CHAPTER TWO - Birth Ceremonies and Life Beginnings

A: BACKGROUND

9. SEPARATING THE ELEMENTS: THE BRIT AND THE MILAH

The irony lies in the fact that the central part of the Brit milah (literally the "Covenant ceremony of the circumcision") is not the milah (the circumcision) but the idea of the Brit (the Covenant). The very fact that we shorten the phrase Brit milah and talk about the "Brit" rather than about the "milah" should alert us to the centrality of Covenant and the fact that the circumcision is the physical mark of a physical act and, as such, is subservient to the spiritual idea of Covenant. This will have important implications when we start to look at the ideas for equivalent female ceremonies that have started to evolve over the last decades. For the moment, however, let us start by examining the central idea of the ceremony, the idea of Covenant.

The idea of a Covenant between G-d and the world generally, and G-d and the Jewish People specifically, is absolutely fundamental to Judaism. There are three major different covenantal moments described in the Torah, each of which is accompanied by a physical concept or symbol.

• The first appears in the aftermath of the Flood, when G-d establishes a Covenant with the world, a promise never to repeat the wholesale destruction of the flood.

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

• A second specific covenantal moment appears at Sinai as part of the giving of the Law.

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

• The third one relates to circumcision and comes out of a conversation between G-d and Abraham.

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 circumcised. 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 circumcised… My Covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting Covenant. Any uncircumcised male who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his People. He has broken My Covenant."
Bereishit 17: 9-14

In these three texts we see clearly the centrality of the idea of the Covenant made between G-d and humanity, and the importance of physical symbol to represent the covenantal idea. The symbol itself is always secondary; it is a reminder of the great covenantal relationship - a two sided relationship between two - albeit unequal - forces, G-d and people. This relationship between G-d and the world, and between G-d and the Jews as a specific part of this world, is one of the great basic truths in Judaism. The significance of the circumcision lies in the fact that on each male Jewish body there is a physical reminder of the relationship between G-d and the Jews, a reminder of the idea that there are limits to human ability, potential and autonomy. There are rules: there is a higher truth, a higher morality.

The Brit then is not principally about circumcision, but about belonging to a wider community, participating in a chain of tradition and about a set of responsibilities and obligations towards a set of higher ideas, beliefs and values. The Brit is the moment when the male child joins the wider community into which he has been born and when his place in that tradition is affirmed, with all the attending rights and responsibilities that come with membership in that community. The circumcision, the physical cut in the flesh, means nothing without the consciousness that it is a symbol of the wider meanings inherent in the ceremony.

However, on the other hand, as the physical symbol of that great spiritual truth, it is indeed seen as an absolute bottom line in Judaism. It was the first commandment incumbent upon Abraham. In a sense, in the Jewish traditional and historical consciousness, it is seen as the first real demand on the Jewish family, in a history that developed hundreds of demands that would define the Jew over time and differentiate him from his non-Jewish surroundings. It is hardly surprising that there is a traditional Talmudic opinion that holds that the importance of the Brit milah is equal to that of all the other commandments together, or another rabbinic opinion that only by virtue of the Brit milah does G-d hear the prayers of the Jewish People…

It could quite rightly be pointed out that this is a little much to ask of an eight-day-old boy, who clearly has no say in the matter. Perhaps this is why Jewish folkloristic tradition has suggested the idea that a child spends the months of pregnancy inside the womb studying Torah with the help of angels, who remove the memory of that learning at the moment of birth. Be that as it may, it confirms what we have already seen in relation to naming: the obligation is really that of the parents. The ceremony is about parental identity. They are the ones who are affirming the sense of belonging to the Jewish community.
Officially and ideologically, the identity in question is the child's: in practical terms, we suggest that the identity in question is that of the parents.