CHAPTER TWO - Birth Ceremonies and Life Beginnings

A: BACKGROUND

11. WHAT DOES IT MEAN? THE CEREMONY AND ITS SYMBOLISM

Let us now explore some of the symbolism of the Brit ceremony and attempt to decode some of the deeper meanings of the ritual. These suggestions are neither conclusive nor exhaustive: we simply focus on a number of moments in the ceremony, in order to try and understand some of its ritual power.

The complete ceremony is brought as a separate file within the sources (text) section. As we examine some of the meanings suggested by the ceremony, we follow the order of the traditional ceremony, limiting our interpretations to this traditional ceremony. At this point, we do not address any additions that the parents might like to add, a subject which will be addressed separately, at a later point.

The first event in the traditional ceremony is that the public is introduced to a chair! This is, of course, that special chair, the chair of Elijah - ëñà àìéäå - that plays an essential part in the ceremony. (The circumcision itself will be performed on, or next to, the chair.)

The role of Elijah as the ever-present witness to the Brit ceremony is an interesting one. In part it, reflects the same reason that brings him to other ritual occasions, primarily the Pesach seder and the Havdalah ceremony. According to the Bible (Second Kings 2), Elijah, the fiery prophet, did not actually die but rather was taken up to Heaven in the midst of a whirlwind in a chariot of fire. As such, he was perceived to have a special relationship with G-d, able to be an intermediary between Jews with their hopes and prayers and G-d. In addition, as a symbol of eternal life, he became another symbol - the harbinger of redemption and the messianic age. For this reason, his presence at different ceremonies is connected with the future messianic hopes of the People represented by that moment. Therefore, we understand that there is a foreshadowing of the messianic age implicit in the Brit.

In addition to this reason, there is another reason given for the presence of Elijah at the Brit ceremony. Some time before his death, we are told (First Kings 19) that Elijah receives a visit from G-d, in which Elijah defends himself and attacks the Israelites for lack of faith: the Israelites have rejected the Covenant (Brit) with G-d, Elijah twice tells G-d. From that perspective, Elijah can be understood as the ideal candidate to be present at every Brit and to check that the Jews are still observing the Covenant.

There is a further interpretation to his presence. There is a tradition that G-d was unhappy with Elijah's wholesale condemnation of the People and as a result, He commanded that Elijah should be present at every circumcision ceremony, to bear witness to the fact that the Jews indeed carry out the Covenant as promised. In this interpretation, the presence of Elijah is a corrective lesson for the Prophet, rather than a check-up for the Jewish People.

Whatever the origin, the presence of Elijah (and his chair!) is seen as essential in the ceremony.

As the new-born babe is brought to the ceremony, the assembled group stand up and cry out a welcome to the child ("!"áøåê äáà). This is the official welcoming of the child into the community of Israel: the child is now part of a wider community than his immediate family. Another circle of belonging has been placed around the individual.

The next occurrence is the symbolic acceptance by the mohel (circumciser) of the responsibility for the circumcision. Traditionally, this is the responsibility of the father and therefore, if the responsibility is to be relinquished by the father to the mohel who stands here as the father's agent, that act must be made clear. This can be understood as reinforcement of the previously mentioned idea about the responsibility of the parents in the process of creating a Jewish child. At a certain point in life, the responsibility will pass to the individual; up to that point, the responsibility for creating a Jew lies with the parents.

Although the parental authority for circumcision traditionally is seen as being vested in the father, there is an extraordinary example of the mother's seizing responsibility for the action. This is in the case of Zipporah, the wife of Moses, who diverted G-d's murderous anger against Moses, by circumcising her son in his place (Shemot 4). (The Ethiopian Jews followed this custom of circumcision by women.) According to traditional commentators, G-d actually wanted to kill Moses because he had temporized regarding the commandment of circumcision and had delayed carrying it out.

At this stage of the proceedings, a number of individuals are honored with specific roles in the holding of the baby prior to and during the act of circumcision. It can be suggested that these individuals, among whom the most important are the Kvatter and Kvatterin, (a specially honored, young, childless couple who help hold the baby when it is brought in and passed on) and the Sandak (the godfather), represent the idea that despite the acceptance of the child by the community as a collective, that collective is itself made up of individuals, some of whom have specific and unique relationships with the new individual member.

This raises two questions:

• Why the surgical intervention on the new-born child? As far as a cut is concerned, the idea of a permanent irreversible mark that cannot be obliterated clearly represents the idea of lifelong membership in the collective. It remains with the individual forever, a physical sign that should act as a permanent mark of identity.

• Why the foreskin? The concept of fertility and pro-Creation are central in Judaism. The idea might well be that the mark is something for all generations and, to emphasize that idea, it is placed on the organ which more than any other denotes the future generations.

In response, another relevant idea should also be mentioned. The Rambam (Maimonides) wrote that the circumcized male should be seen as perfect.

The foreskin is regarded as an abomination… An important institution is circumcision, for the patriarch Abraham was not called perfect till he had circumcised himself, as it is said, (Bereishit 17: 1-2), Walk before Me and be perfect and I will make My Covenant between Me and you."
Mishneh Torah, Bk. 2, 3

The surgical intervention on a Jewish child serves, therefore, as a reminder that none of us is born perfect. We must accept that we have to make conscious changes, or perform certain actions, in order to improve ourselves and the world in which we live. Judaism tells us that we need to be partners in improving the world; the world will not improve, unless we ourselves are active in the process.

Another question often asked is:

Why is the baby so young at the time of circumcision?

There are several possibilities.

• Firstly, it underlines the theme of parental responsibility already mentioned.
• Secondly, it emphasizes the lifetime character of group membership - from birth till death.
• Thirdly, perhaps the passivity of the young and helpless baby is meant to indicate our helplessness in the face of the larger scheme of life.

According to this interpretation, there is an educational idea behind the timing. We are to understand that there are things not in our power; this should serve as a limit to human arrogance and as a message for humility and modesty.

After the milah itself comes the recitation of a blessing that explicitly recalls the commandment to enter the Covenant of Abraham and G-d, and this is followed by the response of those assembled:

As he has entered the Covenant, so may he enter the [study of and the life of] Torah, the marriage canopy and good deeds.

Here, the child comes into explicit contact with the values of the community. These three ideas - Torah, family and good deeds - represent the values of the collective as interpreted by the community itself, in terms of its ambitions for the child. In these two sentences - that in which the Brit of Abraham is mentioned and that in which the response of the community is given - a connection is made between past, present and future. The child is placed in a context of communal time and his place in the collective identity is made explicit.

Interestingly, the next stage in the proceedings is the granting of the name itself. This adds another layer to the identity that the community has already bestowed on the child, affording a sense of personal identity represented by the specific name of the individual child, always, however, placed against the background of family, by adding the father's (and with increasing frequency, the mother's) name.

The circles of belonging, of identity, are beginning to be formed around the child. The child is an individual with an individual name and personality, but the additional circles of identity and emotional support represented by the parents and the community are there to sustain the child and to guide him into a future represented hopefully by the fulfillment of the community most sacred values. This is indeed a deep and special tribal moment, representing the power of the life cycle experience at its peak of effectiveness and symbolic meaning.

The wine that accompanies the Brit is a sign, not just of joy and richness, but announces the ritual nature of the moment. Wine is sanctification, one of the most common features in the rituals of Judaism. Kiddush, Havdalah and the Pesach Seder are just some of the important moments when wine makes its appearance. The associations of common ritual symbols, like the use of wine tend, to transfer from ceremony to ceremony and to emphasize the importance of the moment in ritual terms. This is a sacred time in the life of the individual.

This is emphasized near the end of the ceremony when, following the raising of the wine to the child's lips, a powerful and moving summing up declaration is made.

Lord of the world, may it be Your will to accept in satisfaction and regard favorably [the circumcized child] as if I had brought him as a sacrifice before Your glorious throne. And You, in Your great mercy, send a pure and holy soul by way of Your holy angels to my son ----- the son of ----- who has just now been circumcized in honor of Your great name. May his heart be open like the Temple entrance to Your holy Torah , to learn and to teach and to keep and to do.

This likening of a child to a sacrifice before G-d brings up a host of associations, but the immediate implication is clear. The child is the holy sacrifice given to the service of G-d by the mohel (the priest) and the parents (the pilgrims who provide the sacrifice). The knees of the sandak, or the table on which the circumcision was performed, become the altar and the piece of skin cut off is, indeed, equivalent to the offering burnt in the Temple which was viewed as ascending straight to G-d.

This ends the ceremony with a ritual performance of enormous power, a dramatized re-enaction of the Temple service where G-d accepts the offerings of humanity.