{"id":45079,"date":"2018-12-02T20:01:01","date_gmt":"2018-12-02T18:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=45079"},"modified":"2022-06-26T17:37:21","modified_gmt":"2022-06-26T14:37:21","slug":"why-arent-jewish-women-circumcised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/why-arent-jewish-women-circumcised\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Aren\u2019t Jewish Women Circumcised?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":50634,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[549,395,365,742],"acf":{"old_id":"45079","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":44911,"related_cahpter":"102","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"A close reading shows that girls too enter into a special relationship on day 8 ","content":"<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why aren\u2019t Jewish women circumcised? Professor Shaye Cohen, in his book by that title, outlines four responses to this question from medieval Jewish scholars. One answer offered is that observance of ritual purity law for women <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">what circumcision is for men; it is a covenantal marker (see Bekhor Shor\u2019s commentary<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sefaria.org\/Genesis.17.11?lang=bi&amp;aliyot=0&amp;p2=Bekhor_Shor%2C_Genesis.17.11.1&amp;lang2=bi\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">here<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">). I believe Vayikra 12 contains the roots of this concept.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Its opening verses stipulate that a woman who births a boy is ritually impure like a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">niddah<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for the first 7 days postpartum, and on the 8<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">th<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> day the boy is to be circumcised. But a woman who births a girl is ritually impure like a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">niddah <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for the first 14 days, or two weeks, postpartum. Closer examination reveals a parallel between the circumcision of the boy and the second week of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">niddah<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for the girl: both happen\/begin on day 8.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On day 8 of life, a Jewish boy enters the covenant through a procedure which impacts his reproductive organs, marking him as a link in the chain of the Jewish People. Any future biological offspring are born of this marked organ. On day 8 of life, a Jewish girl enters the covenant, not through her own procedure but through her mother\u2019s proxy procedure: the mother keeps an extra 7 days of ritual impurity on behalf of a daughter who will herself keep ritual purity law if and when she is able to bear children. Thus, any of the daughter\u2019s future biological offspring will be born of this ritual observance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If this reading is correct, it reinforces a fundamental truth about both covenantal entries: how much they fuse the identities of one generation and the next. In these moments, parents set up their children to take their place, though the children do not know it at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To be sure, this model of covenant is not one-size-fits-all. For reasons of fertility, gender identity, other circumstances and\/or personal choices, there are people for whom this picture does not resonate. And this deserves recognition. Nonetheless, the blending indicated in this model between parent and child has broad familiarity to anyone who has been someone\u2019s parent or someone\u2019s child. These rituals, appearing here as a cornerstone of covenant, challenges us to consider how, in a world in which differentiation and individualized identities are so valued, transmission of covenant can be done well from one generation to the next.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>photo: natushm\/shutterstock<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":45088,"id":45088,"title":"shutterstock_1171648516","filename":"shutterstock_1171648516.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_1171648516.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/why-arent-jewish-women-circumcised\/shutterstock_1171648516\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"shutterstock_1171648516","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":45079,"date":"2018-12-02 20:33:26","modified":"2018-12-02 20:33:41","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":4773,"height":3072,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_1171648516-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_1171648516-300x193.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":193,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_1171648516-768x494.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":494,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_1171648516-1024x659.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":659,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_1171648516.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":989,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_1171648516.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1318,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_1171648516-1200x772.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":772,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_1171648516-653x420.jpg","home_baner-width":653,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Why Aren\u2019t Jewish Women Circumcised?","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"A close reading shows that girls too enter into a special relationship on day 8 ","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":45088,"id":45088,"title":"shutterstock_1171648516","filename":"shutterstock_1171648516.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_1171648516.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/why-arent-jewish-women-circumcised\/shutterstock_1171648516\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"shutterstock_1171648516","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":45079,"date":"2018-12-02 20:33:26","modified":"2018-12-02 20:33:41","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":4773,"height":3072,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_1171648516-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_1171648516-300x193.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":193,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_1171648516-768x494.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":494,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_1171648516-1024x659.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":659,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_1171648516.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":989,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_1171648516.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1318,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_1171648516-1200x772.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":772,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_1171648516-653x420.jpg","home_baner-width":653,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45079"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50634"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45079"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106004,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45079\/revisions\/106004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}