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Elijah’s Chair (from the Jewish Encyclopedia 1906, vol. 5)
For a number of reasons, some medical, some psychological, some spiritual, some communal-traditional, I support and urge male 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 urge them to follow what I’ve proposed below.
Parts of my proposal owe a good deal to what my son David Waskow and his wife Ketura Persellin did to enrich the covenanting ceremony for their children, which is described in Phyllis’ and my book on the Jewish life-cycle, A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven (pp. 28-31), along with our own comments. But there are also some important differences between what they did and our/my own suggestions in the book and since then — suggestions for which they are not responsible.
Shalom, salaam, sohl; paz, peace! — Arthur
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; | |||||||
| Lift the knife and say: | “Zekher 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 Yitsḥaḳ into the Jewish people, and goes back for hundreds of generations to Avraham and Hagar, and then through Yishmael into our cousins the Arab and Muslim peoples, I lift this knife to touch — | ||||||
| As you speak each passage, DO touch the child where indicated, gently: | Your ears: May you always be open to hearing the pains and joys and truths of others (and quote Jeremiah 6:10):
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Your mouth: May you always be of unimpeded, truthful, and profound speech as Moshe came to be (and quote Exodus 6:12, 30 in which Moshe tells God he is of uncircumcised & foreskinned tongue):
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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 quote the passages on Avraham’s circumcisions of himself and his sons, Genesis 17:9-13, 23-27, and 21:2-4):
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Your heart: May you open your heart to all humanity and all beings who live upon our planet (and quote Deuteronomy 10:16 and 30:6):
and may we take on together the task of Eliyah 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 quote Malakhi 3:23-24):
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“Zekher Milah, a different tack on Brit milah & Brit banot by Rabbi Arthur Waskow” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.
Arthur Waskow
the Shalom Center
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Elijah’s Chair (from the Jewish Encyclopedia 1906, vol. 5)(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in category lists and in shared links on social media.)
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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17
A comment thread has begun on this post in the Open Siddur Project discussion group on Facebook (link).
Over on the comment thread in our Open Siddur discussion group on Facebook, Arthur Waskow replied: