Parshat Lech-Lecha: Stuart Fishman

The Gemarah, I think, offers two ways of understanding the requirement made of Avraham Avinu to perform circumcision. These two interpretations are presented in two drashot in masechet Nedarim (32a).

The first drasha is: Rabbi says, "Great is milah, for you can find no one who was engaged in performing mitzvot as Avraham Avinu and yet he was not called 'complete' except through milah"

The second drasha is: Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav, "When Hashem told Avraham Avinu "Go before Me and be complete" he was seized by trembling. He said "perhaps there is something blameworthy within me?" When He said "I will place My covenant between Myself and you" he was calmed".

I think that the drashot of Rabbi and Rav present different views of milah. Rabbi says that milah removes something bad while Rav says it is an act that endows an otherwise unattainable good.

Rabbi's idea that the orlah excised during milah is "bad" (either intrinsically or symbolically) existed before Rabbi formulated it in the braitta quoted in Nedarim.The Yalkut Shimoni (parshat Tazria) records a debate between Rabbi Akiva and the odious Tyranus Rufus. After some verbal sparring with Rabbi Akiva Tyranus Rufus asks: "since He desires circumcision why aren't children born circumcised?"

The thrust of Tyranus Rufus' argument with Rabbi Akiva was that by performing milah we are saying that G-d's workmanship is flawed and we are correcting it. If, as we profess, we are the creations of a perfect Creator, then how can our bodies need "alteration?"(I would present Rabbi Akiva's response if I felt I understood it completely). This perverted view of our mitzvot in general and of milah in particular persisted for a long time. Even Rav Sadiah Gaon had a need to refute the idea that milah is inconsistent with professing G-d's perfection. In Emunot V'deot (page 147 in the edition of Rav Kaffach zt"l)he explains that the "completeness" imparted by excising the foreskin is not due to correcting a flaw. Rather "completeness" in this context means that something superfluous (but benign) is removed.

The Rambam in Moreh Hanevuchim (3:49) makes use of both Rabbi's and Rav's views on milah. First of all, the Rambam says that indeed the act of circumcision harms the male but that this harm needs to be done in order to achieve moral perfection. Circumcision is done to rein in sexual drive. The necessity of this born out by the fact that none other than Avraham Avinu after living a saintly life was told to perform milah in order to achieve "completeness."

The other reason to perform milah is that it provides an indelible sign that the person is a member of the community of Avraham Avinu. The Rambam notes that group cohesiveness is enhanced by possessing a symbol o f membership. Milah is as distinctive a sign as one could imagine and by its nature does not invite imitation by other groups. There is one last issue that I would like to discuss. It is accepted that Avraham Avinu achieved his great spiritual height through his own study and work (the Ramban's comments in Breishit 10:5 notwithstanding). The Rambam emphasizes Avraham Avinu's solitary pursuit of knowledge of Hashem in Hilchot Avodat Cochavim (1:3).Chazal in Midrash Rabbah (end of Parshat Vayigash) say that Avraham Avinu was able to intuitively divine the mitzvot and so observed the whole of the Torah.

That being the case I think it's fair to ask, why couldn't Avraham Avinu figure out the mitzvah of milah and perform it without a specific directive from Hashem? An answer to this question can be found in Michtav Me'Eliyahu(vol.2 page 162).Rav Dessler zt"l explains like this. Avraham Avinu was able to derive the whole of the Torah by starting out from his perspective on life. As it happens, his perspective on life was one of loving kindness. This abundance of love possessed by Avraham Avinu led him to win people over to the side of G-d and his Torah. The mitzvah of milah was non-amicable to the Torah-system of Avraham Avinu. The Midrash quoted by Rav Dessler actually puts this complaint into Avraham Avinu's mouth, "before milah people came and joined me, but after milah will they continue to come and join me?" Hashem answers "it is enough that I am your G-d."

Rav Dessler says that this Midrash teaches that Hashem wished for Avraham Avinu to gain a new insight with milah. Until now Avraham Avinu served Hashem and discovered Hashem's will but all his deeds were in accordance with his innate sense of what is right. Now Hashem presented him with a mitzvah which violated his deeply held value system. The abandonment of a self-created faith system to accept a command of G-d is what made Avraham Avinu "complete" before G-d.

There is another perspective on the mitzvah of milah and its relationship to Avraham Avinu. The impression that at least I received from the Gemara and certainly from Rav Dessler is that there was some inconsistency between the life led by Avraham Avinu and the commandment of milah. The Sfat Emet (parshat Vayera from the year 5641) says something completely different. He says that Avraham Avinu assumed responsibility for "fixing the world". "Fixing the world" for the Sfat Emet means to expose the true nature of everything on Earth, that everything has a connection to G-d. The reason that this connection is not obvious is that things are "covered." By "uncovering" what he encountered Avraham Avinu elevated everything and everybody that he could and brought them to the service of Hashem. The mitzvah of milah is therefore another realization of everything Avraham Avinu was doing until then. He was the most appropriate person to be granted the opportunity to personify the message inherent in the mitzvah.

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