A Jewish Ceremony for Newborn Girls by Sharon R. Siegel

Author:Sharon R. Siegel [Siegel, Sharon R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General, Jewish Studies
ISBN: 9781611684735
Google: jPPpmgEACAAJ
Publisher: Brandeis University Press
Published: 2014-01-15T05:42:28+00:00

THERE IS ONE Biblical passage, however, that some might argue equates circumcision with the covenant. Genesis 17:10 states: “This is My covenant that you will guard between Me and you [plural] and between the descendants after you [singular]; circumcise for you [plural] every male.” The medieval commentators do not appear concerned with the question of how the metaphysical covenant can be equated with physical circumcision. R. Samson Raphael Hirsch (nineteenth-century Germany), however, directly addresses this question in his commentary on this verse:

In a striking manner the Mila [circumcision] itself is first called Brit [that is, covenant, in Genesis 17:10], so that the performance of it itself seems to be fulfilling the covenant, and then, in the following verse [verse 11, “You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and you”], it is declared to be “ote brit,” the sign of the covenant, as a symbol to represent the brit, so that the fulfillment of the covenant itself must be something transcending the mere act of the circumcision. The expressions used at the first specific Jewish law—and a symbolic law at that—could be of the highest importance for the correct appreciation of all similar laws that follow.62

R. Hirsch thus explains that the Torah calls circumcision brit in Genesis 17:10 to convey that performing circumcision fulfills the covenant—not that the act of circumcision is equivalent to the covenant. It follows, as R. Hirsch states, that the covenant transcends the physical act of circumcision. Furthermore, this interpretation takes every word of the Torah into account. Characterizing circumcision as brit in verse 10 expresses the first step for all “symbolic commandments,” which is to do the required act. Verse 11, which calls circumcision ote brit (“sign of the covenant”), expresses the second step, which is making a symbolic act into a reality by internalizing its covenantal significance.63 In R. Hirsch’s words:

[P]erforming the act only then achieves its full purpose when it does become an “ote” a symbol, if it is taken to heart as such and the idea it expresses becomes a reality for us. . . . What the act is to accomplish is that through it the idea is constantly expressed by us as a declaration of God, and as such is to be firmly held, kept and constantly repeated and revived for ourselves and others.64

Doing the act itself and accepting its underlying symbolism are both necessary to fulfill the commandment of circumcision. Said otherwise, the first step of this commandment is milah (verse 10) and the second step is brit (verse 11). According to R. Hirsch, therefore, even Genesis 17:10 demonstrates that circumcision and covenant are distinct and separable, when viewed in juxtaposition with the following verse. This interpretation is consistent in the context of Genesis 17 as a whole. In the first nine verses of chapter 17, God expansively depicts the covenant to include multiplying Abraham’s descendants, giving them the Land of Canaan, and “being God to you.” Only at this point, in verse 10, does God introduce the commandment of circumcision.

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