CHAPTER TWO - Birth Ceremonies and Life Beginnings

B: TEXT SECTION

INDEX

1. Sources
2. G-d - Creating with Words and Names
3. Man Continues the Naming Tradition
4. a. One Person - Many Names?
   b. Continuing the Question
5. a. Using Names to Forge Identity: The Biblical Examples - Moses…
   b. …And Joseph
6. The Power of Names
7. Reflecting on a Name - Franz Rosenzweig
8. a. Covenanting - G-d and the World
   b. G-d and the Jews: Shabbat
   c. G-d and the Jews: Circumcision
9. Rejecting Circumcision - Rejecting Covenant?
10. a. The Role of Elijah: Part One - Elijah's End
    b. Part Two - Elijah and the Covenant
11. a. The Strange Story of Moses' Near Death
    b. The Traditional Explanation
12. The Perfection of the Body Through Circumcision
13. Popular Additions to the Brit Milah & Popular Elements in the Ceremony for a Girl
    
a. Torah
b. Blessings
c. Midrash
d. Talmud
14. An Ancient Birth Ceremony - A Basis for Renewal?
15. a. Redeeming the Firstborn - Stage One: The Sanctification of Firstborn Sons
    b. Stage Two: The Transition to the Levites
    c. Stage Three: The Redemption of the Firstborn
16. The Brit Milah Ceremony

I. SOURCES

In this part of the chapter, we bring together the various texts referred to throughout the previous file, with some commentary and additional texts that are relevant within the context. These extra texts can be used as the basis of further activities, either individually, or juxtaposed with the other texts in order to enrich the activities further. After the headline for each text we bring the parallel section in part one of this chapter to which the text corresponds.

2. G-D - CREATING WITH WORDS AND NAMES [Section 2]

G-d called the light day and the darkness He called night… G-d called the expanse Heaven… G-d called the dry ground Earth and the gathering of the waters he called Seas.
Bereishit 1: 5,8,10.

3. MAN CONTINUES THE NAMING TRADITION [Section 2]

Now the Lord G-d had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them and whatever the man called each living creature that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.
Bereishit 2: 19-21.

4a. ONE PERSON - MANY NAMES? [Section 3]

There are three names by which a person is called:
One which his father and mother call him,
And one which people call him,
And one which he earns for himself.
The best of all is the one that he earns for himself.
Midrash Tanchuma.

4b. CONTINUING THE QUESTION [Section 3]

Besides the poem from Zelda mentioned in the body of the text and referred to in the bibliography, other uses have been made of the same idea. Here is one from a rabbinic figure who died some forty years ago.

A person has two births.
In one, s/he/ has no say. The other is conscious.
One is done by others, the other is performed by the individual.
The first takes place while stricken in the pangs of labour, the
second is blessed by the pangs of creativity.
The first is an event that quickly passes, the second continues
for an entire lifetime.
The first is the birth of a body, the second is entirely the birth of
a soul.
The first entails the exit from a mother's womb into the world.
The second is that in which a person discovers their own
substance, their identity, themselves.
Rabbi Elimelech bar Shaul, former Chief Rabbi of Rehovot.

5a. USING NAMES TO FORGE IDENTITY; THE BIBLICAL EXAMPLES: MOSES… [Section 4]

Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock… Moses agreed to stay with the man who gave his daughter, Zipporah, to Moses in marriage. Zipporah gave birth to a son and Moses named him Gershom [literally, "stranger, there"], saying, "I have become an alien in a foreign land."
Shemot 2:16, 21-22

5b …AND JOSEPH [Section 4]

Two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest of On. Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh because [he said], "It is because G-d has made me forget all my troubles and my father's household" and the second son he called Ephraim because [he said], "It is because G-d has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering."
Bereishit 41: 50-52

6. THE POWER OF NAMES. [section 6]

Israel were redeemed from Egypt because they did not change their names. They went down there as Reuben and Shimon and they came back up as Reuben and Shimon. Reuben was not called Rufus nor Judah Julianus, not Joseph Justus. Also because they did not change their language - they continued to speak the sacred tongue.
Midrash: Leviticus Rabbah etc.

7. REFLECTING ON A NAME - FRANZ ROSENZWEIG [Section 6]

Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929) was a great modern Jewish thinker who came from an assimilated German Jewish family. In his mid-twenties he was at the point of converting to Christianity when an experience of an Orthodox Yom Kippur brought him back to a meaningful relationship with Judaism. As a result of this he devoted his life to Jewish thought and education within the largely assimilated Jewish community of Germany. In this piece, he reflects, on the name that his assimilated family had bestowed on him from the vantage-point of his Jewish identity.

One thing is certain. I have no real feeling about my first name. I can only guess why this is. It seems to me that it may be because my parents gave it to me without any particular feeling, simply because they liked it… It is as though my parents had seen it in a window of a shop, walked inside and bought it. It has nothing traditional about it, no memory, no history, not even an anecdote… it was simply a passing fancy. A family name, a saint's name, a hero's name, a poetic name, a symbolic name - all these are good: they have grown naturally and not been bought ready-made. One should be named after somebody, or something. Or else a name is really only empty breath.

8a. COVENANTING - G-D AND THE WORLD [Section 9]

Then said G-d to Noah and to his sons with him. "I now establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature… Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood. Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth." And G-d said, "This will be the sign of the Covenant I am making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come. I have set My rainbow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the Covenant between Me and the earth…"
Bereishit 9: 8-13

8b. G-D AND THE JEWS: SHABBAT [Section 9]

Then the Lord said to Moses. Say to the Israelites, "You must observe my Shabbatot (Sabbaths). This will be a sign between Me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord who makes you holy… The Israelites are to observe the Shabbat, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant."
Shemot 31:12-16

8c. G-D AND THE JEWS: CIRCUMCISION [Section 9]

Then G-d said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep My Covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is My Covenant with you and your descendants after you, the Covenant you are to keep. Every male among you shall be circumcized. You are to undergo circumcision and it will be the sign of the Covenant between you and Me. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcized… My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting Covenant. Any uncircumcized male who has not been circumcized in the flesh, will be cut off from his People. He has broken My Covenant… On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and … every male in his household and circumcized them as G-d told him. Abraham was ninety nine years old when he was circumcized and Ishmael his son was thirteen."
Bereishit 17: 9-14, 23-24

9. REJECTING CIRCUMCISION - REJECTING COVENANT? [Section 10]

Next time you're in San Francisco, check out a meeting of the men's support group RECAP for a new perspective on circumcision… Most of the group's approximately 135 members who range in age from 25 to 65 are reversing their circumcisions by hanging weights… taping their existing skin forward and even in some cases, spending thousands of dollars on as yet unperfected surgery…

They are not alone. Though RECAP is the oldest such group in the United States, men in Seattle, Portland, New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Calgary are meeting to share restoration techniques and vent their rage at having been circumcized as children - an operation they describe as a violation of human rights.

Many of RECAP's members are Jewish and, while they value their heritage, they say they would never circumcize their sons. "It's ritualistic child abuse" said [one group member] who grew up in a traditional Jewish family in Los Angeles… Now Jewish members say it's time for their religion to stop what they call a barbaric senseless custom. "There are other traditions within Judaism that have been set aside," said a Jewish ex-school teacher from Long Island. "And this one has to be as well."

Reprinted with Permission from:
The Jerusalem Report, March 25, 1993

10a. THE ROLE OF ELIJAH: PART ONE - ELIJAH'S END [Section 11]

When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to Heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way to Gilgal… As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them and Elijah went up to Heaven in a whirlwind… And Elisha saw him no more.
2 Kings 2 :1,11,13

10b. PART TWO - ELIJAH AND THE COVENANT [Section 11]

Elijah fled for his life… He went for a day's journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die… He traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of G-d. Then he went into a cave to spend the night. And the word of the Lord came to [Elijah] saying "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He replied, "I have been very zealous for the Lord G-d Almighty. The Israelites have rejected Your Covenant, broken down Your altars and put Your prophets to death with the sword."
I Kings 19: 3,4,5,8,10

11a. THE STRANGE STORY OF MOSES' NEAR DEATH [Section 11]

One of the most puzzling pieces in the whole of the Torah is the account of Moses' brush with death as he returns to Egypt. We are told that G-d tries to kill him for an unspecified reason, and it seems from the text as if this was in some way averted by Zipporah's circumcision of one of their sons. Here is the text.

Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt… At a lodging place along the way, the Lord met Moses and sought to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her child's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it. And she said, "surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me." She said "bridegroom of blood", referring to the circumcision.
Shemot 4: 20, 24-26

11b. THE TRADITIONAL EXPLANATION [Section 11]

The traditional explanation for this extremely strange passage is here given by the great medieval commentator Rashi, who is held to be one of the greatest of all exponents of the Biblical text. Drawing on earlier Rabbinic traditions, he makes the connection between the attempt by G-d to kill Moses and the circumcision by Zipporah. The sin of Moses, says Rashi, was the procrastination over the act of circumcision. This shows us how seriously the tradition understands G-d to take the issue of circumcision.

SOUGHT TO KILL HIM: Because he had not circumcized his son Eliezer and because he had been remiss, he brought upon himself the punishment of death…
AND SHE SAID: Talking of her son, meaning: You have brought it about that my bridegroom [Moses] was about to be killed because of this. You are for me my husband's murderer.
Rashi's commentary to previous passage.

12. THE PERFECTION OF THE BODY THROUGH CIRCUMCISION [Section 11]

The foreskin is regarded as an abomination… An important institution is circumcision, for the patriarch Abraham was not called perfect untll he had circumcized 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."
Maimonides, Mishneh Torah Bk 2, 3.

13. POPULAR ADDITIONS TO THE BRIT MILAH & POPULAR ELEMENTS IN THE CEREMONY FOR A GIRL [All the excerpts brought relate to Section 12]

There are hundreds of textual pieces that have found their way into birth ceremonies, either as extras for a Brit, or as central elements within a ceremony for a girl. We bring here a small sample of some different traditional texts that have proved popular with many families.

13a. TORAH

We open with one of the foundation texts for covenant and Jewish community. It is taken from Devarim and is part of a great covenant speech made by Moses before the entrance into the Land of Israel.

You stand this day, all of you, before the Lord your G-d, your tribal heads, your elders and your officials, all the men of Israel, your children, your wives, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to water drawer - to enter into the Covenant of the Lord your G-d, which the Lord your G-d is concluding with you this day and into His oath. To the end that He may establish you this day as His People and be your G-d, as He promised you and as He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And it is not with you alone that I make this Covenant with its oath, but with those who are standing here with us this day before the Lord our G-d and those who are not with us this day.
Devarim 29: 9-15

13b. BLESSINGS

Secondly, we include a series of blessings for a boy and a girl.

May G-d make you like Ephraim and Menashe. [For a boy]
May G-d make you like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah. [For a girl]
May G-d bless you and protect you.
May G-d's presence shine upon you and be favorable to you.
May G-d's face turn to you and give you peace.

13c. MIDRASH

The third example is from a favorite midrash, which presents us with many good possibilities.

When Israel was about to receive the Torah, G-d said to them:
"I am giving you the Torah. Present to Me good guarantors that you will keep it and I shall give it to you."

They said: "Let our ancestors be our guarantors." But G-d said: "Your ancestors are not good enough. Bring Me good guarantors that you will keep it and I will give it to you."

They said: "Lord of the universe, our prophets will be our guarantors." But G-d said: "Your prophets are not sufficient. Bring Me good guarantors that you will keep it and I will give it to you."

They said: "Let our children be our guarantors." And G-d said: "They are certainly good guarantors. For their sake I will give you the Torah."
Midrash, Shir HaShirim Rabba I:24

13d. TALMUD

The fourth piece is from the Babylonian Talmud. It tells of a blessing that the students of Rav Ami would bestow on him when they left his house, after studying.

May you live to see your world fulfilled,
May your destiny be for worlds still to come,
And may you trust in generations past and yet to be.
May your heart be filled with intuition
And your words be filled with insight.
May songs of praise ever be upon your tongue
And your vision be on a straight path before you.
May your eyes shine with the light of holy words
And your face reflect the brightness of the heavens.
May your lips speak wisdom
And your fulfillment be in righteousness
Even as you ever yearn to hear the words of the Holy G-d.
Bab. Talmud, Brachot 17a

14. AN ANCIENT BIRTH CEREMONY - A BASIS FOR RENEWAL? [Section 14]

When a boy was born, it was the custom to plant a cedar tree, and when a girl was born, an acacia. When they wed, the tree was cut down and the wedding canopy was made from its branches.
Bab. Talmud, Gittin 57a

14a. REDEEMING THE FIRSTBORN - STAGE ONE: THE SANCTIFICATION OF FIRSTBORN SONS [Section 15]

And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, "Sanctify to Me all the first-born males. The first offspring of every womb belongs to Me, both of man and of beast… You are to give over to the Lord the first offspring of every womb."
Shemot 13: 1,2,12

15b. STAGE TWO: THE TRANSITION TO THE LEVITES [Section 15]

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "I have taken the Levites from among the Israelites in place of the first male offspring of every Israelite woman... Take the Levites in place of all the firstborn of Israel… The Levites are to be Mine. I am the Lord. To redeem the firstborn Israelites… collect five shekels for each one. Give the money for the redemption… to Aaron and his sons."
Bamidbar 3:11,12,45,48

15c. STAGE THREE: THE REDEMPTION OF THE FIRSTBORN [Section 15]

Then the Lord said to Aaron…, "Everything in Israel that is devoted to the Lord is yours. The first offspring of every womb, both man and animal, that is offered to the Lord is yours. But you must redeem every firstborn son… When they are a month old, you must redeem them at the redemption price set at five shekels of silver."
Bamidbar 18: 8, 14-16