חג הכנסה לברית | Ḥag hakhnassah labrit (On Entering the Covenant), by Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Cohen

In the weeks leading up to the birth of our first child in 1997, my partner and I spent a lot of time thinking about the brit. Whether it was a boy or a girl we knew that we would have a celebration. If it was a boy we would have a brit, yet we were not happy with the ceremony as it stood. If it was a girl we needed a ceremony which was equally powerful and yet didn’t draw blood.

In response to these two concerns I wrote a liturgy for what I called a chag hachnassah labrit/celebration of entering the covenant which could be easily adapted to boys and girls, and I wrote a piyyut (a liturgical poem) for a milah/a circumcision.

As it turned out we had a beautiful girl (whom we named Shachar Ayala) for and with whom we performed the chag hachnassah labrit, and it was only three years later when Oryah Menachem Yitzchak was born that we sang the piyyut.

There were a number of insights into the brit that enabled my writing of this liturgy. First was the recognition that there was both a brit and a milah. That is there was a covenant which predated the circumcision. In Genesis 15 God makes a covenant with Abraham prior to God’s commanding that the covenant have a sign in the flesh. These two are then conceptually separable. The fact that they are invoked separately in Torah strengthens this basic insight. In the aftermath to the golden calf incident Moshe relays God’s anger to Israel telling them that they must circumcise the “foreskin of your hearts” and not stiffen their necks.(Deut. 10:16) The sign of the covenant is not at issue, it is the upholding of the particulars of the covenant itself. The prophets too castigate Israel for being “uncircumcised of heart”/‘arlei lev. (e.g. Jeremiah 9:25)

The second understanding was founded upon a principle that is found in the work of the Izbica Rebbe, R. Moshe Yosef Leiner. In his book Mei Shiloach (“The Waters of Siloam”) Leiner distinguishes between two ways of worshipping God. The first way is the way of “halakhah”. This is a perfectly fine way, a path in which the word of the law is followed. There is however a higher path. This higher path is ratzon hashem/the will of God. This latter way of worshipping God entails an intuitive grasp of the will of God which might even, in certain circumstances, be opposed to the way of “halakhah”. Applying this principle to circumcision I recognized that the circumcision which Abraham was commanded and subsequently performed upon himself and his household—Ishmael and the Isaac—was a circumcision by way of “halakhah.” It was not, however, until the strange episode on the way back from Midian to Egypt that circumcision was done according to ratzon hashem/the will of God.

When God commissions Moshe to take the Israelites out of Egypt, Moshe asks: “Who am I that I might go to Pharoah and that I might lead the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11) This perfectly legitimate question—Moshe is, after all, only a has-been prince who is currently a shepherd in a small desert country. God answers in a tautological way. First God says: “For I will be with you.” Then God says that the sign of God’s presence will be that when you lead Israel out of Egypt “you will worship God on this mountian.” This has got to be a rather unsatisfactory answer to someone who has just been bidden to challenge the world’s single superpower. The conversation continues with Moshe demanding, and God supplying proofs to show the Israelites that Moshe actually had a Divine communication. The initial question is never satisfactorily answered. That is until Moshe picks up his family and they head back to Egypt.

When nightfall comes they camp and God comes seeking to kill Moshe. Zipporah, acting on the intuitive understanding of what must be done—ratzon hashem—circumcises her son and, in a foreshadowing of the blood which will protect the houses of the Israelites, she wards off God’s killing. Zipporah supplies the answer that Moshe sought. If it is possible to “defeat” God, to stop God’s killing, then of course it is possible to stop Pharoah. Zipporah in this milah done as ratzon hashem begins the process of redemption.

The third understanding which framed my liturgical creation was based on a midrash in Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer. According to the midrash Elijah is present at every circumcision as a punishment for his not believing that Israel would keep the covenant after Elijah’s face-off with the prophets of the Ba’al. After Elijah defeats the prophets of the Ba’al in a sacrifical face-off when they are not able to draw fire down from heaven but he is, Elijah retreats to a cave and laments to God that he, Elijah, has done all he could and yet Israel “abandoned your covenant.” (I Kings 19:10) As punishment, Elijah must attend every circumcision and attest that Israel is actually reaffirming the covenant.