Rabbi on a mission beats speeding ticket

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MONTREAL, June 18 (UPI) -- A Quebec judge has dismissed a speeding ticket for a Montreal rabbi who explained he was on his way to help a boy bleeding from a circumcision.

The date of the ticket or the speed Rabbi Jacob Levy was alleged to be traveling in the city didn't come up in the court hearing, The Gazette newspaper said.

Levy, who used to be grand rabbi of Geneva, told the municipal judge he "was going a reasonable speed" after he got a distress call from a mother whose 8-day-old son was bleeding into his diaper.

Levy said he had been trained in Jerusalem as a circumciser, or mohel, and showed the judge his surgical kit as proof, the report said.

The judge asked Levy why the mother hadn't called 911.

"Doctors don't like to treat circumcision cases because the practice is so rare nowadays here -- they prefer to leave it to specialists like me," Levy said.

The judge said he understood the "necessity" of Levy's haste and dismissed the ticket, the newspaper said.

There was no indication of who ultimately treated the infant.