Rabbi Mordecai Tarkieltaub

Excellent experience! Rabbi T is experienced, kind and compassionate.

As a rabbi I have had the good fortune to call on Rabbi Tarkieltaub for my own sons and to recommend him to others in our community. He is everything one would want in a mohel — 1 and most important, he is competent and quick 2 he is a mentsch, respectful to all Jews and willing to work with all the varieities of Jewish people today. Some non Orthodox Jews are put off by his ‘uniform’ in that he is an Orthodox Jew. Don’t be! In his case, labels are meaningless. He is a mentsch, a true Ohev Yisrael.

It’s rare I get a first to review on Unilocal these days, but I think I’m the first person to review a mohel in Chicago. When I found out I was having a boy I asked 15 friends with baby boys who they used as the mohel for the bris. Twelve out of fifteen responded with Rabbi Tarkieltaub’s name. Since then I’ve been trying to figure out how he has time to circumcise every jewish boy in Chicago. I also sent him an email right away to his genius email address (
) to be sure he’d be available for our little boy. He was very quick to respond and even included helpful instructions for planning the bris and said to call him when our son was born since he can’t book his schedule more than 8 days ahead of time. I made a mental note to make sure Rabbi Tarkieltaub was the first call after delivery… figured the grandparents would understand!
I ended up calling the Rabbi a week or so before my son was born because I was trying to plan as much as possible for the bris and was a bit confused by the jewish laws. For those wondering the bris occurs 8 days after birth, but it depends on sundown. So if the boy is born BEFORE sundown on a Wednesday the bris is the following Wed. However, if the boy is born AFTER sundown on a Wednesday (like my son was) the bris is the following Thursday. The Rabbi explained it all very well. Anyway, enough with the jewish education and back to Rabbi Tarkieltaub…
He was available for our bris (whoo hoo). We texted a few times before the bris (this is one tech savvy mohel) to discuss some details, but he made it all as simple as possible. Much appreciated because I needed something to be simple between the craziness of raising a 2 year old and a newborn. The day of the bris Rabbi Tarkieltaub was timely, professional and fast. I was a little nervous about the whole thing and thrilled to see that the circumcision was as quick and painless as possible. It was over before we knew it and he gave us very specific instructions on how to clean it. .
There wasn’t a specific charge for the Rabbi’s services so it’s up to you on how much you want to pay. I asked my friends who had used him how much they gave and it was anywhere between $ 250 – 500. I left the bris relieved with how it went and was even more impressed when Rabbi Tarkieltaub called me the next day to check in and thank me for the honor of letting him perform the circumcision.
For all concerned my son has recovered nicely and even our pediatrician told me I made a very good choice with the mohel. I’ve already recommended him to a few pregnant friends so it looks like Rabbi Tarkieltaub will be adding a few others to his already busy schedule.