Dr./Mohelet
Jennifer Novick was our honored guest speaker in the Gesher class on Tuesday. Jen
led a fascinating discussion of Brit
Milah 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, God promises to be our god and to give us the Land of
Israel. In exchange, Avraham promises,
on behalf of all Jews, to let God be our god and to circumcise our sons as a
sign of our agreement.
One student asked, why do we have to circumcise our sons to
demonstrate our agreement? Why not
simply sign a contract? 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 with no
rationale. We must do it because God
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.
According to the Yorei Deah, giving one’s son a Brit Milah is the most important
commandment to follow and represents an outward sign of one’s commitment as we
dedicate the next generation to this covenant.
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.) None the less, we are required
to circumcise. Some commentators suggest
that circumcision offers humans the opportunity to partner with God 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. God
gives us this opportunity to partner with God in order to achieve holiness and
to perceive God’s presence.
We learned that the
Brit Milah service has four parts:
(1) Everybody and the baby 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 a beautiful drape used to cover Elijah’s chair and
some of the tools used in the brit milah. Students were fascinated!
Our session with Jen was extraordinary! We were engaged, informed and brought closer
to this significant ritual. During the
presentation, she suggested that like rabbis and cantors, mohelim are klei kodesh,
holy vessels, who bring holiness into the lives of others. This was certainly our experience. Toddah
Rabbah, Thank you!
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