What is a brit milah?
Dr./Mohelet
Jennifer Novick was our honored guest speaker in the Gesher class on Tuesday, November 22. Jen led a fascinating discussion of both the
ritual and procedure of Brit Milah, ritual
circumcision, for our students as
part of our Jewish Life Cycle study. Some
of the content of our discussion follows.
For more information, ask a Gesher student!
The session began with a discussion of “brit” or covenant. What is a
covenant? The Brit Milah is an agreement between God and the Jewish people. In
Genesis, chapter 17, G-d promises to be our G-d and to give us the Land of
Israel. In exchange, Avraham promises,
on behalf of all Jews, to let G-d be our G-d and to circumcise our sons as a
sign of our agreement. The circumcision
is a permanent marking of the body that cannot be undone. In fact, the mitzvah to circumcise one’s sons
is a hok, a type of law for which there is no logical
rationale. We must do it because G-d
said so.
The mitzvah of Brit
Milah is specifically for fathers and if the father cannot circumcise his
own son he must find somebody, a mohel (male)
or mohelet (female), who can do it
for him. One student asked, but my
father isn’t Jewish? Jen answered then
it is then the mother’s responsibility. And if the child is an orphan, then the responsibility falls on the Jewish community.
According to the Yorei Deah, giving one’s son a Brit Milah is the most important
commandment in Judaism. It's the one that created the Jewish people and it insures Jewish continuity. The brit milah dedicates a child as the beginning of the next generation of the Jewish people.
A student asked, is Brit
Milah contradictory to Torah values since we’re not supposed to mar the
body? (It is forbidden to cut oneself or tattoo for ritual or aesthetic
reasons.) Nonetheless, we are required
to circumcise. Some commentators suggest
that circumcision offers humans the opportunity to partner with G-d in the
process of Creation. Similarly, the bracha
for bread is ha-motzi lechem min ha-aretz
(who brings forth bread from the earth). Human beings must harvest wheat,
mill the wheat into flour, and make bread from the flour in order to have bread
with which to make this blessing. G-d
gives us this opportunity to partner with G-d in order to achieve holiness and
to perceive G-d’s presence.
We learned that the
Brit Milah service has four parts:
(1) Everybody and the baby are welcomed.
It is a special honor to bring the baby into the room in which the Brit Milah will take place and an even
greater honor to hold the baby during the circumcision. (2) The circumcision (3) naming the baby and (4) the seudat mitzvah or festive meal (all
Jewish milestone events are punctuated by a communal meal).
And we learned that the foreskin is not discarded. It is buried.
Jen brought some of the tools, forceps and a Morgan clamp,
used in the brit milah. Students were fascinated!
HaMorah Margalit (aka Gretchen Marks Brandt)