Jews are called the “People of the Book” for a reason – they rely on books to instruct them in righteous living, and on how to bring justice into the world. Their books advise them on the details of life – from which foods to eat or not eat to suggestions on civil behavior, such as not raising your voice in conversation in order to keep the discussion more pleasant.
The major books that Jews turn to are quite familiar: Torah, which is the first five books of Moses that are read from a hand-written (perfect) scroll, usually in shul, temple, or synagogue each year. My father tells me that his parents owned a Torah, which is mother’s parents kept in their apartment and which my great-grandfather studied all the time, often with other Jewish men. And after their oldest son died in a pogrom in Latvia, in the early 1900s, my mother’s father’s parents, who were quite well-to-do for Jews living there then, had a Torah commissioned to honor that son, Israel. Then, when my grandfather and his best friend Gilbert (who eventually married one of my grandfather’s younger sisters, here in the States) got Bar Mitzvahed – at the same time, by the way – in my great-grandparents lavish apartment (for those times; Mother always tells me how they had sterling silver flatware and a grand piano and she was right – they had these things when others were living in one or two-room dwellings with dirt floors) they used that Torah. It is in a synagogue in Philadelphia now and I asked for it when we had no Torah in our little temple, but alas, that temple didn’t want to part with it. Anyway, the point here is that many people had their own Torahs to study; it wasn’t just a congregation that owned them. And today, what is in the Torah can be read by anyone, even on line.
So back to Maimonides, our dude who is one of the few Jewish scholars to ever address the issue of circumcision and have his musings recorded in a book that has survived hundreds of years. The other important books that Jews study is the Talmud, which a compendium of laws and commentary, and the Midrash, which is the book that retells Jewish stories, then interprets them and adds commentary of individual scholars. Along with three major works – Torah, Talmud, and Midrash – are other books, from prayer books to books by individual rabbis, scholars, commentators, poets, essayists, and novelists. We clearly are the “people of the Book!” In fact, when I got into writing, back in the late 1970s, the publishing industry in the U.S., located primarily in New York City but also elsewhere in a few other cities such as Chicago, Minneapolis, and San Francisco, was so dominated by Jewish editors, publishers, and agents that one of my Catholic editors used to joke about her inclusion. It’s not like that anymore but it is rare to go into a Jewish home and not find avid readers among the people living there.
For Jews, study and learning are as important as prayer. Indeed, it was study that helped the Jews survive the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 C.E. (I know I keep repeating that event but it is that important to our history!) The priestly caste of Sadducees lost power to the Pharisees, who were the spiritual fathers of modern Judaism. Their rabbis, who studied and taught in local synagogues and yeshivas (Jewish schools), helped sustain the Jews as a people through the following two thousand years of homelessness and exile. One of the most interesting things I learned about Jewish study was the respect any teacher had for the brilliant student -- and for the poor student – and for women students. Let me explain. The first thing a Jewish group of at least 10 did was establish a school and a cemetery in the place they were exiled to – not necessarily a place of worship, though that would eventually come. Instead the school was more important that the place of worship. In addition, as I explained in an earlier post, males had compulsory education – by age 6, all Jewish males had to be in school and learning how to read Hebrew and to study, ask questions, and basically become a Jewish scholar even if they were eventually to become a peddler, merchant or tavern owner, as many did become. But – and this is what is also so interesting – women were not compelled to study but were allowed to study – and many did learn to read, write and study Jewish texts. One of my great-grandmothers was one of four daughters of a rabbi, who lived in a small shtetl in Latvia. Because he had no sons, he educated each daughter in Talmud and other texts. Basically, he taught them how to be judges because in those days, civil suits between Jews could only be settled in “Jewish courts,” so my great-grandmother (and her sisters) learned enough about Jewish law to settle cases. My grandmother settled them in the shtetl, Einselhof, where she and her husband lived in the early years of their marriage, before their eldest son was killed in that pogrom.
The last thing I want to mention, although it will be told in the following story, is the respect for the brilliant student, who was often asked to teach, once his brilliance was revealed!
Maimonides, the scholar-philosopher-physician
One of the most respected scholars of Judaism during the two millennia between the destruction of the Second Temple and the exile of most of the Jews living in Palestine and the creation of the State of Israel and their return to the area was Moses Maimonides. Maimonides was born in Cordoba, Spain, in 1135, while Spain was under Moorish control. Later, as the local Spanish Muslim rulers grew less tolerant of the Sephardic Jews there (and eventually expelled them, in 1492), Moses spent most of his early years in exile, traveling first through Spain and Morocco, then settling in Egypt. Along the way, in addition to his Jewish studies, he also studied philosophy and trained in medicine. In Cairo, he became a physician to the court of the Muslim leader, Saladin, and also became an important figure in the Jewish community there.
Much of Maimonides' writing was centered on the difficulty of balancing faith and reason. With loyalty to both his religious and his medical training, he searched for a way to understand and justify circumcision. His best-known book was The Guide for the Perplexed, first written in Arabic and later translated in Hebrew. Finally, over a thousand years later, it was translated into English. While other rabbis and scholars have written about Judaism and circumcision, it is the ideas that Moses Maimonides set forth that are still very much valued and often followed as guides even today.
Despite the importance of circumcision in Judaism, many rabbis and Jewish scholars simply took the custom for granted. But Maimonides, aspiring to explain and comment on every single one of the Torah’s 613 mitzvot, or commandments, wrote rather thoughtfully on circumcision. His comments are so interesting – and so frequently cited – that they are being included in this blog, because a discussion about Jewish circumcision would be incomplete without them.
First, a quote from a letter Maimonides wrote to the “wise men of Marseilles,” in 1194 C.E. “A person should only believe what he can grasp with his intellectual faculties, or perceive by his senses, or what he can accept on trustworthy authority. Beyond this, nothing should be believed.” Wow! Maimonides is saying that is up to you to read about circumcision, and think about the issues that surround it. Granted, I’ve only been dealing with primarily the Jewish and a few cultural issues in this blog – there are so many more to deal with, including medical, cultural, personal, sexual, ethical and other issues.
After learning as much as you can about circumcision, accept what makes sense to you and reject what doesn’t make sense. That’s what Maimonides advised – and how modern his advice sounds. How liberal, too, at least in some areas. And how wise.
Maimonides on circumcision
In his Guide to the Perplexed, Maimonides first delivers an interesting commentary on the crossbreeding of animals. He advised against letting an ox and an ass plow a field together, lest they have intercourse and produce a mule – an animal that is sterile. (While it is clear that Maimonides would have something to say about the popularity of cross-breeding today – of cockapoos and Labradoodles, remember that he wasn’t against the creation of a new breed per se, but rather the creation of a sterile breed that could never reproduce. One rabbi told us that while Jews should not do crossbreeding, though they may enjoy the fruits of someone else’s crossbreeding efforts (sounds hypocritical but who knows? I don’t!) This means that grapples, pluots, and ugli fruit can be relished, and trendy cross-bred dogs, ligers, and zonkeys can be admired.
Maimonides then turned specifically to the subject of circumcision, beginning with a statement of what he believed the purpose of circumcision to be. According to him, circumcision is “to limit sexual intercourse, and to weaken the organ of generation as far as possible, and thus cause man to be moderate.” (Remember, those are his words, translated.)
“Some people believe that circumcision is to remove a defect in man’s formation; but everyone can easily reply, ‘How can products of nature be deficient so as to require external completion, especially as the use of the foreskin to that organ is evident.’” Hmmmmm, that don’t-mess-with-nature is one of the most common reasons given for leaving an infant’s foreskin intact – and for being active in the fight to ban routine elective circumcision. What is important to note is that Maimonides recognizes the foreskin’s sexual sensitivity, which many mohels, doctors, and others do not. Yet critics of circumcision often site this sexual sensitivity as the major reason to leave a foreskin intact.
“This commandment (to circumcise),” continues Maimonides, “has not been enjoined as a complement to a deficient physical creation, but as a means for perfecting man’s moral shortcomings. The bodily injury caused to that organ is exactly that which is desired,” (note that Maimonides is acknowledging that circumcision is not an insignificant medical procedure) “it does not interrupt any vital function (he is also recognizing that a man can have sex and function quite well without a foreskin), nor does it destroy the power of generation (meaning that a circumcision does not make a man sterile).”
“Circumcision simply counteracts excessive lust…for there is no doubt that circumcision weakens the power of sexual excitement, and sometimes lessens the natural enjoyment. . .the organ necessarily becomes weak when it loses blood and is deprived of its covering from the beginning. Our Sages say distinctly: It is hard for a woman, with whom an uncircumcised had intercourse, to separate from him. This is, as I believe, the best reason for the commandment concerning circumcision. (Wow!) And who was the first to perform this commandment? Abraham, our father, of whom it is well known how he feared sin; it is described by our Sages in reference to the words, ‘Behold, now I know that though art a fair woman to look upon.’ [Genesis 12:2].”
Maimonides continues, “ There is, however, another important object in this commandment. It gives to all members of the same faith, i.e., to all believes in the Unity of God, a common bodily sign, so that it is impossible for anyone that is a stranger, to say that he belongs to them. [Note: this is not true in the United States, but how could Maimonides have foreseen the popularity of circumcision among non-Jews, when in his time, many Christians abhorred the ritual. And clearly, Maimonides saw circumcision as a way of setting Jews apart from everyone else.] For sometimes, people say so for the purpose of obtaining some advantage, or in order to make some attack upon the Jews. No one, however, should circumcise himself – or his son – for any other reason but pure faith. [This is worth repeating because it is what my coauthor and I believe and the reason we wrote our book: “No one, however, should circumcise himself – or his son – for any other reason but pure faith”]. For circumcision,” says Maimonides,” is not like an incision on the leg, or a burning in the arm, but is a very difficult operation. It is also a fact that there is much mutual love and assistance among people that are united by the same sign when they consider it a covenant.” [Note that it is when circumcision is not just a medical procedure, but also a covenant that gives it so much power to unite.]
“Circumcision is likewise the covenant which Abraham made in connection with the belief in God’s unity. So also everyone that is circumcised enters the covenant of Abraham to believe in the unity of God, in accordance with the words of the Law, ‘To be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.’ (Genesis 17). This purpose of the circumcision is as important as the first, and perhaps, more important.
“This law can only be kept and perpetuated in its perfection, if circumcision is performed when the child is very young, and this for three good reasons: First, if the operation were postponed till the boy had grown up, he would, perhaps, not submit to it. Secondly, the young child has not much pain, because the skin is tender and the imagination weak; for grown-up persons are in dread, and fear of things which they imagine coming, sometime before these actually occur. [Maimonides was wrong about the pain but absolutely on target about the dread – babies don’t dread nor can they imagine what may occur in the future, as boys and men can – and do.] Thirdly, when a child is very young, the parents do not think much of him; because the image of the child, that leads the parents to love him, has not yet taken a firm root in their minds. That image becomes stronger by the continual light; it grows with the development of the child, and later on the image begins again to decrease and to vanish. The parents’ love for a new-born child is not so great as it is when the child is one year old; and when one year old. . .it is less loved by them than when six years old. The feeling and love of the father for the child would have lead him to neglect the law if he were allowed to wait two or three years, whilst shortly after birth, the image is very weak in the mind of the parent, especially of the father, who is responsible for the execution of this commandment.” You may disagree with some of Maimonides observations, especially about loving a testy six-year old more than an adorable newborn, but he does have some rather interesting observations for someone observing nearly a thousand years ago!
To continue with Maimonides: “The circumcision must take place on the eight day (Leviticus, 12:3) because all living beings are after birth, within the first seven days, very weak and exceedingly tender, as if they were still in the womb of their mother; not until the eight day can they be counted among those that enjoy the light of the world. That this is also the case with beasts may be inferred with the words of Scripture: ‘Seven days shall it be under the dam’ (Leviticus 22:27), as if it had no vitality before the end of that period. In the same manner, man is circumcised after the completion of seven days. The period has been fixed, and has not been left to everybody’s judgment.
“The precepts of this class include, also, the lesson that we must not injure, in any way, the organs of generation in living beings (Leviticus 22:24). [Does this mean it is wrong to spay cats and dogs? Interesting.] The lesson is based on the principle of ‘righteous statutes and judgments’ (Deuteronomy 4:8); we must keep in everything the golden mean; we must not be excessive in love, but must not suppress it entirely; for the Law commands, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply’ (Genesis 1:22). The organ is weakened by circumcision, but not destroyed by the operation. The natural faculty is left in full force, but is guarded against excess. It is prohibited for an Israelite ‘that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off’ (Deuteronomy 23:2) to marry an Israelite woman; because the sexual intercourse is of no use and of no purpose; and that marriage would be a source of ruin to her, and to him, who would claim her. This is very clear.” [Let’s not tell the disabled movement about that prohibition. On the other hand, I know a fellow who helped disabled men suffering spinal cord injuries to have sex again – and therefore, also, to please the women in their life. My favorite movie I saw in 2012, in fact, was the movie, “The Sessions,” a true story about a man who suffered from polio and was living in an iron lung most of the time, who learned, through a sexual surrogate trained to help men such as him, achieve orgasms and have sex with partners.]
If Maimonides had lived in contemporary times, he might have been more open-minded about erectile dysfunction, and as I just noted, about the disabled, as well, and would have found references in the Torah to support these compassionate leanings. Of course, though, he was writing long before Viagra and other erectile dysfunction medications, long before the establishment of the Kinsey Institute or the Institute for Advanced Studies of Human Sexuality. He was even writing long before the Internet, before Women’s Rights, Gay Rights and (and gay marriage, adoption and parenting), and before the passage of the American Disability Act.
Jews had enjoyed a great deal of freedom in the Spain of Maimonides. Alas, a few hundred years later, the Golden Period would come to an end – with the Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of Jews from Spain. Only a few days ago, as I was researching this again, was there an article in The New York Times, about how difficult the Sephardic Jews are regaining their citizenship, even when they have proved that their ancestors were expelled so many centuries ago.
What is so wise about Maimonides, and what I would love to conclude this entire blog with is the advice, worth taking and worth remembering if you are thinking about circumcising your son for religion, especially for Judaism (or to placate your Jewish parents, Jewish spouse, Jewish in-laws, or Jewish grandparents –yours or your partner’s) is to consider Maimonides dictate: The only reason to circumcise your son -- if you believe in God and want to live your life in relationship with God by observing as many mitzvot as possible, including what is considered one of the most important, and clearly the first – is to honor and to fulfill the Covenant of Abraham, which is the Covenant of Circumcision. Repeat: the only reason.
Finally, Maimonides also advised that if you decide to circumcise your son – knowing the difficulty of the operation, and knowing how hard it can be to watch because of the love you have for your son, a love that is destined to grow, and knowing that your son may choose not to be circumcised when he is older, so that circumcising him early is better than risking his decision not to be circumcised (but only if you believe it is your decision, or rather responsibility, to make; others believe it is not yours to make but rather, your son’s right to make the decision.) Infant circumcision today is relatively safe and far easier than circumcising an older child or adult, though there is a new technique being used in Africa and developed by an Israeli company that could change that. What is most important here – the most important message to take away from the entire blog and from Maimonides’ wisdom is this: Maimonides – nor anyone else – gets the last word on the circumcision of a Jewish infant – you do. If you believe, after a fair degree of research, consideration and perhaps, discussion with your spouse, your rabbi, your physician and others, that you have the right or responsibility to make the decision, then make as informed a decision as you possibly can. But if you are making it on the basis of Judaism, do as Maimonides suggested: Do it for faith in God and in Judaism and for no other reason. A circumcision can always be done later but can never be undone (despite attempts to grow new foreskins).
Good luck with the decision. Remember that most Jewish men in the history of Judaism were circumcised – and circumcised on the eighth day of their life. On the other hand, a few, very notable men, were not circumcised at birth and spent most of their adulthood uncircumcised. These include both Abraham and Moses. But most importantly, if you are having a son, and intending to raise him Jewish – with or without a foreskin—Mazel tov! May he always be a blessing to you and your family.
The major books that Jews turn to are quite familiar: Torah, which is the first five books of Moses that are read from a hand-written (perfect) scroll, usually in shul, temple, or synagogue each year. My father tells me that his parents owned a Torah, which is mother’s parents kept in their apartment and which my great-grandfather studied all the time, often with other Jewish men. And after their oldest son died in a pogrom in Latvia, in the early 1900s, my mother’s father’s parents, who were quite well-to-do for Jews living there then, had a Torah commissioned to honor that son, Israel. Then, when my grandfather and his best friend Gilbert (who eventually married one of my grandfather’s younger sisters, here in the States) got Bar Mitzvahed – at the same time, by the way – in my great-grandparents lavish apartment (for those times; Mother always tells me how they had sterling silver flatware and a grand piano and she was right – they had these things when others were living in one or two-room dwellings with dirt floors) they used that Torah. It is in a synagogue in Philadelphia now and I asked for it when we had no Torah in our little temple, but alas, that temple didn’t want to part with it. Anyway, the point here is that many people had their own Torahs to study; it wasn’t just a congregation that owned them. And today, what is in the Torah can be read by anyone, even on line.
So back to Maimonides, our dude who is one of the few Jewish scholars to ever address the issue of circumcision and have his musings recorded in a book that has survived hundreds of years. The other important books that Jews study is the Talmud, which a compendium of laws and commentary, and the Midrash, which is the book that retells Jewish stories, then interprets them and adds commentary of individual scholars. Along with three major works – Torah, Talmud, and Midrash – are other books, from prayer books to books by individual rabbis, scholars, commentators, poets, essayists, and novelists. We clearly are the “people of the Book!” In fact, when I got into writing, back in the late 1970s, the publishing industry in the U.S., located primarily in New York City but also elsewhere in a few other cities such as Chicago, Minneapolis, and San Francisco, was so dominated by Jewish editors, publishers, and agents that one of my Catholic editors used to joke about her inclusion. It’s not like that anymore but it is rare to go into a Jewish home and not find avid readers among the people living there.
For Jews, study and learning are as important as prayer. Indeed, it was study that helped the Jews survive the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 C.E. (I know I keep repeating that event but it is that important to our history!) The priestly caste of Sadducees lost power to the Pharisees, who were the spiritual fathers of modern Judaism. Their rabbis, who studied and taught in local synagogues and yeshivas (Jewish schools), helped sustain the Jews as a people through the following two thousand years of homelessness and exile. One of the most interesting things I learned about Jewish study was the respect any teacher had for the brilliant student -- and for the poor student – and for women students. Let me explain. The first thing a Jewish group of at least 10 did was establish a school and a cemetery in the place they were exiled to – not necessarily a place of worship, though that would eventually come. Instead the school was more important that the place of worship. In addition, as I explained in an earlier post, males had compulsory education – by age 6, all Jewish males had to be in school and learning how to read Hebrew and to study, ask questions, and basically become a Jewish scholar even if they were eventually to become a peddler, merchant or tavern owner, as many did become. But – and this is what is also so interesting – women were not compelled to study but were allowed to study – and many did learn to read, write and study Jewish texts. One of my great-grandmothers was one of four daughters of a rabbi, who lived in a small shtetl in Latvia. Because he had no sons, he educated each daughter in Talmud and other texts. Basically, he taught them how to be judges because in those days, civil suits between Jews could only be settled in “Jewish courts,” so my great-grandmother (and her sisters) learned enough about Jewish law to settle cases. My grandmother settled them in the shtetl, Einselhof, where she and her husband lived in the early years of their marriage, before their eldest son was killed in that pogrom.
The last thing I want to mention, although it will be told in the following story, is the respect for the brilliant student, who was often asked to teach, once his brilliance was revealed!
Maimonides, the scholar-philosopher-physician
One of the most respected scholars of Judaism during the two millennia between the destruction of the Second Temple and the exile of most of the Jews living in Palestine and the creation of the State of Israel and their return to the area was Moses Maimonides. Maimonides was born in Cordoba, Spain, in 1135, while Spain was under Moorish control. Later, as the local Spanish Muslim rulers grew less tolerant of the Sephardic Jews there (and eventually expelled them, in 1492), Moses spent most of his early years in exile, traveling first through Spain and Morocco, then settling in Egypt. Along the way, in addition to his Jewish studies, he also studied philosophy and trained in medicine. In Cairo, he became a physician to the court of the Muslim leader, Saladin, and also became an important figure in the Jewish community there.
Much of Maimonides' writing was centered on the difficulty of balancing faith and reason. With loyalty to both his religious and his medical training, he searched for a way to understand and justify circumcision. His best-known book was The Guide for the Perplexed, first written in Arabic and later translated in Hebrew. Finally, over a thousand years later, it was translated into English. While other rabbis and scholars have written about Judaism and circumcision, it is the ideas that Moses Maimonides set forth that are still very much valued and often followed as guides even today.
Despite the importance of circumcision in Judaism, many rabbis and Jewish scholars simply took the custom for granted. But Maimonides, aspiring to explain and comment on every single one of the Torah’s 613 mitzvot, or commandments, wrote rather thoughtfully on circumcision. His comments are so interesting – and so frequently cited – that they are being included in this blog, because a discussion about Jewish circumcision would be incomplete without them.
First, a quote from a letter Maimonides wrote to the “wise men of Marseilles,” in 1194 C.E. “A person should only believe what he can grasp with his intellectual faculties, or perceive by his senses, or what he can accept on trustworthy authority. Beyond this, nothing should be believed.” Wow! Maimonides is saying that is up to you to read about circumcision, and think about the issues that surround it. Granted, I’ve only been dealing with primarily the Jewish and a few cultural issues in this blog – there are so many more to deal with, including medical, cultural, personal, sexual, ethical and other issues.
After learning as much as you can about circumcision, accept what makes sense to you and reject what doesn’t make sense. That’s what Maimonides advised – and how modern his advice sounds. How liberal, too, at least in some areas. And how wise.
Maimonides on circumcision
In his Guide to the Perplexed, Maimonides first delivers an interesting commentary on the crossbreeding of animals. He advised against letting an ox and an ass plow a field together, lest they have intercourse and produce a mule – an animal that is sterile. (While it is clear that Maimonides would have something to say about the popularity of cross-breeding today – of cockapoos and Labradoodles, remember that he wasn’t against the creation of a new breed per se, but rather the creation of a sterile breed that could never reproduce. One rabbi told us that while Jews should not do crossbreeding, though they may enjoy the fruits of someone else’s crossbreeding efforts (sounds hypocritical but who knows? I don’t!) This means that grapples, pluots, and ugli fruit can be relished, and trendy cross-bred dogs, ligers, and zonkeys can be admired.
Maimonides then turned specifically to the subject of circumcision, beginning with a statement of what he believed the purpose of circumcision to be. According to him, circumcision is “to limit sexual intercourse, and to weaken the organ of generation as far as possible, and thus cause man to be moderate.” (Remember, those are his words, translated.)
“Some people believe that circumcision is to remove a defect in man’s formation; but everyone can easily reply, ‘How can products of nature be deficient so as to require external completion, especially as the use of the foreskin to that organ is evident.’” Hmmmmm, that don’t-mess-with-nature is one of the most common reasons given for leaving an infant’s foreskin intact – and for being active in the fight to ban routine elective circumcision. What is important to note is that Maimonides recognizes the foreskin’s sexual sensitivity, which many mohels, doctors, and others do not. Yet critics of circumcision often site this sexual sensitivity as the major reason to leave a foreskin intact.
“This commandment (to circumcise),” continues Maimonides, “has not been enjoined as a complement to a deficient physical creation, but as a means for perfecting man’s moral shortcomings. The bodily injury caused to that organ is exactly that which is desired,” (note that Maimonides is acknowledging that circumcision is not an insignificant medical procedure) “it does not interrupt any vital function (he is also recognizing that a man can have sex and function quite well without a foreskin), nor does it destroy the power of generation (meaning that a circumcision does not make a man sterile).”
“Circumcision simply counteracts excessive lust…for there is no doubt that circumcision weakens the power of sexual excitement, and sometimes lessens the natural enjoyment. . .the organ necessarily becomes weak when it loses blood and is deprived of its covering from the beginning. Our Sages say distinctly: It is hard for a woman, with whom an uncircumcised had intercourse, to separate from him. This is, as I believe, the best reason for the commandment concerning circumcision. (Wow!) And who was the first to perform this commandment? Abraham, our father, of whom it is well known how he feared sin; it is described by our Sages in reference to the words, ‘Behold, now I know that though art a fair woman to look upon.’ [Genesis 12:2].”
Maimonides continues, “ There is, however, another important object in this commandment. It gives to all members of the same faith, i.e., to all believes in the Unity of God, a common bodily sign, so that it is impossible for anyone that is a stranger, to say that he belongs to them. [Note: this is not true in the United States, but how could Maimonides have foreseen the popularity of circumcision among non-Jews, when in his time, many Christians abhorred the ritual. And clearly, Maimonides saw circumcision as a way of setting Jews apart from everyone else.] For sometimes, people say so for the purpose of obtaining some advantage, or in order to make some attack upon the Jews. No one, however, should circumcise himself – or his son – for any other reason but pure faith. [This is worth repeating because it is what my coauthor and I believe and the reason we wrote our book: “No one, however, should circumcise himself – or his son – for any other reason but pure faith”]. For circumcision,” says Maimonides,” is not like an incision on the leg, or a burning in the arm, but is a very difficult operation. It is also a fact that there is much mutual love and assistance among people that are united by the same sign when they consider it a covenant.” [Note that it is when circumcision is not just a medical procedure, but also a covenant that gives it so much power to unite.]
“Circumcision is likewise the covenant which Abraham made in connection with the belief in God’s unity. So also everyone that is circumcised enters the covenant of Abraham to believe in the unity of God, in accordance with the words of the Law, ‘To be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.’ (Genesis 17). This purpose of the circumcision is as important as the first, and perhaps, more important.
“This law can only be kept and perpetuated in its perfection, if circumcision is performed when the child is very young, and this for three good reasons: First, if the operation were postponed till the boy had grown up, he would, perhaps, not submit to it. Secondly, the young child has not much pain, because the skin is tender and the imagination weak; for grown-up persons are in dread, and fear of things which they imagine coming, sometime before these actually occur. [Maimonides was wrong about the pain but absolutely on target about the dread – babies don’t dread nor can they imagine what may occur in the future, as boys and men can – and do.] Thirdly, when a child is very young, the parents do not think much of him; because the image of the child, that leads the parents to love him, has not yet taken a firm root in their minds. That image becomes stronger by the continual light; it grows with the development of the child, and later on the image begins again to decrease and to vanish. The parents’ love for a new-born child is not so great as it is when the child is one year old; and when one year old. . .it is less loved by them than when six years old. The feeling and love of the father for the child would have lead him to neglect the law if he were allowed to wait two or three years, whilst shortly after birth, the image is very weak in the mind of the parent, especially of the father, who is responsible for the execution of this commandment.” You may disagree with some of Maimonides observations, especially about loving a testy six-year old more than an adorable newborn, but he does have some rather interesting observations for someone observing nearly a thousand years ago!
To continue with Maimonides: “The circumcision must take place on the eight day (Leviticus, 12:3) because all living beings are after birth, within the first seven days, very weak and exceedingly tender, as if they were still in the womb of their mother; not until the eight day can they be counted among those that enjoy the light of the world. That this is also the case with beasts may be inferred with the words of Scripture: ‘Seven days shall it be under the dam’ (Leviticus 22:27), as if it had no vitality before the end of that period. In the same manner, man is circumcised after the completion of seven days. The period has been fixed, and has not been left to everybody’s judgment.
“The precepts of this class include, also, the lesson that we must not injure, in any way, the organs of generation in living beings (Leviticus 22:24). [Does this mean it is wrong to spay cats and dogs? Interesting.] The lesson is based on the principle of ‘righteous statutes and judgments’ (Deuteronomy 4:8); we must keep in everything the golden mean; we must not be excessive in love, but must not suppress it entirely; for the Law commands, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply’ (Genesis 1:22). The organ is weakened by circumcision, but not destroyed by the operation. The natural faculty is left in full force, but is guarded against excess. It is prohibited for an Israelite ‘that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off’ (Deuteronomy 23:2) to marry an Israelite woman; because the sexual intercourse is of no use and of no purpose; and that marriage would be a source of ruin to her, and to him, who would claim her. This is very clear.” [Let’s not tell the disabled movement about that prohibition. On the other hand, I know a fellow who helped disabled men suffering spinal cord injuries to have sex again – and therefore, also, to please the women in their life. My favorite movie I saw in 2012, in fact, was the movie, “The Sessions,” a true story about a man who suffered from polio and was living in an iron lung most of the time, who learned, through a sexual surrogate trained to help men such as him, achieve orgasms and have sex with partners.]
If Maimonides had lived in contemporary times, he might have been more open-minded about erectile dysfunction, and as I just noted, about the disabled, as well, and would have found references in the Torah to support these compassionate leanings. Of course, though, he was writing long before Viagra and other erectile dysfunction medications, long before the establishment of the Kinsey Institute or the Institute for Advanced Studies of Human Sexuality. He was even writing long before the Internet, before Women’s Rights, Gay Rights and (and gay marriage, adoption and parenting), and before the passage of the American Disability Act.
Jews had enjoyed a great deal of freedom in the Spain of Maimonides. Alas, a few hundred years later, the Golden Period would come to an end – with the Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of Jews from Spain. Only a few days ago, as I was researching this again, was there an article in The New York Times, about how difficult the Sephardic Jews are regaining their citizenship, even when they have proved that their ancestors were expelled so many centuries ago.
What is so wise about Maimonides, and what I would love to conclude this entire blog with is the advice, worth taking and worth remembering if you are thinking about circumcising your son for religion, especially for Judaism (or to placate your Jewish parents, Jewish spouse, Jewish in-laws, or Jewish grandparents –yours or your partner’s) is to consider Maimonides dictate: The only reason to circumcise your son -- if you believe in God and want to live your life in relationship with God by observing as many mitzvot as possible, including what is considered one of the most important, and clearly the first – is to honor and to fulfill the Covenant of Abraham, which is the Covenant of Circumcision. Repeat: the only reason.
Finally, Maimonides also advised that if you decide to circumcise your son – knowing the difficulty of the operation, and knowing how hard it can be to watch because of the love you have for your son, a love that is destined to grow, and knowing that your son may choose not to be circumcised when he is older, so that circumcising him early is better than risking his decision not to be circumcised (but only if you believe it is your decision, or rather responsibility, to make; others believe it is not yours to make but rather, your son’s right to make the decision.) Infant circumcision today is relatively safe and far easier than circumcising an older child or adult, though there is a new technique being used in Africa and developed by an Israeli company that could change that. What is most important here – the most important message to take away from the entire blog and from Maimonides’ wisdom is this: Maimonides – nor anyone else – gets the last word on the circumcision of a Jewish infant – you do. If you believe, after a fair degree of research, consideration and perhaps, discussion with your spouse, your rabbi, your physician and others, that you have the right or responsibility to make the decision, then make as informed a decision as you possibly can. But if you are making it on the basis of Judaism, do as Maimonides suggested: Do it for faith in God and in Judaism and for no other reason. A circumcision can always be done later but can never be undone (despite attempts to grow new foreskins).
Good luck with the decision. Remember that most Jewish men in the history of Judaism were circumcised – and circumcised on the eighth day of their life. On the other hand, a few, very notable men, were not circumcised at birth and spent most of their adulthood uncircumcised. These include both Abraham and Moses. But most importantly, if you are having a son, and intending to raise him Jewish – with or without a foreskin—Mazel tov! May he always be a blessing to you and your family.