Circumcision

Joshua circumcises the Israelites only upon their entry to the land.

Second Temple period interpreters understood circumcision as an act of purification, but they debated whether it was physical or spiritual.

Prima facie, circumcision maims a body. Genesis Rabbah, however, argues that it actually perfects the body, and the book of Jubilees says it makes Jewish men like angels.

Before circumcision was a mitzvah, it was a cultural marker: Thus Joshua introduces circumcision to Israel at Gilgal (Joshua 5:2-9), Jacob’s sons insist that the Shechemites circumcise before Shechem marries their sister (Genesis 34), and the Israelites scorn the Philistines for being uncircumcised (Judges 14:3).

A Surprising Midrashic Portrait of Abraham

Who gets to name the child? Priestly and non-Priestly texts give two different answers.

Conflicting traditions come to a head in an exchange between two cantors and a congregant in a 13th century Egyptian synagogue.^[1]