RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: NON SURGICAL CIRCUMCISION: BRIT MILAH CEREMONY
TO CIRCUMCISE or NOT TO CIRCUMCISE:
Ultimately, as with all Mitzvot, commandments, to fulfil or not to fulfil, rests with the individual. While I prefer to see young boys on the 8th day have a brit milah, entering into the Abrahamic covenant, via circumcision, more and more parents, for various reasons, do not want this simple, yet surgical procedure performed.
For a number of reasons, some medical, some psychological, some spiritual, some communal-traditional, I support and urge circumcision.
When couples have come to me and despite my advice are adamant in refusing to do it with a boy-child, AND/ OR if they ask my advice about a brit/ covenant ceremony for a girl -- I perform the following ceremony (the below is part of this ceremony):
When couples have come to me and despite my advice are adamant in refusing to do it with a boy-child, AND/ OR if they ask my advice about a brit/ covenant ceremony for a girl -- I perform the following ceremony (the below is part of this ceremony):
Hold a covenanting/ naming/ welcoming ceremony on the 8th day of the child's life (whether a girl or boy);
Place a ceremonial knife on the table where the baby is brought:
I lift the knife and say, "Zecher milah, In memory of circumcision of the body and in honoring the tradition that goes back for hundreds of generations to Abraham and Sarah, and then through Isaac into the Jewish people, I lift this knife to touch -- (and as I speak each passage, I touch the child where indicated, gently)-- :
Your ears: May you always be open to hearing the pains and joys and truths of others (and I quote Jeremiah 6:10 ):
Your mouth: May you always be of unimpeded, truthful, and profound speech as Moses came to be (and I quote Ex: 6: 12, 30 in which Moses tells God he is of uncircumcised & foreskinned tongue):
Your genitals: May you take deep pleasure in your body from this moment forward as you grow into adulthood, and may you give rise to future generations; (and I quote the passages on Abraham's circumcisions of himself and his sons ( Gen 17: 9-13, 23-27, and 21: 2-4).
Your heart: May you open your heart to all humanity and all beings who live upon our planet (and I quote Deut 10: 16 & 30: 6), and may we take on together the task of Elijah the Prophet, to turn the hearts of the parents to the children and the hearts of the children to the parents lest the Earth be utterly destroyed (and I quote Malachi 3: 23-24). ***
Place a ceremonial knife on the table where the baby is brought:
I lift the knife and say, "Zecher milah, In memory of circumcision of the body and in honoring the tradition that goes back for hundreds of generations to Abraham and Sarah, and then through Isaac into the Jewish people, I lift this knife to touch -- (and as I speak each passage, I touch the child where indicated, gently)-- :
Your ears: May you always be open to hearing the pains and joys and truths of others (and I quote Jeremiah 6:10 ):
Your mouth: May you always be of unimpeded, truthful, and profound speech as Moses came to be (and I quote Ex: 6: 12, 30 in which Moses tells God he is of uncircumcised & foreskinned tongue):
Your genitals: May you take deep pleasure in your body from this moment forward as you grow into adulthood, and may you give rise to future generations; (and I quote the passages on Abraham's circumcisions of himself and his sons ( Gen 17: 9-13, 23-27, and 21: 2-4).
Your heart: May you open your heart to all humanity and all beings who live upon our planet (and I quote Deut 10: 16 & 30: 6), and may we take on together the task of Elijah the Prophet, to turn the hearts of the parents to the children and the hearts of the children to the parents lest the Earth be utterly destroyed (and I quote Malachi 3: 23-24). ***
There is more to the ceremony of course, but this part substitutes for the actually 'cutting' ritual.
Please contact me at RABBIASEGAL@aol.com if you are interested in a non surgical brit milah.
Shalom!
RABBI DR ARTHUR SEGAL
www.JewishSpiritualRenewal.com/books www.FaceBook.com/Arthur.L.Segal www.FaceBook.com/RabbiArthurSegalJewishSpiritualRenewal www.RabbiArthurSegal.blogspot.com
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Hilton Head Island, SC; Bluffton, SC; Savannah, GA
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Hilton Head Island, SC; Bluffton, SC; Savannah, GA
*** I was taught this by my teacher Rabbi A. Waskow.
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