Life Cycle Part I

Brit Milah / Naming

Traditional Rationale: Heschel Matt

Of all the signs and symbols in the Jewish tradition, none is more widely known than circumcision... Countless Jews, who in every other regard are estranged from synagogue and tradition, whose link to fellow Jews is tenuous indeed, are faithful... to this mitzvah.

Circumcision for the Jew is the sign of the b'rit, the covenant between God and Israel, established first with Abraham and then renewed at Sinai, to be passed on through every generation until the end of time.

Circumcision does not ‘make’ a person Jewish, for he is Jewish already by birth. The circumcision rather testifies that he who bears this sign sealed in his flesh is under the covenant which is what gives meaning to life. Through the covenant he is bound to all of the children of Israel, and through them to God.

The circumcision of the foreskin is but an outer sign of the circumcision of our inner hearts that we are called upon to perform; as it is written ‘Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and take away the foreskin of your heart.’

Why is the sign of the covenant sealed into the organ of generation? To indicate that just as life is passed on from one generation to another, so is the covenant passed on. Yes, circumcision is for us a sign that the Lord who called to Abraham our father, calls yet to us of Abraham's seed, summoning us in this wonderful, and terrible command-invitation to renew the covenant.

Historical: Nahum Sarna

God's promises demand an active response from their recipients. Circumcision is both a token of God's covenant and a symbol of the Jew's consecration and commitment to a life lived in the consciousness of that covenant...

Not only is circumcision the earliest institution of Israel, its introduction being assigned by our narrative to the time of Abraham, but the text tacitly implies that it preexisted the patriarch since it is taken for granted that he understands the procedure to be followed even though no specific instructions are forthcoming. This should occasion no surprise because circumcision is widely and independently attested in the histories of divergent cultures stretching from Anatolia to western Sudan, from the Australian Aborigines to the Masai of East Africa, from the Polynesian cultures to the kingdom of southern Africa [and beyond].

In those cultures that traditionally practice circumcision, the age at which it is performed may vary widely but the overwhelming preference is at puberty or as a prenuptial rite. In either case, it takes place at a crucial period in the male life cycle and marks the initiation of the individual into the common life of his group. The biblical shift to the eighth day after birth is a radical break with existing tradition, severing all connection with puberty, marriage and "rites of passage." This particular dissociation now permits circumcision to be invested with an entirely new and original meaning. The operation owes its sanction not to any natural reason but solely to its being divinely ordained. In the course of its performance it derives its significance solely from its being the conscious expression of the external, immutable covenant between God and Abraham. Having been performed it constitutes the ineradicable token of the imposition of that covenant upon every generation of his descendants., The religious life of the Jew begins, therefore, on the eight day of his birth... It is the distinguishing mark of Jewish identity and, more than anything else, has proved to be a powerfully cohesive force in the struggle for national survival.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Religion—its human side—begins with a sense of obligation, “with the awareness that something is asked of us,” with the consciousness of an ultimate commitment. It is furthermore an awareness of “God who sues for our devotion, constantly, persistently, who goes out to meet us as soon as we long to know God.” Accordingly, religious consciousness is to be characterized by two features—it must be a consciousness of an ultimate commitment and it must be a consciousness of ultimate reciprocity.

There is only one way to define Jewish religion. It is the awareness of God’s interest in humanity, the awareness of a covenant, of a responsibility that lies on God as well as on us. Our task is to concur with God's interest, to carry out God's vision of our task. God is in need of humanity for the attainment of God's ends, and religion, as Jewish tradition understands it, is a way of serving these ends, of which we are in need, even though we may not be aware of them, ends which we must learn to feel the need of.

Life is a partnership of God and humanity; God is not detached from or indifferent to our joys and griefs. Authentic vital needs of humanity’s body and soul are a divine concern. This is why human life is holy. God is a partner and a partisan in humanity’s struggle for justice, peace and holiness, and it is because of God's being in need of humanity that God entered a covenant with humanity for all time, a mutual bond embracing God and humanity, a relationship to which God, not only humanity, is committed.

Rabbi Isaak Klein

The obligation to circumcise traditionally rests upon the father. If he is qualified, he has the prior responsibility (Y.D. 260). If he is not qualified, he appoints someone who is (Y.D. 265:9). The accepted practice is to appoint a mohel—a person specially trained in the theory and practice of circumcision.

Rabbi Isaak Klein

Before the berit the parents select three friends or relatives whom they wish to honor and designate them the kvatterim (godparents), and sandaq. One kvatter brings the child into the room where the circumcision will take place and hands him to the other kvatter. This kvatter hands the baby to the mohel. After saying the introductory prayer, the mohel places the child on the sandaq's lap. Sometimes he places the child on a table and the sandaq holds the child’s hands and legs firmly so that the mohel may proceed without interference.

It is customary to light two candles in the room where the circumcision will take place.

If possible, there should be a minyan at the circumcision, but this is not an absolute requirement and the circumcision may be performed without it (Y.D. 265:6).

Those present stand during the service, except for the sandaq, who remains seated (Y.D. 265:1 in Rama).

When the mohel is ready to begin they calls out: "kvatter." The godmother brings the baby in on a pillow and hands it to the godfather. The people present welcome the child, saying: "Baruch habah—blessed is the one who arrives."

The parents or mohel recite a prayer mentioning the covenant with Abraham: "וּבֶן־שְׁמֹנַ֣ת יָמִ֗ים יִמּ֥וֹל לָכֶ֛ם כׇּל־זָכָ֖ר לְדֹרֹתֵיכֶ֑ם" "And throughout the generations, every male among you shall be circumcised at the age of eight days."

The mohel then takes the child from the godfather and places it on the sandaq's lap, and recites the prayer of the chair of Elijah. When all circumcisions were performed in the synagogue, there was a special chair for the sandaq called kiseh shel eliyahu , the throne, or chair, of Elijah. As the "angel of the covenant" (Mal. 3:1), Elijah is, in particular, the guardian of the child at the covenant of circumcision. Hence the special chair in his honor.

Rabbi Richard Hirsch

Choosing a name is an important symbolic and spiritual decision. Names embody memories, hopes, and ideals. The Jewish name announced at a naming ceremony or brit milah is the name that will be used when the child reaches the age of bar or bat mitzvah and is called to the Torah; it is the name used on Jewish documents that sanctify commited relationships; it is the name used in the Mi Shebeyrakh prayer for healing; and it is the name by which Jewis are memorialized after death., Perhaps most importantly, when children are old enough to ask why they are named as they are, including for whom they are named, the answers that parents give become an essential piece of their developing identity.

Jewish tradition has evolved a variety of minahgim (customs) regarding naming, many of which derive from the diverse cultures and communities of origin from which North American Jews are descended. While naming is primarily in the realm of custom, the old adage that "custom has the force of law" often proves true in individual family circumstances, where the choice of a name can provoke controversy as well as strengthen cohesion.

Some basic customs can be considered. Naming a child after someone in the family is a widespread tradition. Jews of European or Russian descent (Ashkenazim) will generally name children after a deceased relative, while Jews descended from the Mediterranean communities (Sephardim) will often name after a living relative.

B'nei Mitzvah

Rabbi Waskow and Berman

All the major life-cycle ceremonies of classical rabbinical Judaism are keyed to bodily change: birth, choosing a sexual partner, death. For the Rabbis, ethical potential and sexual potency were connected. Responsibility for carrying out communal and Divine precepts came due upon reaching sexual adulthood... The individuals whose fragile, brand-new identities were celebrated around their birth times have now become powerful enough to make both joy and trouble... The rabbis treated all sexuality as fraught with danger. They evidently believed that the most difficult task of a grownup human being is controlling the sexual urge; so to insist that all the mitzvot were operative at puberty meant that the community was bracing itself to cover those urges.

Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin

Most scholars interpret this blessing as meaning that the father is no longer responsible for his son’s sins.

But it is also a kind of cosmic sigh—an admission that even sincere, competent, highly committed parents are limited in what they can do with their children. The rest is up to the child himself or herself. When parents say Baruch she-peterani, they say, in effect, “Whatever this young person does now, he is legally and morally culpable. Thank God, it’s not my responsibility.” At that moment, the parent becomes like Isaac, who, on looking at his sons, Jacob, and Esau, realized that he had done all that he could for them. One son would worship God, the other would worship idols. There are limits to every parent’s hopes and dreams, limits to every parent’s ability to control and influence. The rest is up to faith, hope, and trust.

To the ancients, thirteen was the age of spiritual and moral choices. Some rabbinic sources say that only upon turning thirteen is a youth first able to make mature choices, because then the child becomes endowed with both the yester hatov (the good inclination) and the yester hara (the evil inclination), the dueling forces that Jewish theology perceives are within the human psyche.

Waskow and Berman

What has emerged is a major public event, usually on Shabbat morning, in which the thirteen-year-old reads the last passage, called Maftir, of the week’s Torah portion, and then reads the Haftara, the selection from the Prophets traditionally assigned for the week. (Maftir and Haftara both stem from the Hebrew for “completion” or “conclusion.”) Most boys also speak about the Torah portion or about some other aspect of their lives.

This is the core of the Bar Mitzvah event, the moment at the heart of the ritual when there is the deepest and closet encounter with God, or with the boy’s own wresting with his life. It crystalizes the lifepath that Jewish men have been ideally expected to walk: not only hearing God’s Voice through the words of Torah and the Prophets, but also engaging with these words- wresting with them- so as to bring into the world their own new Torah.

Only in this way could they become full adult members of the people “Yisra-el.” For the very name of the people echoes the night of terror and transformation in which Jacob turned his lifelong struggle with his brother into a Wrestle with the nameless One, and was himself renamed Yisra-el, “Godwrestler.” So the encounter with God is intended to feel like an earthquake, shaking the new thirteen-year-old loose from his old attachments and assumptions. His response, his own d’var Torah, is intended to bespeak his adulthood- his ability to do what for centuries Jewish men have done, teach their own Torah.

Rabbi Roni Handler

In the Torah, our forefather Jacob is renamed Israel. We are told that the reason for this name change is that he "struggled/wrestled with God." Rather than require a conversion candidate to have particular obligations around Jewish traditions and beliefs, I instead oblige them to be ongoing "God-wrestlers," meaning that they have engaged with Judaism in a meaningful way during their conversion process and that they will continue to do so throughout their lives.