Circumcision: An Act of Loving Restoration by Eliyahu Weisman

Adam, the handiwork of God, was created without a foreskin (Tanchuma Noach 5:3), yet with his tragic choice to distance himself from God, he introduced a consequential coarseness, a barrier to his native state of unmarred embrace with God. This ruinous friction manifested spiritually with estrangement from God, meenus - heretical belief, and physically with the blockage of foreskin (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 38b). Adam was not alone; all of humanity must now contend with his struggle. A Noahide resident alien, ger toshav, who after having voluntarily accepted upon himself to circumcise, tarries beyond twelve months without fulfilling his commitment, is considered estranged from God, a min, among the nations (Babylonian Talmud, Avodah Zara 65a). The motif of the foreskin as a physical imperfection enmeshed with spiritual estrangement from God was introduced by Adam and continues to be experienced by his descendants.

Although Adam stumbled, the potential for pristine union with God was not lost. It became, however, the exception and not the rule. Like Adam in his created state, Seth and Noah were also endowed with perfect potential and born circumcised (Tanchuma Noach 5:3). Abraham, in a revolutionary manner, through the fog of idolatry, sought out the One True God, and with his eye towards the ultimate redemption, longed to achieve restoration.

The Bible recounts, “And it was when Abram was ninety-nine years old, God appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am the Almighty Creator, walk before Me and become entirely wholesome (Genesis 17:6).’” This command, according to the Midrash, entailed circumcision (Genesis Rabbah 46:4). God’s invitation to Abraham to join Him in eternal covenant came after a lifetime of personal striving to find, know, and lovingly serve his Creator with every fiber of his being.

This momentous invitation paved the way for humanity to ultimately regain the fullness of our gift, our natural state of perfect receptivity to experiencing Divine intimacy. Each individual following in the footsteps of Abraham is tasked with striving bit by bit, to slough off his own foreskin of the heart, and cultivate a living resonance with the Divine Will (Netziv, Deuteronomy 10:16).

The redemptive state of humanity will be completely actualized in the future, when God fulfills His promise to remove the foreskin of our hearts, as is written, ”And the Lord your God shall circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love your God with all your heart and all your soul, that you shall live (Deuteronomy 30:6).”