Circumcision

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]