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| all your foreskin belong to us |
The Jewish mother was upset because another poster had responded calling circumcision mutilation and she was deeply offended on behalf of her faith and this sacred right of Brit Milah - or what people who don't hate babies, and men, and penises, and themselves call Male Genital Mutilation.
Before I get into it let me say that I know people who have, for one of the reasons I argue below or another, circumcised their sons and they live with the regret every day. You KNOW this is not for you. I love you and your children and I feel for you. I keep myself educated and continually put myself in the crosshairs of this argument because I don't want any other parent to feel what you are feeling.
With every year that goes by and every new horrific study that comes out I become more militant in my desire to eradicate this sick twisted idea. I am less lenient, less understanding of other peoples viewpoints, less considerate of their feelings on this matter. BECAUSE THERE IS NO OTHER SIDE! You are either FOR cutting off baby parts or you are AGAINST it. You are either a protector of bodily integrity OR you're an asshole. There is no argument, no middle ground. The ONLY reason I would ever agree that cutting off a part of your body is a good idea is to save your life or drastically improve the quality of it. Think gangrene. Think diabetic necrosis. Or whatever the hell this guy had.
So below is what I wrote to her. I have edited it with more current information and links and (I hope) funny things for the sake of this blog post. The reason I am turning it into a blog post is entirely selfish. It is because I am still confronted with this argument quite regularly and I am tired of typing the same things over and over. Now it will be in one handy link.
So much to say....
I was going to apologize now for any course language I may use or any offense I may cause but I'm not going to because if you're offended then good. It means you have doubt about your actions and where there is doubt there is the chance that you could change your mind. Someone taking offense to this is awesome. I will gladly take offense on behalf of your circumcised children. I have had this argument so many times I can't believe I am still having it. Like the 200th time you ask your child not to jump on the couch. And people continue to do it with the same carelessness of a child. I just don't have it in me to even pretend to be polite toward people who defend circumcision anymore.
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| Add Don't I look like a good little Jewish girl on the day of her bat mitzvah. All decked out in her early 90's finery and bad bangs in front of the ark. with my prayer book. What you can't see is the Witch's bible I hid underneath. |
The Jewish Argument
I was raised Jewish and identify culturally as Jewish the way other people say they're Italian or Irish. As the birth of my son approached I did a great deal of research when faced with this decision not because I was conflicted but because I needed to be armed with knowledge to use in my defense to my family.
Circumcision is UNARGUABLY MUTILATION whether a sadistic (re: asshole) god commands it in an outdated book or not. If you did it to a girl, an adult, or an animal people would be horrified and laws would be passed to protect them and yet the tradition continues. In the detailed research I did which included talking with two rabbis as well as reading multiple translations (see bottom) of the portions of the texts which discuss it I learned several things.
1) the words in the original covenant indicate "nicking" the foreskin. NOT removing it. The goal was to release a droplet of blood as a sacrifice of sorts or as a rabbi from the middle ages claimed - to cause bodily pain. Welcome to the earth little one, you're a Jew, its time you start SUFFERING! Really feel it. Stew in it little asshole. Don't let it go. Carry it with you throughout the generations and pass it on to your children. Never forget the SUFFERING!
2) any child born of a Jewish woman is Jewish according to Jewish law. Nothing else is needed. If there was then females wouldn't be Jewish. End of story.
3) the laws disallowing any changes to ones body ie: the big taboo against tattoos... Because we were created in gods perfect image....so, no tattoos, no piercings, no hair dye or makeup, (tell that to the orthodox women wearing pancake batter on their faces and mops on their heads) but go ahead, take off a chunk off a newborn, he can't stop you.
And why on the 8th day of life? Because there are specific blood factors that we don't have in high enough percentages to prevent hemorrhage until about the 8th day! So my birth junkies one could argue that the reason America is so obsessed with vitamin K shots at birth is to give the baby an extra boost so they can get circumcised before they leave the hospital. So the vitamin K producers and the company who make the circumcision equipment are in (a very very scary) bed together. Here is a handy graph. But wait what am I talking about. We do it on the 8th day because god said so. My bad.
As far as metaphysical or spiritual reasons saying to someone that they aren't as close to god as you are because they didn't have a part of their body removed is insane. Just reread those words again and think about it. (The woman I was responding to made the argument that circumcision brought her son closer to god). If the god of Abraham required that every newborn have their index finger removed would we be so quick to do it?! I think not. And this is no different. The change to a removal of the entire foreskin was decided by some conclave of rabbis that met several hundred years ago. You know, in the dark ages. So glad we kept all the awesome ideas they had back then. Let's bring back the rack!And why on the 8th day of life? Because there are specific blood factors that we don't have in high enough percentages to prevent hemorrhage until about the 8th day! So my birth junkies one could argue that the reason America is so obsessed with vitamin K shots at birth is to give the baby an extra boost so they can get circumcised before they leave the hospital. So the vitamin K producers and the company who make the circumcision equipment are in (a very very scary) bed together. Here is a handy graph. But wait what am I talking about. We do it on the 8th day because god said so. My bad.
Jews need to stop hiding behind their religion and screaming persecution every time someone questions circumcision. There is a reason it is so often questioned. There is NO reason to be doing it! It needs to be abandoned like stoning adulteresses, and keeping slaves. One of the reasons Judaism is declining is because it teaches blind following of tradition for tradition's sake. No one ever explains the WHY of anything. Just do it. Its what we do. Perhaps not for the orthodox or the chassids but for the majority of American Jews our religion is devoid of any actual spirituality. Modern people and modern spirituality don't just do things because that is the way it has always been done. When something is the best or the right thing to do it persists throughout time. When something is no longer the best or right thing to do it needs to be abandoned not clung to against all reason, all feeling, and all evidence to the contrary. If your religion cannot stand up to challenge or questioning then it doesn't deserve to be followed. Judaism has many wonderful qualities that should be the focus of its teachings and traditions. Not this. Circumcision goes against the core of Judaism.
The "Look Like Daddy" and "It Looks Weird" Arguments
As far as the arguments for "looking like daddy" the numbers of circumcised infants are dropping so quickly that by the time your sons are old enough to care what their penises look like they will be in the minority if they're circumcised. So they will look like daddy but not like their peers. Does it look weird to me? YES, sure, because 95% of the males who are my peers are circumcised. So all the penises I"ve seen (hey, it hasnt been THAT many) are all circumcised. It is what I am used to, nothing more. By the time our sons are in locker rooms or engaging in sexual acts their peers will be used to seeing it both ways and I hope dearly that in the not to distant future it will be the circumcised penises that look "weird".
My husband is looking forward to the day when my son asks why he looks different than daddy and my husband can say "when I was a baby everyone did this until we realized it was wrong and cruel and I'm glad I knew better and didn't do it to you, your penis is perfect"
The "Protection Against Disease" Argument
I am not a doctor so listen to all of these people...
Video telling exactly why our quest to circumcise all of Africa is BACKFIRING and causing more disease.
There is a whole website for doctors opposing circumcision and another
So why keep the foreskin? What does it do?
But if you're too lazy to read that in a nutshell It contains oh...about 20,000 nerve endings. It protects the tip of the penis. It lubricates with an all natural antimicrobial antibacterial "smegma". Handy during sex, or for preventing infection.
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| So this is bad |
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| but this is ok. |
If you don't it's because you know deep down what a horror this is. A horror you perpetuated on your perfect helpless child. They TIE him down to a board. They put - if you're lucky - a little topical numbing agent (which take quite a while to be effective even topically). Then they use tools reminiscent of the spanish inquisition to remove a perfectly good and healthy part of your child's body while he screams so hard he turns red, shakes all over and passes out.
There! that was it! That feeling you just had that made you want to cross your legs. That face of discomfort and disgust. But hey - its a baby. They won't remember right? WRONG again!
But I'm not a psychologist so here:
and here
and here
Don't try this at home. I'm allowed. I have the Jew card.
This tradition is just that, a tradition. One that needs to fall into the fog of history with other things we look back on with embarrassment like foot binding, thalidomide, child labor, and prepubescent brides. Be educated. Protect the penises. Don't be an asshole.
one version of one mention of it in the torah you will notice three things. 1) god repeats himself a lot....kind of like talking to a toddler, 2) the word circumcision sticks out like a sore thumb being invented 2000 years or so after the torah was written and 3) we are instructed to circumcise our sons in the same sentence that we are told to circumcise the other humans we bought.
Jews Against Circumcision check out the section under the "Jewish" tab.
Beyond the Bris Jewish organization with many wonderful pieces written by families and rabbis faced with this issue.
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Thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings...I think.