The Mystical View of Brit Milah

"A man is not called by the name of a man except through the commandment of circumcision. Without it he is called a demon not a man. As long as the demonic forces have a hold on a man, through the foreskin and the uncleanliness of man, it is impossible for the higher soul (which distinguishes him as a Jew) to alight upon him and it is impossible for him to be called by the name of an Israelite. Thus it is customary not to give him a name until after circumcision, when the foreskin and uncleanliness have already gone. Then the secret of the higher soul rests on him and he may be called an Israelite man through the commandment of circumcision." Chesed Le-Avraham 2:52 by Abraham Azulai, published in Vilna, 1877

As circumcision has come under attack by those who consider it a mutilation of genitalia, Jewish responses have been the (typical assertions) that it is our rite for entering the community and an historically unbroken Jewish tradition. I would like to propose that according to Jewish sources, circumcision is not only part of our spiritual heritage but a way of reaching divine perfection. The kabbalistic view mentioned above is out of the ordinary in some ways, since it is extra halakhic "According to halakhah, a child born is to a Jewish mother is already an Israelite by the fact of birth." (Jean Holm, p.121)

Maimonides agrees with this stance in theory but feels that an Israelite does not become a Jew until he or she accepts G-d and his revelation to Sinai as real and the commandments as binding on their life. Gershom Scholem speaks of brit milah as part of the perfection of G-d "The eight day then represents a step above the physical, into the realm of the transcendental" (Scholem, p.217). The Hasidim see it as setting apart a Jewish child for a special calling" it gives the individual access to the highest spiritual realms, from which he can draw down the most lofty souls." (Kaplan, p.37)

Daniel Boyarim covers this subject extensively and speaks about how the brit milah can be seen by anti-Semites as form of Jewish alienation "As long as the participation in the religious community is tied to those rites that are special, performed by and marked in the body, the religion remains an affair of a particular tribal group, " (Boyarim, p. 41) To some this "strange practice" (circumcision) comes from an Israelite obsession with hygiene, as there are medically speaking some health benefits associated with this practice. Jews are also seen by others as the "saviors of this civilization, a salvation effected through the invention and transmission of the principles of health and hygiene." (Hart, 10 )

To Boyarim the midrashim on this subject are a denunciation of Christian lack of historical cohesiveness, over spiritualization, and lack of nationhood or ethnical unity (Boyarim, p. 43) The most important aspect of brit milah is how it makes an ordinary man an instrument of the divine "...for the Rabbis of the Midrash it is a sign of the sanctification of the physical body; the cut of the penis completes the inscription of G-d's name on the body. It speaks of circumcision as a transformation of the body into a holy object." (Ibid. 43)

Bibliography


Boyarim, Daniel People of the Book

Hart, Mitchell B. The Healthy Jew

Holm, Jean Rites of passage

Kaplan, Aryeh Sefer Yetzirah The Book of Creation

Schlohem, Gershom Ha Kabbalah shel Sefer Hetemunah VeSehl Abraham Abulafia Jerusalem