My Article About Bris Milah

I write a weekly column for the Jewish Star in New York - which I reproduce on my Torah/Judaism-focused blog. Last week the topic was Bris Milah - or the Covenant of Circumcision, as it appears in the Torah in Bereshit (Genesis) Chapter 17, Parshas Lekh Lekha.

Here is the link to the Jewish Star      Here is the link to my blog

And here is the text for good measure:

Are Women Not Part of the Covenant of the Bris?

A long essay on the subject. I was inspired!

I am a "Florence Melton Adult Mini School" instructor, and this week my assignment was to teach the class in "Rhythms" entitled "Birth and Berit." Sounds easy enough – doesn't seem like I need to prepare all that much.

[The Melton curriculum is officially "pluralistic." While I will engage all Jews where they are in their Jewish journey, I don't consider myself pluralistic in my approach to Judaism. With this in mind, let us continue…]

The class as formatted explains what the Covenant (Bris) of Circumcision (Milah) is, offers some rabbinic suggestions as to its purpose and why the mark of the covenant is placed on the particular part of the anatomy where it is.

It even asks important sociological questions that pertain to a society in which Jews and non-Jews are routinely circumcised, which would negate the "only Jews" element of circumcision, as well as a concern that non-traditional Jews continue to go through with the procedure on account of a connection based on conformity, as opposed to a religious or traditional conviction. Compelling conversation starters.

All this is fine with me.

But the part that bothers me is when the question is raised as to why there is no parallel ritual for girls, and why it seems women are not part of the covenant. 

Symbolism I - 'ala Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch was one of the great leaders of German Jewry in the 19th century. His vast legacy includes significant works of scholarship and thought that continue to speak to us to this day. While some might suggest were he living now he'd be a champion of "Modern Orthodoxy," I question this premise simply because I don't think the label is very fair to modernity or to Orthodoxy. So we'll leave politics aside for now.

Hirsch's "Collected Writings Volume III" is dedicated to his studies of Symbolism in Jewish life. One of his primary foci is on the mitzvah of Bris Milah. I intend to share some of his teachings through a series of blog postings on this subject.

The following comes from his "preview" of the subject, which appears in his overview of the book, the chapter on "Symbols in Jewish History." (pages 23-24)

The forefather has been promised the nation and the land. He was already ninety-nine years old and his wife eighty nine, when the scion who was to be the bearer of this promise was begotten. But even as the original inhabitants of the promised land will lose the land only because they had forfeited their moral stature, so too, the fulfillment of the promise, the emergence of the nation and its possession of the land were to be dependent on Israel's attaining and maintaining its moral greatness. The resolve to achieve this end, and the acceptance of this obligation, were to precede the birth of the first scion. A year prior to Isaac's birth, God appeared to Abraham and said to him, "Conduct yourself before Me and be whole." (Genesis 17:1)

In that momentous utterance God expressed the full extent of this moral condition for the survival and prosperity of the promised nation. התהלך לפני! Conduct yourself before Me. Do so without any inducements from the outside, indeed,, if need be, even in opposition to all outside influences, והיה תמים, and be "whole." The adjective תמים "whole" (or "perfect") is the most flagrant antithesis to רעע, "broken." Be whole! Let all the aspects of your life, physical and spiritual, all of your character, be governed freely by one principle; subordinate yourself entirely, unconditionally, to the One sole God. This is the condition for the survival and prosperity of the promised nation, this the obligation in the Divine covenant to be assumed by Abraham and his people. Abraham fell upon his face and dedicated himself completely to the fulfillment of this obligation. However, the mission that was to be the everlasting foundation for the spiritual and moral development of the nation in every aspect of its life was not to be entrusted to the spoken word alone. "Now then," thus God concluded the verbal announcement of His covenant, "circumcised the flesh of your foreskin, so that it may become the sign of the covenant between Me and you. Thus My covenant upon your body shall become an everlasting covenant, and an uncircumcised male who does not circumcise the flesh of his foreskin, his soul shall be eliminated from the community of its people; he has broken My covenant!" (Genesis 17:11-14)

Is not the circumcised foreskin a symbol, and circumcision a symbolic act? Are both not אות ברית, symbol of the covenant that calls out to everyone who bears it upon his flesh the eternal admonition: התהלך לפני והיה תמים!

To be continued...

Emotions Vs Intellect Vs God's Law (part II)

[Part I is here]

Rabbinic literature is loaded with discussions about the importance and greatness of Bris Milah. In many postings, I have alluded to the connection between Bris and Pesach (I will write about this some day). One of the most noticable connections is that Elijah the prophet makes an "appearance" at both.

Here is another connection, as quoted in the Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer (the same one I've quoted a few times recently - just a different section of his comments):

 פרקי דרבי אליעזר (היגר) - "חורב" פרק כח

בני יעקב מלו את בניהם ואת בני בניהם והנחילם לחק עולם עד שעמד פרעה הרשע וגזר גזירות קשות ומנע להם ברית מילה, וביום שיצאו ישראל ממצרים נמולו כל העם מקטון ועד גדול, שנ' כי מולים היו, והיו ישראל לוקחין דם ברית מילה ונותנין על משקוף בתיהם דם ברית מילה ודם פסח ונתמלא רחמים על ישראל, שנ' ואעבור עליך ואראך מתבוססת בדמיך, בדמך לא כתיב אלא בדמיך, בשני דמים דם ברית מילה ודם פסח, ואומר לך בדמיך חיי, ר' אליעזר אומ' וכי מה ראה הכתוב שני פעמים בדמיך חיי, אלא אמ' הב"ה בזכות דם ברית מילה ובזכות דם פסח נגאלו ממצרים ובזכות דם ברית מילה ובזכות דם פסח אתם עתידים להגאל בסוף מלכות רביעי

The children of Jacob circumcised their children and grandchildren and left them with this practice forever until the wicked Pharaoh rose and made harsh decrees, preventing them from doing Bris Milah (performing the covenantal circumcision). On the day they left Egypt the entire nation was circumcised, from young to old, as it says "Because they were circumcised when they left Egypt" (Joshua 5:5).

The Israelites took the blood of the circumcision and they put that blood and the blood of the Paschal lamb and put them both on the doorposts to become recipients of God's mercy on that fateful night, as it says " And I passed by you and saw you downtrodden with your bloods, and I said to you, 'With your bloods, live,' and I said to you, 'With your bloods, live.' (Ezekiel 16:6). It doesn't say "blood" in the singular, because it refers to two bloods which caused God to skip over the houses that night.

Rabbi Eliezer says, "Why does the verse say 'With your bloods, live' twice? Because the Holy One Blessed be He declared that in the merit of the blood of the covenant and in the merit of the blood of the lamb the Israelites were redeemed from Egypt, and in those same merits they will be redeemed again, at the end of the fourth exile."

3. A Covenant of Blood (count continues from previous posting)

In essence, then, we have a covenant created over blood.

Hatafat Dam Brit

With the holiday of Pesach (Passover) approaching, it is appropriate to discuss the connections that bris shares with the holiday - and there are many.

One of them is the role of blood in the covenant.

The name of the holiday of Pesach comes from two sources: A. the Paschal lamb, the offering that was set aside for three days before being sacrificed and eaten by the Jewish people in Egypt, and B. the fact that God "passed over" the homes of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt on the night of the "Death of the First Born."

The Paschal Lamb is called the קרבן פסח - Korban Pesach, and the verb to "pass over" is פסח - Pasach - which is formulated slightly different in the name of the lamb and the holiday itself.

What caused God, or the destroying angel, or the death force to pass over the homes of the Hebrew slaves, the Israelites? If the edict against first borns was only against Egyptians, did the Israelites really need to do anything in order to be bypassed?

The answer to the first question is the blood of the lamb. The Israelites were instructed to put the blood of the lamb on the doorposts and mantle of their homes on the evening of the final plague to cause their houses to be skipped.

The second question is a trick question. Surely God knows the difference between the homes of those He is looking to punish and those He wishes to avoid. That is clear. But the Israelites needed to do something, to indicate they understood what was going on. They needed to show their faith in God, and in Egypt, on that night, their faith was demonstrated through following instructions.

Thus, in Egypt, the people were physically and symbolically saved through the merit of the blood of the Paschal lamb.

While the greater significance of blood is not the scope of this posting - there is much written about it in rabbinic teachings - the general significance of blood is that covenants are forged through it.

To our point - bloodless circumcisions, medical circumcisions and circumcisions pre-conversion

In the event that a baby is circumcised through a bloodless technique - which can be accomplished through the use of certain clamps - the bris is not considered to be "kosher." (This point is worthy of discussion, and I will return to it in a different posting) Of course, once the baby is circumcised, (hopefully) there is no more circumcision to be done.

Circumcisions done either not for the sake of a bris (ie by a doctor), before the eighth day of life, or by a non-Jewish officiant are all not considered to be "covenantal." In order to turn the "circ" into a "bris milah" a minor procedure involving the drawing of blood needs to take place under the proper auspices.

We draw a minimal amount of blood from the circumcision scar, typically using a medical lancet, the sterile pin used for blood tests. Once blood is drawn under the auspices of a bris ceremony, the circumcision is now considered to be a bris according to Jewish law.

(To bring an example from a different religion, and NOT TO COMPARE THE TWO RITUALS, you can pour as much water as you want onto a baby or a convert to Catholicism. But until the water comes in the form of baptism and is done by the right person in the right place, it is considered meaningless.)

The blood we are talking about is absolutely minimal. Most people who experience it as adults (converts, or those who discover they were circumcised in the hospital and want to make sure it is "corrected") feel the significance more than they feel the pin-prick that draws the blood.

Babies upon whom I have done this are usually smiling and cooing through the half second it takes.  Healing time is virtually nothing.

Covenants in the Torah

In the weekly Torah portion, we have entered the territory in which most of the covenants between God and humans were forged.

The first covenant is forged using the rainbow as a sign: Genesis 9:12, 15
The rainbow serves as a reminder that all of humanity will never again be destroyed with water. This covenant is between God and all of humanity

The second covenant is made over the mark of circumcision: Genesis 17:10-11 (read the whole chapter!)
This is between God and Abraham's descendants and household (Abraham passes on the tradition of this covenant to his son in Genesis 21)

The third covenant is created through the Shabbat: Exodus 31:13-17
This covenant is between God and the Children of Israel.

The rainbow, circumcision and Shabbat serve as a sign (אות) of God's role and involvement in the world. Circumcision and Shabbat serve as a mark of the special connection the Jewish people have with God.

On one hand, this is a very cursory view of these covenants, but on the other hand, for the God-fearing believer, these are very deep concepts.

The rainbow is external - it is for all of humanity.
Circumcision (as a covenant) is a one time deal which is difficult when it happens, but you don't really notice it beyond that. It is for Abraham's descendants and his household, not as general as the covenant of the rainbow.
Shabbat is, for the uninitiated, more difficult, more taxing, more long-term commitments, and it involves the entire body, on a weekly basis, and is exclusively for the Children of Israel.

We go from very general to very specific. What does this say about God? What does it say about different peoples?