Watch your back Rabbi Tendler

The New York Times, today, ran another story on metzitzah b'peh, in which, once again, the thoughts of Dr. Rabbi Moshe Tendler on the subject were published: "

The rule that's above all rules in the Torah is that you cannot expose or accept a risk to health unless there is true justification for it," said Dr.Tendler, co-author of a 2004 article in the journal Pediatrics that said direct contact posed a serious risk of infection.

"Now there have been several cases of herpes in the metro area," he said. "Whether it can be directly associated with this mohel nobody knows. All we're talking about now is presumptive evidence, and on that alone it would be improper according to Jewish law to do oral suction."

We agree with Rabbi Tendler (after all, the Chatam Sofer, Rabbi A. Hildesheimer and Rabbi S. R. Hirsch are all on record saying that metzitzah may be done with a device like a sponge or pipe) but we're worried for him. The last time Rabbi Tendler was published on the subject of metzitzah b'peh the thugs who live down the hill from him vandalized his house and shul. In the name of God, of course.