jewish tradition, parents can redeem their child only until the age of 13 years old, and after that the firstborn redeems himself on his own. Therefore Vladimir Shufotinsky (Yom Tov’s father) and Levi Alpheyev (the coordinator of the youth club «See the Light» in Krivoy Rog) redeemed themselves.
After the ceremony of redemption everybody was invited to take part in the meal organized on such a solemn occasion by Yosef-Yitzchak’s parents.