Abstract
Male infant circumcision as a Jewish ethnic marker began not with the mythical Abraham but as a rite introduced by priests sometime around 500 BCE, when they created the circumcision story that became Chapter 17 of Genesis. Circumcised male genitals became the “sign” of the covenant (bris or brit) between the Lord and the Israelite nation. But why has this practice become entrenched in Jewish culture when so much else has changed? I argue that circumcision achieved singular status because it was specifically targeted for rejection by Christians. Christian theologians identified circumcision as exemplary evidence that Judaism was an anachronistic religion preoccupied with physical concerns. In response, rabbis extolled circumcision as God’s supreme gift to the Jewish people, confirmation of his eternal covenant. Over the centuries, as Christians portrayed circumcision with scorn and ridicule, the rite became a tradition not to be questioned, for that meant capitulation to the age-old assault from Christianity. A new challenge emerged with nineteenthcentury modernity, when a few German-Jewish laymen questioned the practice; but nearly all rabbis, even those in the new Reform movement, passionately rejected their arguments. In the United States, Reform Judaism has become more conservative, and there is now a board-supervised training of physicians to function as Reform circumcisers. Recently, two Jewish scholars published illuminating critical studies of circumcision; but most Jews still defend this harmful custom, justifying it with vague references to biblical commands or ostensible medical benefits, and often expressing surprise or annoyance when it is questioned.
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References
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In Chapter 12 of Leviticus (another P text), the Lord tells Moses to instruct the Israelites on the status of women after childbirth. Inserted into the text is a statement on infant circumcision: “When a woman at childbirth bears a male, she shall be unclean seven days; she shall be unclean as at the time of her menstrual infirmity. — On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.” Dashes inserted into the translated text separate the latter sentence from additional instruction regarding purification of the mother. During the first seven days of his life, the infant is still contaminated by contact with female blood, the quintessential pollutant. On the eighth day he is in appropriate condition for shedding of his own male blood, the ultimate sacred substance. Jewish Publication Society. JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society; 1999. p. 231. See also Archer LJ. Bound by blood: circumcision and menstrual taboo in post-exilic Judaism. In: Soskice JM, editor. After Eve. London: Collins Marshall Pickering; 1990. pp. 38–61.
A particular challenge came from young Jewish men who practiced “uncircumcision” (epispasm), perhaps so that they could participate in athletic events in which men performed naked. This was probably the reason for the institution of the more radical procedure called periah: stripping back and removal of all foreskin tissue covering the glans.
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Glick, L.B. (2001). Jewish Circumcision. In: Denniston, G.C., Hodges, F.M., Milos, M.F. (eds) Understanding Circumcision. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-3351-8_2
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