There exists today in America, Europe and even Israel, a movement against Bris Milah (circum-cision). It comes as a shock, especially when the spokesmen are themselves Jewish. We may be used to anti-shchitah agitation, anti-Israel propaganda and neo-Nazism, but this is something new---or so it seems.

In order to understand what is happening, we first have to know something about Bris Milah and its history. To begin with, opposition to the mitzvah of Bris Milah, even among our friends, is nothing new. In fact, it is as old as the mitzvah itself. According to Jewish tradition, when Abraham received the prophetic command regarding the Bris, he had qualms about it, and he sought the advice of his friends. First, he went to his friend Aner and told him of his prophecy:

"What? Do you want to mutilate yourself, and leave yourself vulnerable to attack from your enemies?" he asked incredulously.

Then he consulted another friend, Eshkol: "You're an old man," he told him. (Avraham was 99 years young at the time.) "If you circumcise yourself, you'll bleed to death."

It's also written (Genesis 17:26) that Abraham was commanded to perform the mitzvah in broad daylight. The Midrash Rabbah explains that this is because had it been done at night, there were those who would have said: "Had we seen him doing it, we would have stopped him!" In the commentary Eitz Yosef, two reasons are given for this: that he should not become a nation apart; and that he was harming himself and others.

The current opposition to Bris Milah is but an echo of an ancient antagonism. Like Abraham's contemporaries, they are outraged by such a "harmful" practice; and some would even go so far as to outlaw it. On medical grounds, the claims of danger to the child are spurious. A 1990 study in the New England Journal of Medicine reported a complication rate of 0.19 percent, a safety record un-matched by any other kind of surgery. And the rare instances of complications are easily corrected. In addition, studies have shown that circumcision significantly reduces the risks of penile cancer, as well as urinary tract and HIV infections.

Still, there is the issue of pain. How can we justify causing pain to a helpless infant? Those who are concerned about this should, however, ask themselves if it is absolutely wrong to cause children pain for any reason? Any responsible parent will readily admit that sometimes we must cause our children pain for their own good. No one questions the wisdom of blood tests, innoculations and other painful medical treatments performed on children of all ages. In many instances, they are required by law. The difference in the case of Bris Milah is that the reason for it is not medical but spiritual.

But why at the tender age of eight days? Perhaps the child would be able to withstand the procedure better when he is a bit older and stronger? Or, alternatively, perhaps before the eighth day the infant would be less conscious of the pain? Here we observe an extraordinary fact of human development. From the period in the womb until birth, the clotting mechanism of the baby's blood is undeveloped. This facilitates the passage of blood from the mother to the fetus. At the time of birth there is a sudden increase in the level of prothrombin, a coagulant essential to the newly independent blood supply. Prothrombin reaches full strength, however, only on the eighth day of life. That is the earliest time when it is safe to circumcise the child---and that is when the mitzvah is performed. The Giver of the Law and the Designer of the human body would seem to be one and the same.

There is a bit more to the midrashic passage cited above: Abraham had a third friend, by the name of Mamre, from whom he heard a different response entirely: "You're asking for advice in this matter? You, the one that G-d saved from the fiery furnace (where he was thrown in by order of Nimrod, to be killed for his idol-smashing activities), and miraculously saved you in the war with the four kings (to rescue Lot). He saved your life and all your limbs, and you ask about a tiny extremity? Go and do the mitzvah!"

Mamre counseled him to trust in G-d. He didn't know about prothrombin and the miracle of blood coagulation; but he did know that no harm would come from fulfilling the will of the Creator. Abraham listened to Mamre and heroically went ahead with the Bris, both on himself and the other males in his household, thereby establishing a tradition which is now almost 4000 years old.

Contrary to the claims of the foes of Bris Milah then and now, it has not brought any harm upon the Jewish people; but it did, as they feared, create a nation apart, a nation dedicated to a life of moral perfection. They didn't oppose Bris Milah because it was dangerous or mutilating; they opposed it because it represented a moral force that threatened to sweep away the corrupt, pleasure-seek-ing world they inhabited. The meaning of the Bris is that man's procreative power and his drive for physical pleasure should be directed to the service of a transcendant Will. All the rest was---and is---disinformation. In 4000 years, not much has changed.

Of the three friends of Abraham mentioned in the Oral Tradition, only Mamre's name appears in the account in Genesis (18:1). In the merit of advocating the mitzvah he was thus immortalized; the others were consigned to relative obscurity. Likewise, those in our time who enter into the covenant of Abraham will be rewarded, having linked their names to a glorious tradition.