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A Small But Growing Number of Jews Are Questioning The Ancient Ritual of Circumcision
Washington Post ^ | December 29, 2013 | Michelle Boorstein

Posted on 12/29/2013 12:50:16 PM PST by Steelfish

A Small But Growing Number of Jews Are Questioning The Ancient Ritual of Circumcision

By Michelle Boorstein December 28 When his pregnant wife first challenged circumcising their son, Mike Wallach had a gut reaction: “That’s what we do: We’re Jews!” But doubts about whether the surgery was medically necessary and concern over his wife’s opposition forced Wallach to confront some questions.

Can you be Jewish without Judaism’s oldest ritual? he says he asked himself. What does it mean to be Jewish?

Adults attending conversion classes at Sixth and I synagogue learn about the traditions behind the ancient Jewish practice of circumcision. Adults attending conversion classes at Sixth and I synagogue learn about the traditions behind the ancient Jewish practice of circumcision.

Speaking with God, the 37-year-old screenwriter and grandson of Holocaust survivors explained he was using the “free will and brain you gave me” to reject circumcision. God, he concluded, wouldn’t be impressed by the desire to do something simply “for tradition’s sake.”

“I wasn’t at peace until I had that conversation,” said Wallach, who grew up in Northwest Washington and now lives in Brooklyn.

Wallach is among a small but growing number of Jews who are slowly altering what has for millennia been considered perhaps Judaism’s core rite. The Bible says an adult Abraham circumcised himself to mark the covenant between him, his descendants and God. Any male who doesn’t circumcise, God says in Genesis, “that soul will be cut off from its people; he has broken My covenant.”

Many of these Jews, according to rabbis and the ritual circumcisers known as mohels, are rejecting the classic festive circumcision ceremony, called a brit milah, or bris. For thousands of years, Jews have performed the ritual removal of the penile foreskin on the eighth day of a boy’s life...

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Judaism; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: agnostics; secularjews
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To: Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America
Welcoming a baby boy into the world by cutting part of his penis off is criminal in my view.

Well hell, why didn't you say so sooner?

I'm sure world Jewry will be appalled once they learn of your displeasure!

41 posted on 12/29/2013 1:59:49 PM PST by papertyger ("refusing to draw an inescapable conclusion does not qualify as a 'difference of opinion.'")
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To: freedumb2003
I don’t have a link handy but I am pretty sure that medical studies show circumcision results in fewer health problems.

my urologist racquetball buddy says circumcism prevents AIDS. He did a month experiment in Africa with amazing results.

42 posted on 12/29/2013 2:00:47 PM PST by FatherofFive (Islam is evil and must be eradicated)
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To: cartan
Genesis 17:10 This is my covenant which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.

Your about time is a call against the LORD's express command for Abraham's seed (physical descendants).

43 posted on 12/29/2013 2:04:08 PM PST by af_vet_1981 (The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began,)
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To: Steelfish

Per your comment 20; the only Jews who truly count are those who obey the covenants, including circumcision. The others die off and do not usually produce Jewish offspring, although some few claw their way back.


44 posted on 12/29/2013 2:08:50 PM PST by af_vet_1981 (The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began,)
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To: Steelfish

The anti-circumcision freaks are often speaking from neo-Nazi/homosexual mindsets.


45 posted on 12/29/2013 2:13:25 PM PST by familyop
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To: WriteOn
The destruction of the most recent temple triggered Judaism to adapt to not offering temple sacrifices, and other commandments associated with the land of Israel that Jews in the Exile could no longer fulfill. It did not end the Jewish religion. It has survived centuries of persecution and genocide, much more than even Irish Catholics had to endure.
46 posted on 12/29/2013 2:15:22 PM PST by af_vet_1981 (The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began,)
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To: Steelfish

If you want to see who really lurks behind the anti-circumcision talk, enter keywords something like uncut and gay in a search engine.


47 posted on 12/29/2013 2:15:32 PM PST by familyop
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To: Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America
but not here in America where good personal hygiene is practiced.

i guess that's why nobody gets Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Herpes, HPV, Syphilis or AIDS here anymore...

48 posted on 12/29/2013 2:20:29 PM PST by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -vvv- NO Pity for the LAZY - 86-44)
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To: freedumb2003

freedumb2003 wrote:
“I don’t have a link handy but I am pretty sure that medical studies show circumcision results in fewer health problems.”

I was born a 7 moth ‘preemie’, so that was out of the question for me.

I can guarantee your assuredness is true.


49 posted on 12/29/2013 2:21:16 PM PST by Terry L Smith
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To: freedumb2003

Old information.

If you live in a modern world and use modern hygiene the risks are reduced to where there is virtually no difference.

If you were living in the pre-Abrahamic Middle East, where soap and water were not regularly used...yes, that could be problematic.


50 posted on 12/29/2013 2:28:39 PM PST by Vermont Lt (If you want to keep your dignity, you can keep it. Period........ Just kidding, you can't keep it.)
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To: HerrBlucher

Not wanting to get too deep into this conversation, but that’s not always a good solution either.


51 posted on 12/29/2013 2:30:39 PM PST by Vermont Lt (If you want to keep your dignity, you can keep it. Period........ Just kidding, you can't keep it.)
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To: Steelfish
Oh brother. Here we go!

Why not? These people have questioned everything else!

52 posted on 12/29/2013 2:43:12 PM PST by Zionist Conspirator (The Left: speaking power to truth since Shevirat HaKelim.)
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To: PlateOfShrimp

I’ll bet you were incontinent and aphasic as well.


53 posted on 12/29/2013 2:46:53 PM PST by ExGeeEye (The enemy's gate is down...and to the left.)
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To: familyop
The anti-circumcision freaks are often speaking from neo-Nazi/homosexual mindsets.

Ditto.
54 posted on 12/29/2013 2:48:12 PM PST by PA Engineer (Liberate America from the Occupation Media.)
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To: PA Engineer

No, not really.

I am a Christian. I did a lot of research when I was having my first child. A lot of the old concepts of hygiene have changed.

Is there really a need to subject a baby to more pain than is necessary?

In the end, I had girls. Over the past 24 years if circumcision had been the worst problem I’ve had to deal with....


55 posted on 12/29/2013 2:53:53 PM PST by Vermont Lt (If you want to keep your dignity, you can keep it. Period........ Just kidding, you can't keep it.)
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To: Steelfish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4HiSM-0rfY


56 posted on 12/29/2013 2:55:56 PM PST by A Formerly Proud Canadian (I once was blind, but now I see...)
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To: Steelfish

To be a true Jew, the practice is mandatory. That’s just a fact.

Thankfully, I consider the Mosaic Covenant fulfilled. :)


57 posted on 12/29/2013 2:57:30 PM PST by Viennacon
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To: mikrofon

The thing is, it is not for tradition’s sake. Jews conduct circumcision because that is what is required of them by God in their belief. They are still under the Mosaic Covenant.

Now, this does call into question which parts of the Covenant might they be ignoring. Modern Israel is sure as hell not a society under the Covenant.


58 posted on 12/29/2013 3:00:19 PM PST by Viennacon
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To: Steelfish

Ok, the same people who “respect the body” sooooooooo much that they wouldn’t do a religious procedure that has kept us together for millennia, are the same people who put those things in their ear lobes to stretch them out by six inches, and cover their bodies with tattoos as if they were one big piece of scratch paper.

And that screenwriter, if his wife’s ultrasound showed Down syndrome, he would respect his child enough to put him to death, too, right??


59 posted on 12/29/2013 3:00:48 PM PST by Yaelle
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To: jeffc

Ooh, I like your argument. Especially the breast implants - or even lifts - because both CAN interfere with sexual pleasure. Probably not much, but neither does circumcision, much, apparently. Circumcised men still seem to like sex!

It is perfectly ok to mutilate the body so your wife can have round perky DDS, but not ok to cut the foreskin. Hypocrisy.

By the way, I don’t care much whether non Jews circumcise or not. The only reason I care a little is so that my Jewish children won’t stand out as Jews should the times ever get bad again.


60 posted on 12/29/2013 3:05:34 PM PST by Yaelle
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