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Brit Milah
Not Circumcision
by RABBI HARRY BRONSTEIN
There was a time when the Jew per
formed a mitzva not because it was hy-
gienically, psychologically or philosophi
cally valid or advantageous to do so, but
solely because G-d had commanded him.
In recent times, however, many of us,
confronted suddenly with a world that
did not know the concept of mitzva, came
to feel uneasy if we could not find also
some external justification, even some
“dressing up,” for the performance of
mitzvot in modern science, psychology,
philosophy: pork causes trichinosis; Sab
bath observance is good for peace of
mind; and the like.
Thus it was that many of us breathed
a great sigh of relief about twenty years
ago when medical science began to report,
and has since continued to report in in
creasing detail and a mounting volume
of statistics, that not only was milah—
circumcision—not some cruel, barbaric
rite which ought to be banned (as has
often been suggested by various bleed
ing heart “humanitarians”), or at best a
useless vestige of primitive religion, but,
quite the contrary, it was very definitely
a health measure that might be univer
sally adopted to advantage. Today it is
stated quite unequivocally that seven and
one-half per cent of all cancers are in
the penis and twelve per cent in the uter
us—and largely attributed to non-circum-
cision (medical science has also found
Jewish Family Life to be a key factor
here, but that is another matter). Studies
conducted among circumcising and non
circumcising populations, reports of doc
tors who have treated cancers of the pe
nis. all indicate quite conclusively that
1— cancer of the penis is rare, almost
not to be found, among Jews, where cir
cumcision takes place on the eighth day
of birth, and has only a slightly higher
incidence among the Moslems, for ex
ample, where circumcision takes place
later in life; and
2— the chief cause of cancer of the pe
nis, and partly of cancer of the cervix,
The Southern Israelite
is non-circumcision—one Jew who was
treated for cancer of the penis was found
to be uncircumcised.
Thus it was, too, that whereas up until
about a generation ago only Jews, Mos
lems and a few isolated tribes practiced
circumcision, today, in the United States
for example, most non-Jewish males are
circumcised within a few days of birth.
Consequently, milah, once almost the
exclusive purview of the halakhically
qualified mohel, who had to be a devout
Jew of impeccable character, today has
become also the province of the medical
doctor, Jew or non-Jew, religious, non
religious or anti-religious.
Concurrent with this development was
that of a growing generation of American
Jews who no longer required the relig
ious sanction for their acts, indeed, who
came to disdain the religious sanction,
and the religious act per se, and its tra
ditional agent—the rabbi, and particular
ly the shohet and the mohel—as “out
moded.” So sharp, indeed, has this break
with tradition in respect to milah been
that, as Mr. Moses Feurstein reported at
the last convention of the Union of Or
thodox Jewish Congregations of America,
some eighty per cent of Jewish males born
in the United States today are circum
cised not by a man qualified to induct
then into the immemorial Covenant of
Abraham— a mohel—but by a doctor who,
even if he is aware of the significance
of brit milah, in all likelihood is quite in
different to it; not because parents wish
their sons properly inducted into their
faith, but because circumcision is now
fashionable on hygenic grounds, and, per
haps, too, of some vague superstitious fear
cf hew seme long-departed ancestor might
react were he to arise and discover a
male descendant of his without the mark
of Abraham on his body.
At the same time there was the develop
ment, since World War II, of a tremendous
increase in the demand for hospital beds
—a development with which hospital con
struction has not kept pace. Thus, where
as formerly hospitals were able to keep
mothers and newborn infants for as long
as eight to twelve days, today they clear
obstetrical beds on the fifth day or as soon
as possible thereafter.
It was during this post-war period that
two doctors devised a clamp method to
replace the traditional “knife method.”
Quickly, as a result of the aforementioned
factors, doctors were urging mothers to
allow them to circumcise their infants as
early as the fifth day of birth, with the
clamp method, so that the infants together
with their mothers might be ex-
pediously discharged from the hospital:
the clamp method reduces the bleeding
and the time for healing to a bare mini
mum, while the traditional method re
quires at least twenty-four hours of care,
which most young parents today are re
luctant to entrust to themselves or even
to the Mohel.
As the clamp method gained currency,
doctors and hospitals began to ask moha-
lim to use it; often they insisted upon it.
However, halakhic doubt was cast upon
the clamp method and it was soon banned
by the Agudas Harabonim (Union of Or
thodox Rabbis of the United States and
Canada). This placed the mohalim be
tween the hammer of the medical profes
sion and the anvil of Jewish law, and the
search was begun for a technique of
milah which would meet every require
ment of Jewish law and medical science.
Such a technique has now been found.
The “Mogen” circumcision instrument
has the unqualified approval, halakhical
ly, of Rabbi Elizer Silver of Cincinnati,
dean of the American Orthodox rabbin
ate, and of Chief Rabbi Isaac Halevi Her
zog of Israel. The “Mogen,” which has
been clinically tested and proved on over
700 babies, has the endorsement of Dr.
William E. Studdiford, director of the de
partment of obstetrics and gynecology at
the New York University College of Med
icine, and of other leading medical schools
and hospitals.
The “Mogen,” unlike the conventional
clamp,
a—requires no dorsal incision — which
is regarded by many authorities as for
bidden on the Sabbath;
b—requires no denuding of the glands
prior to the actual circumcision—which
is contrary to the ritual order;
c—need not be kept on for a consider
able length to time—which creates the
possibility of cutting dead flesh, thus
completely eliminating the flow of blood
required by Jewish law.
Hence, we now have an instrument
which can help restore brit milah to its
proper rank as the oldest and most sacred
rite in Judaism, as the sign of the ever
lasting covenant between G-d and the
Jewish people. The Merkaz Hamohalim
has said of “Mogen”: “ . . . We wish to
stress the significance of this discovery,
which enables the mohel to employ an
instrument that meets the requirements
of halakahah as well as has the approval
of the medical profession.”
To be sure, this solves but one aspect
of the problem, albeit a most important
aspect. The essence of the problem of the
ignorance and indifference of so many
modern Jewish parents to the question
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