Question: If Abraham was commanded to circumcise his descendants on the eighth day, why do Arabs – who claim to descend from Abraham through Yishmael – wait until their children are 13 to circumcise them? I am aware that this is a matter of little consequence to our people. Nevertheless, this inconsistency is one that piques my curiosity.
M. Goldman
(Via E-mail)
Summary of our response up to this point: We started our discussion by citing the source for the commandment to circumcise a baby boy – Genesis 17:9-14. These verses are verbose, which teaches us how significant a brit milah is and hints at the great reward in store for those who fulfill it.
We noted that Abraham was 99 years old when G-d commanded him to circumcise himself and his household. His son Ishmael was 13 at the time. The Torah specifies that a circumcision should be performed on the eighth day of a boy’s life (as long as he is in good health, as the Talmud explains).
We discussed chavalah, the prohibition against damaging oneself or one’s property, and suggested that gentiles who circumcise themselves may be violating this prohibition. We cited the case of Keti’ah b. Shalom, a gentile who hurriedly circumcised himself with the intention of converting to Judaism right before he was killed by the Romans and merited life in the world to come as a result. The Rambam (Hilchot Melachim 10:10) states that if a member of B’nei Noach wishes to perform a mitzvah (in addition to the Seven Noachide laws), we do not prevent him. We also noted that it is possible that there is no issue of chavalah in our time since it has been proven that circumcision is healthy.
We reviewed several questions the Abrabanel asks about brit milah: 1) Why is it referred to as a brit? An infant lacks the intelligence necessary to enter into a covenant with G-d. 2) How does brit milah promote righteousness? 3) If the foreskin is disgusting to G-d, as traditional sources suggest, why aren’t people born without it and why wasn’t Adam commanded to remove it?
The Abrabanel explains that 1) the covenant includes inheriting the land of Canaan. Each Israelite grants this inheritance to his newborn son through brit milah; 2) Milah promotes sh’leimut, wholeness, and save a person from descending to gehenna; 3) Adam at his creation was not drawn to worldly desires, so his foreskin was not a detriment to him. Once he sinned, however, he was drawn to worldly desires.
In order to rectify what Adam perverted when he ate of the tree of knowledge and was expelled from the Garden of Eden into the world below, Abraham was given the mitzvah of milah so that he and all his progeny would merit the Garden of Eden in the world above.
Last week, we cited Rabbenu Bachya (Genesis 17:23), who explains that the Jewish people receive three presents as a result of brit milah: 1) the Davidic dynasty shall never cease; 2) the land of Israel shall be their inheritance forever; 3) and the Divine presence shall dwell in the midst of the Jewish people. R. Eleazar (Shabbos 131b-132a) notes that the mitzvah of brit milah is so important that it overrides Shabbat.
Our unbroken chain of following G-d’s command for thousands of years, without the slightest deviation, since G-d’s covenant with Abraham, gives us, the Jewish people – the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – ownership of this great mitzvah.
* * * * *
Previously, we mentioned the Gemara (Sanhedrin 59a-b) which explains that while the words “et briti tishmor, atah ve’zar’acha acharecha, l’dorotam – you shall keep My covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations” (Genesis 17:9) were said to Abraham, they in fact were addressed to Noahides as well. After all, Abraham and his descendants, up until Moses received the Torah at Sinai, were all considered Noahides.