Circum-Decision

The mystique of Bris Milah is as old as Judaism itself. Throughout the generations, this mitzvah has been the pilot light, making sure that our spark would never be extinguished. For no matter how high the assimilation rate would rise, the importance of Bris, the seal of a covenant with God dating back to Abraham, was never questioned. Bris remained sacred to Jews of all stripes.

But now, for the first time in our history, that reassuring flame has begun to flicker.

"My husband and I are both Jewish, not practicing in the traditional sense, and we are debating whether to circumcise our son, soon-to-be born. We both have some problems with circumcision, and are researching a Jewish organization that opposes circumcision."

So speaks a young American woman on a popular radio talk show, sharing her willingness to give up a 3,000-year-old legacy, based on the little she knows about the procedure, and almost nothing about its meaning.

Yes, this woman may represent a negligible minority. But anti-circumcision literature is proliferating rapidly through the Internet and on the airwaves, planting thoughts in people's minds. Here is one example, which would be comical if it weren't so sad, from "Mothering" magazine:

Last year a baby boy was born to Jewish parents. The parents wanted to give the child a Bris without inflicting the pain of circumcision. On the eighth day friends were invited to their home. A friend who is a rabbinical student read the appropriate scriptures, blessed the child with a Hebrew name, and at the time of circumcision, a large organic carrot was produced and the tip severed. It was a joyous moment for all involved... Perhaps this is the alternative some of you may have been looking for.

In BB King’s autobiography, there’s a chapter called “Circumcision is no laughing matter.” He suffered from infections and was circumcised as an adult. It stopped the infections.

Maybe there’s some benefits, but he said he would have rather had it when he was an infant.

My mother told me her older brother had to be circumcised as a teen and was in agony for days from it. She and all her siblings were born at home so it was not cone.

A good friend told me that her father demanded that all the sons and grandsons be circumcised. It was not done in the old country and during the war (WW1 I think) the rate of infection and gangrene was unbelievable among the uncircumcised men.

That would be enough for me. Gangrene?!?! Eeewww!!

Mt 2:6‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a Ruler who will shepherd My people Israel.’”

Micah 5:2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.”

Now go read the rest of Micah 5, Jacob who is Israel is in the midst of the nations as if she is eaten up by them, she walks, talks and acts like them because she has forgotten her Maker and His Law is a strange thing to her as we read in Hosea.

He was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but then as Paul says, not all Israel is Israel because God's house is not made up of the seed of man, but of the seed of Messiah, the seed of the woman who is the bride of Messiah and who the promise of Gen 3:15 given to, just as it was given to Sarah, not to Hagar.

Paul speaks of grafting in and then warns those grafted in not to boast against the natural branch. Why? Because Messiah said that salvation comes from the Jews. Paul says to Judah first, why? Because to Judah was given the promise of the eternal scepter, the Law holder of the Father, the one who is to rule and judge rightly by the Word of God, not adding to and not taking away, but ruling according to all that God has said and written.

God only has one house. He named that house Israel and so all who come to join His house, join the house of Israel which is neither Jew or gentile. Caleb was born a Canaanite, so how did he become a member of Judah? Because he wholly followed God's commands because he had a different spirit within him, God's spirit of truth. Of all the adult males of the tribe of Judah who left Egypt, the only one who entered the Promised Land was the one who was grafted in, not the one who was born of the seed of man, but the one of the seed of Messiah. Yes there were those of the physical seed of Judah who entered, but all those had been born in the wilderness. There was only a remnant who left Egypt who entered into the Promised Land and that remnant was Joshua that natural branch and Caleb the grafted branch, both who wholly followed the commands of God because they wholly believed in the promise of Messiah and eternal life.

Have you never read Hebrews 3-4 and how those who died in the wilderness never enter into His rest? Into His eternal kingdom? Have you never read in 1Cor 10 where Paul says that those in the wilderness became examples of disobedience that we are to learn from?

John 3:36 He that believeth in the Son, hath everlasting life, and he that obeyeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.

As it was for them in the wilderness, so it is true for us, as to them the Gospel message was first given, which because it was not mixed with faith that God will deliver on all the promises He made, only a remnant actually received the reward of the promise and entered the Promised Land. The Promise Land then being a shadow and type of the Promised Land to come at Messiah's return.

Paul speaks of is a MYSTERY ... how, from the Scriptures, Gen. 48:19 brings Jew and Gentile “back together”...

Well, if one actually reads and studies the chapters that come before Rm 11, then one knows that Paul is speaking of Rm 7 in which I might add, that unless you understand the Law of God, he, Paul, is not speaking to you.

Rm 7:1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? ... but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. 4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Messiah, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.

And why was this a big deal to those Paul was speaking to?

Jer 3:8 Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also.

Law Concerning Divorce

Dt:24 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, 2 when she has departed from his house, and goes and becomes another man’s wife, 3 if the latter husband detests her and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her as his wife, 4 then her former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the YHVH your God is giving you as an inheritance.

So because they, the lost sheep, the ones who went spiritually whoring by worshiping according to what was right in their own eyes rather than according to the Way God commanded them to worship Him, they were banned from returning and had remained under the eternal curse of the Law of divorce, which is death. But God being a merciful God and not taking pleasure in the death of any man, God provided a way for them to enter back into His house.

And that is the “Good News”, that through Messiah, the lost sheep who had become the “fullness” of the gentiles, was freed from the curse of the Law by the redeeming blood of Messiah. They are now able to enter back into the household of God and be partakers in all the covenants of promise.

Gal 3:13 Messiah has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Messiah Yeshua, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

This was in your link: " Now we can understand why Rav Asi is of the opinion that the circumcision is directly connected to the mother’s state of purity, and why his opinion is if the mother has not become impure, there is no need to wait till the 8th day to circumcise". My question is, what does he mean by "if the mother has not become impure"?

Leviticus 12:1-5 --> "Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If a woman has conceived, and borne a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her customary impurity she shall be unclean. And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. She shall then continue in the blood of her purification thirty-three days. She shall not touch any hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled". ‘But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her customary impurity, and she shall continue in the blood of her purification sixty-six days.

Is there an alternative to bearing a boy or a girl? Just wondering!

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