Vach nacht


A vach nacht
or Brit Yitzchak is the night before the brit milah of a male Jewish child, when he is in need of added spiritual protection. A standard "vach nacht" custom, practised by many Ashkenazi Jews, is to have children come and recite the Shema Yisrael and other verses from the Torah near the baby. In Hasidic communities a celebratory meal is held.

Origins

As described in Edut L'Yisrael: Sheiruta di'Tzlota, the current practice appears to be a combination of two distinct customs.
Firstly, as stressed in the Kabbalistic sources, the night before the circumcision is considered a spiritually dangerous time for the baby; as such, the father would gather ten men to conduct a vigil to study Torah to protect him from metaphysical damage. Thus, this night is given the Yiddish name, "night of watching ".
Secondly, non-Kabbalistic sources describe a practice several centuries old, that on the Friday night before the brit milah, a melamed would take his preschool-age students to say Shema near the baby, and afterwards receive candy.