GEN877 In our own day, some Jews have questioned the wisdom of circumcising boys. The relevant medical associations have wavered on its medical advisability, recommending it during the last several decades of the 20th Century and now saying that its medical risks and benefits are roughly equivalent, making circumcision medically optional. The Jewish tradition, however, never advocated circumcision for medical reasons. Its purpose was instead religious. First, by literally inscribing a sign of God’s covenant with Israel on the man’s flesh, circumcision symbolizes that this covenant between God and the People Israel is immutable.… Second, because circumcision changes the surface of a male generative organ, it symbolizes that this covenant is to last from generation to generation. The same symbolism was not needed in removing a girl’s clitoris, presumably because from ancient times to the modern era the man was the head of the house, and therefore making men part of the covenant throughout all generations immediately made all the female members of their families part of the covenant as well. Third, circumcision has implications for Tikkun Olam as well. In graphically tying Jews to the covenant, circumcision symbolizes Jews’ commitment to Judaism’s moral duties at least as much as to its rites. These include, of course, the duties discussed in this in previous chapters regarding speech, the poor, captives, the sick, and one’s parents and children. In light of all these religious meanings of circumcision, meanings that go to the heart of Jewish identity and continuity, it is not surprising that the Rabbis determined that if an infant boy is healthy, his circumcision must take place on the eighth day, as the Torah commands, even if that means making some exceptions to the Sabbath or High Holy Day rules to enable that to happen. Aside from saving a person’s life or health, circumcision is the only commandment that supersedes the Sabbath in this way. DORFFWITO 210-1