I am a selfish person.
This is a religious thing around a certain sect of Jew.
Circumscision is a ritual demanded by ____ in Jewish religion according to this.
"According to the Hebrew Bible (Genesis 17:1-14) circumcision was enjoined when God said
"Walk before Me and be perfect" to the Biblical patriarch Abraham to be followed by his descendants as "a token of the covenant" concluded with him by God for all generations.
It is also when his name is changed from "Abram" to "Abraham" by God:
Abram was 99 years old. God appeared to him and said, 'I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be perfect. I will make a covenant between Me and you, and I will increase your numbers very much.' Abram fell on his face.
God spoke to him [again], saying, 'As far as I am concerned, here is My covenant with you: You shall be the father of a horde of nations. No longer shall you be called Abram. Your name shall become Abraham, for I have set you up as the father of a horde of nations. I will increase your numbers very, very much, and I will make you into nations — kings will be your descendants. I will sustain My covenant between Me and between you and your descendants after you throughout their generations, an eternal covenant; I will be a God to you and to your offspring after you. To you and your offspring I will give the land where you are now living as a foreigner. The whole land of Canaan shall be [your] eternal heritage, and I will be a God to [your descendants].'
God [then] said to Abraham, 'As far as you are concerned, you must keep My covenant — you and your offspring throughout their generations. This is My covenant between Me, and between you and your offspring that you must keep: You must circumcise every male. You shall be circumcised through the flesh of your foreskin. This shall be the mark of the covenant between Me and you. 'Throughout all generations, every male shall be circumcised when he is eight days old. [This shall include] those born in your house, as well as [slaves] bought with cash from an outsider, who is not your descendant. [All slaves,] both houseborn and purchased with your money must be circumcised. This shall be My covenant in your flesh, an eternal covenant. The uncircumcised male whose foreskin has not been circumcised, shall have his soul cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant. (Genesis 17:1-14)[1]
As well as in Leviticus 12:3:
On the eighth day, [the child's] foreskin shall be circumcised.[2]
The penalty of non-observance is karet, "excision" from the people or being cut off from the community by God, as noted in Genesis 17:1-14.
Conversion to Judaism for non-Israelites in Biblical times necessitated circumcision otherwise one could not partake in the Passover offering (Exodus 12:48).
Today, as in the time of Abraham, it is required of converts in Orthodox and Conservative Judaism. (Genesis 34:14-16)."
It must be easy to get yourself circumscised at 80 years old than 8 years old. For an eight year old it is a like pissing. No pain. Cry a bit but cannot understand why. If you are confused you keep on crying untill consoled by a nicely vibrating adult or get so tired you fall sleep and forget what it was all about. For an uncircunscised? person like me, it is a mouthful?. One sentence.
But the next bit made me a bit wary of, am I reading this or imagining it?
"Metzitzah b'peh ("suction by mouth") is a practice in certain Haredi and Hasidic circles in which, after removing the foreskin, the mohel sucks out the blood from the wound to clean it. The mohel spits the blood into a receptacle provided. Afterwards the circumcised penis is bandaged, and the brit is considered complete. Because the practice may spread diseases to the babies from the mohel's mouth (such as herpes), most mohelim ensure that their mouths are sanitized and washed out by rinsing with alcohol to disinfect the mouth.[10] However, because alcohol may not kill a virus such as herpes, washing the mouth with alcohol alone is not regarded as a sufficient protective measure. Today, if it is performed, the mohel generally uses a sterilized glass tube.[11][12] However, the practice has become a controversy in both secular and Jewish medical ethics."
Then I felt that I must be tripping when I read this. Mind I knew about circumscision but never knew this bit about it.
"A lawyer for the Monsey Hasidic rabbi suspected of transmitting a fatal case of herpes to a baby boy during a circumcision said yesterday that the practice of suctioning blood orally is thousands of years old and integral to the religion.
But one local scholar said such unsanitized rituals actually violated Jewish law. Another rabbi saw the case as outsiders frowning on Hasidic traditions.
Rabbi Yitzchok Fischer is being investigated by New York City health officials after a baby died of herpes, and two others contracted the disease.
Fischer, a mohel in Rockland, the metropolitan area and Israel, uses his mouth to suck the blood from the wound caused by cutting the baby's foreskin. The centuries-old ritual, called "metzizah bi peh," is used predominantly by Hasidic Jews, who consider the practice mandatory for newborns.
Most other Jewish mohels wear surgical gloves and use sterilized instruments. Many other mohels who do that part of the ritual use a medical tube to suction the blood, several rabbis said yesterday.
Ritual circumcision, or bris, dates to the prophet Abraham and is said to symbolize God's covenant with the Jewish people.
Fischer is not accused of violating any criminal laws. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene took civil action under its legal powers to protect the health and safety of the children and investigate outbreaks of communicable diseases.
After a child died of herpes and two others were infected, the city's health commissioner ordered Fischer to undergo blood tests for herpes and stop using the mouth suction method without a tube until the issue was resolved. He continued to use the mouth suction method, so court orders were sought in December, the city's lawyers wrote in court papers.
Fischer's lawyer, Mark J. Kurzmann, said yesterday that the rabbi was cooperating with the city's investigation. Kurzmann, whose son, Hillel, also is working on the case, declined to say whether the rabbi would submit to a blood test, citing medical privacy reasons.
"The source of the children's herpes has not been confirmed, and it may have been an unfortunate coincidence," Kurzmann said.
"This is an integral part of the religious practice for thousands of years," Kurzmann said. "There have been hundreds of thousands of babies who have undergone this ritual, and the incidence of herpes is virtually nil."
Fischer, 66, could not be reached for comment at his home. Kurzmann said he would speak for the rabbi, who was trained in circumcisions by the British Milah Society.
The city health department took action after being notified in November that a newborn less than three weeks old had died Oct. 26 of herpes simplex virus type 1. The infant's twin brother tested positive for the infection. Fischer performed the double bris on Oct. 16, the city's court papers state.
City health department officials later learned that a Staten Island baby also tested positive for herpes after being circumcised by the rabbi in late 2003, according to the court papers.
Herpes is far more dangerous to infants than adults because of their fragile immune systems. An outbreak of a disease is defined in the city's health code as one that has been reported in three or more instances.
"The New York City Department Health and Mental Hygiene is concerned that the possible transmission of herpes simplex in infants is continuing as a result of the ... practice of Metzizah bi peh," city lawyers wrote in court papers dated Dec. 22.
The mouth-suction ritual during a circumcision is not mandated by Jewish law, said Rabbi Moses Tendler, a professor of ethical medical practices and Talmudic law at Yeshiva University. Tendler, the rabbi of Community Synagogue of Monsey, also serves on the Rabbinical Council of America, an Orthodox Jewish group.
Tendler said the unsanitized ritual performed by Fischer violated Jewish law. Tendler said the Talmud refers to sucking the blood from the wound, but doesn't specifically indicate using one's mouth.
"I protested his use of oral suction as violating good medical practices, which he is required to do under Jewish law," Tendler said. "Jewish law has recognized there has been an increase in knowledge of hygiene and medical advances over the centuries. It is not a lack of respect for the traditions or Jewish law to use a tube."
Monsey Rabbi David Eidensohn, 62, said the spreading of disease is rare through the oral suction method. He said his five sons and numerous grandsons, as well as hundreds of thousands of newborn boys, had undergone the procedure. Fischer, he said, is a respected mohel across the region and in Israel.
"This represents people frowning on our traditions," Eidensohn said. "If this happened regularly or even occasionally, we would be the first to stop the practice ourselves. We don't want to kill our children. This is a tragedy for the families."
Stanley J. Kogan, chief of pediatric urology at Children's Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, has been performing in-hospital circumcisions for three decades.
"In my 30 years of doing circumcisions, I have never had a patient develop an infection with genital herpes afterward," said Kogan, who has a private practice in White Plains and is on staff at Nyack Hospital. "That speaks to just how unusual it is."
Physicians performing circumcisions are careful to clean the patient's skin before the incision is made. All instruments are sterile, and special care is taken to make sure that the tissue is treated gently to prevent trauma, he said.
But occasionally, babies develop complications from circumcision, he said."Even in the cleanest operating room under the best circumstances, you can get an infection," Kogan said. "There is never no risk with any surgical procedure."
Staff writer Jane Lerner contributed to this report. Reach Steve Lieberman at slieberm@thejournalnews.com or at 845-578-2443."
What do you call an old man sucking a prick of an eight day old child? Is my dillemma.
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