Circumcision: If It Isn't Ethical, Can It Be Spiritual?

Abstract

For the baby, circumcision is unquestionably a profound physical and psychological wound, and once recognized, is also an agonizing realization for the mother. Against our best intentions to protect our precious newborns, our culture tells us it is holy to cut, trivializing the trauma and denying the permanent damage to our baby boys' sexuality. Circumcision disempowers the mother at the height of her deepest biological impulse to protect her newborn. In trust and ignorance, we surrender to the authorities of tradition, to the pressures of family and to the prevailing myths of the general culture. But, the paradigm is shifting: more and more Jewish women, both in the U.S. and in Israel, are understanding that defining what is sacred must be anchored in the deepest, most abiding, and ancient of Jewish values, which is and has always been the primordial maternal passion: reverence for life. We will examine how circumcision has functioned in perpetuating Jewish identity, versus some of the deeper forces that may have influenced its adaptation by Judaism and unquestioning adherence by Jews throughout the millennia. Changing Jewish consciousness about circumcision both in the United States and in Israel has become a women's issue as well as men's. With our deepest feminine knowing, we can redefine the sacred so that future generations of Jewish men and Jewish women may celebrate their Jewish identity without the physical, emotional, and spiritual wounding associated with circumcision.