The mohel performs the ritual circumcision of a Jewish boy on the eighth day, acting as the agent of the father on whom the obligation properly falls.
Agent of the father
The commandment to circumcise a son rests on the father, and the mohel acts as his agent, carrying out on his behalf the rite that marks the entry of the child into the covenant of Abraham, so the office is one of skilled delegation of a paternal duty. The circumcision is performed on the eighth day after birth, in a ceremony, the brit milah, that is among the most fundamental and widely kept of Jewish observances, marking the covenant in the flesh of the child.
Skill and training
The mohel must be trained both in the religious requirements of the rite and in its safe performance, and the office therefore combines religious standing with practical skill, the traditional mohel learning the procedure by apprenticeship and, in the modern period, many mohels also holding medical qualifications. There is no ordination, and the office is a recognised competence rather than a clerical order. The rite the mohel performs is ancient and central, the physical sign of the covenant that the tradition traces to Abraham, and the office exists to carry it out correctly and safely on behalf of the father and the community into which the child is being received.