It was turnabout time at Tifereth Israel Synagogue on Friday, Dec. 28. Cantor Alisa Pomerantz-Boro wasn't attending a brit milah for a congregant¹s child. Instead, many members of the Conservative congregation assembled for the brit milah of her second child, Joshua Gedaliah Boro.

The cantor, her husband Stephen Boro, daughter Rebecca, other family members and friends from throughout the country participated in a joyful service in which Boro's father, Michael, cheerfully admitted that while all of Joshua¹s maternal relatives were gifted singers, with the Boro family "music is a recessive gene."

The ceremony began with Cantor Keith Miller of Kehillat Ma'arav of Santa Monica chanting L'Dor V'Dor as Joshua was brought into the sanctuary by his parents and sister and passed from arms to arms down a family line that included uncles, aunts and cousins to grandparents Kay and Rabbi Moshe Pomerantz of the Midchester Jewish Center of Westchester, N.Y.

When Rabbi Pomerantz had his turn, he summoned his sons Ari and Joey and daughter Raquel to the front of the sanctuary, where they serenaded the Pomerantz-Boros and the congregation with a rendition of Hallelujah.

Next the baby was passed to his paternal grandmother, Miriam Boro, and then to his paternal grandfather, Michael, who served as the sandak, holding Joshua on his lap in a special chair designated as belonging to the prophet Elijah.

Rabbi William Gershon of Shearith Israel of Dallas, Texas, remarked that prayers for Elijah to fulfill his mission as the harbinger of the coming of the Messiah are features of such Jewish ceremonies as the weekly Havdalah service, the Passover seder and the brit milah— all times when families traditionally gather.

Gershon, who is married to Cantor Pomerantz-Boro's sister Raquel, noted that according to Jewish tradition, each Jewish child has the opportunity to become the mashiach (messiah).

Next Cantor Mimi Hasselkorn of Temple Beth David in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, accompanied herself on guitar while singing Shema B'ni, a sentimental song with such lyrics as "Take these wings to grow on."

Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal, spiritual leader of Tifereth Israel Synagogue and usually Cantor Pomerantz-Boro¹s co-officiant at services, made a cameo appearance, explaining that the brit milah is the covenant in which God told Abraham to circumcise his son in recognition of the special relationship that would evolve between Abraham's family and God.

Then Dr. Martin Gilboa, serving as mohel, performed the circumcision on the same reader's table where each week the Torah is read on Shabbat. Cantor Pomerantz-Boro, who had wrapped her son in the protection of her tallit, stayed with him during the surgical procedure, holding to his lips cotton dipped in wine.

After the surgery was completed, Joshua officially was given his name by his grandfather, Rabbi Pomerantz. The boy's father, Stephen, recalled that the biblical Joshua became the leader of the Hebrews after the death of Moses and led them across the Jordan River into the promised land.

Then Joshua's mother, the cantor, explained that in naming her son Joshua Gedalia Pomerantz Boro, the family purposefully had chosen the initials of the first names of her late paternal grandparents, Jenny and George, who had become members of Tifereth Israel Synagogue after George Pomerantz's retirement as a cantor.  It was this grandfather, she said, in a voice
quavering with fond memory, who was a role model and an inspiration for her to become a cantor.