CHABAD.ORG and OU TORAH The Eighth Day By Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Our Parshah begins with childbirth and, in the case of a male child, “on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.”1 This became known not just as milah, “circumcision,” but something altogether more theological, brit milah, “the covenant of circumcision.” That is because even before Sinai, almost at the dawn of Jewish history, circumcision became the sign of G‑d’s covenant with Abraham.2
Why circumcision? Why was this from the outset not just a mitzvah, one command among others, but the very sign of our covenant with G‑d and His with us? And why on the eighth day? Last week’s Parshah was called Shemini, “the eighth [day],”3 because it dealt with the inauguration of the Mishkan, the Sanctuary, which also took place on the eighth day. Is there a connection between these two quite different events?
Our Parshah begins with childbirth and, in the case of a male child, “on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.”1 This became known not just as milah, “circumcision,” but something altogether more theological, brit milah, “the covenant of circumcision.” That is because even before Sinai, almost at the dawn of Jewish history, circumcision became the sign of G‑d’s covenant with Abraham.2
Why circumcision? Why was this from the outset not just a mitzvah, one command among others, but the very sign of our covenant with G‑d and His with us? And why on the eighth day? Last week’s Parshah was called Shemini, “the eighth [day],”3 because it dealt with the inauguration of the Mishkan, the Sanctuary, which also took place on the eighth day. Is there a connection between these two quite different events?
No comments:
Post a Comment