This article was co-authored with Anne C. Epstein, MD, FACP.
Human rights start at home. We must defend them for children in the Jewish community as much as adults in others. Day eight in the life of Jewish boys should be no exception, even as we engage in the ritual excision of foreskin from their penises. Both the pain and unnecessary foreskin can be cut together.
We first read of circumcision in the Torah portion known as Lech Lecha (Genesis 12:1 - 17:27). In it, God makes a tremendous promise to Abraham. Sarah, who is 90 years old, will have a child. And through that child, God will give Abraham numerous descendents, and those descendents will include kings. God will give them the land of Canaan, and God will be their God forever. But in exchange, Abraham and all his descendents have to do something: they have to circumcise all their male babies.
So of course, Abraham immediately goes out and has himself and all the male members of his household circumcised -- and all males thereafter circumcised when they are eight days old. Shortly afterwards, Sarah becomes pregnant. Both kept their end of the bargain and provided a model for future Jews in their ongoing covenant with God.
Yet it is doubtful that Abraham and his household (presuming the historicity of the Torah portion) were even the first to be circumcised. Abraham came from Haran. In the area of Haran, archeologists have discovered statues of circumcised men that date from over a thousand years before Abraham in the early Bronze Age -- about 2800 BCE. There is evidence (such as the use of a stone knife in the Biblical stories of Joshua and Zipporah) that the tradition may in fact be even older, perhaps even as early as 3200 BCE. That means 5,000 years of circumcised penises in the Middle East!
In spite of -- and perhaps because of -- its ancient origins, the practice of circumcision has come under heated attack in recent years. If you go to the Internet and search for "circumcision," many of the sites are from groups that oppose the practice of circumcision, in part because it is painful.
Most Jews also believe that circumcision is emblematic of the human link to tradition. Our people faithfully adhered to it for millennia as a symbol of our covenant with God. But as modern people -- in our case a physician and a rabbinical student -- we are committed to minimizing pain.
It seems imperative to link the modern innovation of anesthesia to the ancient tradition of circumcision to ensure the right of Jewish baby boys not to suffer unnecessary pain. The American Academy of Pediatrics agrees. (It also has foregone either endorsing or warning against the circumcision of male infants, noting both potential medical benefits and the challenging prospect of elective surgery.)
Yet there is also the problem of choosing the right anesthesia for a circumcision procedure. Confusing and even disingenuous language abounds on circumcision websites. Some claim to provide "pain-free" circumcision but only supply an anesthetic cream. It is quite inadequate, as this article in Pediatrics shows; no other comparable surgery would be performed with anesthetic cream alone. The term "local anesthetic" is also ambiguous -- sometimes intentionally so -- and may simply be a fancier way of referring to the same inadequate topical cream.
What is needed for nearly painless circumcisions is "nerve block," delivered by needle to the penis itself. While the idea of an injection to the penis sets teeth on end, it is as close to pain-free as we can get in this sort of minor surgery. (For more, see this article by the Journal of the American Medical Association.) It hardly hurts -- in contrast to the cutting edge of the circumcision blade. And it can only be given by someone licensed to do so, namely a physician or nurse.
Dr. Epstein (who co-authored this article) officiated at one circumcision operation performed by a doctor who used a nerve block anesthetic on a baby. The baby didn't cry. He sucked on his pacifier calmly throughout the procedure. The surgeon was relaxed and took his time to do a careful job, and even cracked jokes -- much as he would likely do with his team in an operating room. The parents were relaxed and happy, the onlookers were relaxed and happy, and in fact everyone was happy. It was a joyous occasion, not an agonizing one. The surgeon was so inspired that he went out and studied to become a certified mohel (ritual Jewish circumciser).
That is the future of Jewish circumcision. The overwhelming majority of modern rabbis have determined that there is no halachic (Jewish legal) objection to anesthesia -- including the far more effective "nerve block" injection.
The Union for Reform Judaism has established a Berit Mila Program (circumcision program) for certified physicians (licensed to use anesthesia) who are also certified mohels. The Rabbinical Assembly has also created a course on Brit Milah (circumcision) for Conservative Jewish doctors. We urge other branches of Judaism to do the same. In addition, the traditionally trained mohel can perform a humane circumcision as long as he or she works with a certified nurse or physician who gives the baby a nerve block first. One way or another, the nerve block should be required for circumcisions within all streams of Judaism.
Even as our tradition calls upon us to affirm the human rights of others, we must not forget those who live in our houses, eat at our dinner tables, and rely on us for love, care, and protection. Human rights must begin in our homes. Day eight in the lives of Jewish boys should be no exception.
Anne C. Epstein, MD, FACP. is a board-certified Internal Medicine specialist and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians who is engaged in full-time private practice of medicine in the West Texas city of Lubbock, TX. Anne has served as President of Congregation Shaareth Israel, and during a 6-year period when the congregation had no Rabbi, Anne frequently led services, read and taught Torah, and officiated at life-cycle events. She still pinch-hits occasionally. This article is adapted with permission from Tikkun Daily.
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Brit milah - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mohel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Jewish Ritual of Circumcision - ReligionFacts
Skip the snip? Galveston becomes an unlikely battleground for the circumcision ...
Human rights begin at home, you are right, and a child's right to bodily integrity is the most basic human right, though some Jews refuse to grant their children that right. (some Jews are now moving on to the Bris Shalom thankfully)
Girls in Africa get their genitals mutilated, Jewish boys do too...they're no different. Both should be outlawed.
"it was that day Yahweh cut a covenant with Abram:"I gave this land to your seed, from the river of Egypt to the great river, Euphrates—of the Kenite, and Kenizzite, the Kadmonite; of Hittite, the Perizzite, the Rephaim; of the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Girashite, the Jubisite(1)"
Along with biblical scholars, the only conclusion is that circumcision was never originally part of Judaism. Why, then, was circumcision incorporated into priestly Judaism?
Rabbi and historian Lawrence A. Hoffman explains that by the late fifth century B.C., at the time of the Jews from Babylonian captivity, the priest hood tried to confirm their status as the dominant political force among the Israelites. (2) they did this by instituting a temple-centerd sacrificial cult into which newborn males were initiated by circumcision. They created the Abrahamic circumcision myth and inserted it into the most important part of Genesis.
1Rosenberg D, Bloom H (trans and eds). The Book of J. New York: Grove Weidenfeld;1990. p.79.
2Hoffman LA. Covenant of Blood: Circumcision and Gender in Rabbinic Judaism. University of Chicago Press; 1996.
http://www.beyondthebris.com/
If this wasn't such a longer established tradition, I would describe it as mediaeval.
circumcising newborns usually lands in the hands of the ob-gyn
attending the mother.
From a practical perspective that makes sense, because ob-gyns
carry the most malpractice insurance. I have to wonder how much
training they have in male sexual anatomy, however. And I know
for a fact that said ob-gyns farm out circumcisions to 3rd year
medical school students.
done hundreds, perhaps thousands, of circs. Many moms do not have
and cannot afford a neonatologist, and pediatricians don't want to take the risk.
As a third-year medical school student, my daughter did several circs during her
ob-gyn rotation, under the supervision of an ob-gyn. No anesthesia for the baby;
minimal training for her. As a student, she had little choice in the matter.
God, who created the entire universe, is a real estate agent.
At least the Catholic practice ritual cannibalism, they don't really eat human flesh. Genital mutilation is really a practice all peoples should have given up centuries ago.
Circumcision began in America, and in the rest of the English-speaking world in the Victorian Era, when it was introduced as a way to stop masturbation.
Circumcision didn't stop masturbation, and "researchers" have been looking for "medical benefits" for it since... all attempts, even the latest "studies," fail.
What's interesting is that you'll hear a lot of the time that "female circumcision isn't the same as male circumcision, because it doesn't have benefits." But then there aren't very many "studies" trying to find them...
People should also know the latest news about how to handle their boy children. The answer amongst the top pediatricians is do not. There is no necessity to pull back or wash a prepubescent foreskin at all. The boys themselves will handle that as they approach puberty.
Everyone except the person who was getting part of his penis amputated without his consent.
If someone did this to me today, he would go to jail for assault. That it was done when I was too young to fight back makes it even more reprehensible.
All forms of genital mutilation are wrong. We don't live in the frigging stone ages.
Everyone I know who is circumsized is very happy. In fact - there are many more unsavory aspects of an uncirumcized penis (which are really not fit for even an open forum like Huffpo to discuss).
Women have the same tissues. Guess we're unsavory.
Unless we've been clipped.
And the hygiene thing ? Puh-lease. Women have to deal
with monthly periods and men are whining about hygiene ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreskin_restoration
My guess is that mutilating a childs sex organs is done to cut down on pleasure, because ancient religions are terrified by sexual pleasure.
I don't see why children shouldn't have to be of age before they get their ears pierced either.