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08 November 2024

The first Brit Milah — Why didn't Abraham perform the brit milah before G-d told him to?

 Danny Ginsbourg:  Lech Letha

Parashat Lech Lecha concludes with Hashem’s command to the ninety-nine year old Avram - as he was then called :(17:9-14)’You shall keep My covenant - you and your offspring after you throughout the generations. This is My covenant which you shall keep between Me and your offspring after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised..and that shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. At the age of eight days every male among you shall be circumcised throughout your generations..An uncircumcised male ..shall be cut off from its people; he has invalidated My covenant.’

Comments Rav Eliyahu Shlezinger:’Many commentators have stood on this command: after our Sages ( Yoma 28: ) said that the Avot all observed the Torah even before it was given, why then, did Avram not circumcise himself before he was commanded to do so by Hashem?’

Answers the Rav:’The starting point is the query raised by the Chatam Sofer: how is it permitted to perform this Mitzvah, when there is a danger that it may cause death to the infant?

‘If you should answer that in the overwhelming majority of cases this does not occur, it is a settled halakha that in cases of pikuach nefesh - when there is a chance of danger to life - we do not go by the usual rule of determining by the majority of instances - in which the circumcised infant is not harmed - the risk is still there!

‘The answer is, that we trust that, in the merit if it being a Mitzvah, our Sages promise:’Performers of a Mitzvah will not be harmed thereby’.

Based on this understanding, the Yalkut Gershoni answes our query, as to why Avram did not perform this Mitzvah - as he had performed all the other Mitzvot before being commanded to do so - because there was a risk to life in performing it, which was not permitted to Bnei Noach.

‘Only when he was specifically commanded to do so by Hashem, he fid so, as those assured ‘that no harm would come when observing a Mitzvah’.’

The Shelah Hakadosh proffers the following answer to our query:’Just as Avram ‘perceived’ the whole of the Torah before it was given, so too, in his ruach hakodesh, he perceived that he was destined in the future to be commanded to perform the mitzvah of circumcision.

Since our Sages teach ( Kid’ 41. ): ‘greater is one who is commanded and does, than one who is not comanded and does’, he chose to wait until he was commanded to perform this mitzvah.’

Adds Rav Pinchas Friedman :’In all of the mitzvot of the Torah a person can perform them on several occasions, and Avram therefore performed them before being commanded by Hashem to do so, at the level of ‘not being commanded and doing’, having in mind that, should he later be commanded with that mitzvah, he could then perform it in the higher level of ‘being commanded and doing’.

‘This was not the case with circumcision, as it can only be performed once.

‘Avram therefore decided not to perform this mitzvah before he was commanded, so as to be able, when commanded, to perform it at the higher level of ‘being commanded and doing’.’

The Shelah Hakadosh also proffers another answer- which we also find in the Panim Yafot : ‘Bnei Noach were specifically forbidden to חובל : to ‘ damage’ their body ( Breishit 9:5).

Avram therefore did not feel that he was permitted to circumcise himself, unless specifically commanded to do so by Hashem, as this would then supercede the prohibition.

Rav Yaakov Orenstein,in his sefer ‘Yeshuot Yaakov’, brings an intriguing answer to our query.

The Rambam, in ‘Moreh Nevuchim’, writes that the reason for the mitzvah of circumcision, is that the foreskin increases the power of desire, and that by its removal, the power of desire is weakened.

Expounds Rav Friedman:’We learn, therefore, that before Avram circumcised himself, he had to constantly contend with, and overcome, the wiles of his yetser ha’ra.

‘He perceived that this was the Will of his Creator, who created the yetser ha’ra for that very purpose: that man would have to contend with - and overcome it.

‘Avram therefore did not feel permitted to circumcise himself, unless commanded to do so by Hashem, as this would weaken his yetser ha’ra, which had been instilled in him by his Creator.

‘Only when Hashem commanded him to be circumcised, did he feel that he could do so.’

The Kli Yakar brings an intriguing exposition on our subject: ‘The Torah, in using the word הנה, in the passuk ( 17:4): ‘As for Me, הנה: behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall become the father of a multitude of nations’, indicated that it was referring to something already in existence, meaning: My covenant with you already exists.

‘This is clearly true, as while the circumcision serves an exalted purpose, it alludes to a different, prior circumcision: that of the heart and its purification.

‘Without doubt, even before the physical circumcision Avram already had a pure and circumcised heart.

Therefore Hashem now said to him: הנה: ‘behold, My covenant is already with you’, because you are pure of heart.

‘However, as now I wish to make you ‘the father of a multitude of nations’, I have to let the nations know why I chose you to be the father of a multitude of nations, and that is evidenced by the physical circumcision, which is testimony to the purity of your heart, so that all your generations shall know that by right I made you the father of the multitude of nations.

‘This is why Hashem now said:’And I have established the covenant between Me and you’, meaning: that inner covenant of the heart which already existed but was concealed from the world, I have now established as a sign of that covenant, so that all should know of the ברית עולם: the eternal covenant, that same covenant which till now was between Me and you, will now be a covenant for the whole wotld, as all will know of it and observe it.

A parting gem from Rav Friedman:’The purpose of the mitzvah of circumcision is to instill in a Jew the wish to sanctify the Name of Heaven with mesirut nefesh, should he be called upon to do so.

‘Avram, however, had already offered up his soul, as it were, for the sake of Heaven when cast into the furnace at Ur Kasdim, and therefore there was no need, in his case, for this mitzvah to that end.

‘He therefore did not feel permitted to ‘damage’ his body through circumcision, unless commanded to do so specifically by Hashem.

‘Only when Hashem told him that this was a covenant between Himself - Hashem - and Avram ‘and his generations’, Avram understood that, whilst this trait of mesirut nefesh was already in him, Hashem wanted to instill it so that it would be transmitted to all future generations, as an inheritance, and that was why Hashem commanded Avram to circumcise himself at this point, just before the birth of Yitzchak, so that this mesirut nefesh is instilled in all future generations of our people.’




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