[Siman 20]
And Abraham fell upon his face (Gen. 14:3). Prior to his circumcision, Abraham prostrated himself whenever the Shekhinah addressed him, but after he was circumcised, He remained standing, as it is said:
And Abraham stood yet before the Lord (ibid. 18:22). Indeed, the Holy One, blessed be He, also revealed Himself unto Abraham while he sat, as it is said:
And the Lord appeared unto him by the terebinths of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door (ibid., v. 1).
Circumcision is so precious to the Holy One, blessed be He, that He assured Abraham that no one who had been circumcised would descend unto Gehenna, as it is said: In that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, saying: “Unto thy seed I have given this land” (ibid. 15:18). Who will descend to Gehenna? The verse that follows informs us that the Kenites, the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, etc., will descend into Gehenna, since they were all uncircumcised. Ezekiel observed the uncircumcised descending to Gehenna, as it is said: Son of man, wail for the multitudes of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, with the daughters of the mighty nations, unto the nether parts of the earth…. go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised. They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword…. Asshur is there and all her company … There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude; all round about her are her graves; all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword (Ezek. 32:18–30).
Similarly, Isaiah declared:
Therefore, the netherworld has enlarged her desire, and opened her mouth for those without law (
hoq)
(Isa. 5:14); that is, for those who have not observed the law of circumcision. Whence do we know that circumcision is called a law (
hoq)? We know it from the verse
And He established it unto Jacob for a statute (hoq), and to Israel for an everlasting covenant (Ps. 105:10). The Holy One, blessed be He, pulls down the foreskins of infidels and sinners in Israel who deny God and imitate the practices (
huqim) of the nations, and even though they may be circumcised they descend to Gehenna, as is said:
He hath put forth his hands against them that were at peace with him; he hath profaned his covenant (Ps. 55:21).
King Agrippa asked R. Eliezer: Inasmuch as the Holy One, blessed be He, considered circumcision so very important, why did He not include this precept among the Ten Commandments? He replied: Long before the Ten Commandments were given to Israel, the Holy One, blessed be He, had warned Israel concerning the fulfillment of the precept of circumcision, as it is said:
Now, therefore, if you hearken unto My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, ye shall be Mine own treasure from among all peoples (Exod. 19:5), and He said also:
If My covenant be not with day and night (Jer. 33:25). The covenant referred to in these verses is the covenant of circumcision (
b’rit milah).
Prior to this verse it is written:
Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying: “The two families which the Lord did choose, He hath cast them off?” and they condemn My people, that they should be no more a nation before them (ibid., v. 24). What does this verse indicate? He saw how the men of Jerusalem provoked the Holy One, blessed be He, to anger, for even the priests who offered sacrificed in the Temple were uncircumcised, as it is said:
In that ye have brought in aliens, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary, to profane it, even My house, when ye offer My bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken My covenant, to add unto all your abominations (Ezek. 44:7), and it is written elsewhere:
Thus saith the Lord God: No alien, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into My sanctuary, even any alien that is among the children of Israel (ibid., v. 9).
The kings of the House of David likewise abolished the precept of circumcision. Jehoiakim extended his own foreskin (to hide his circumcision), as it is said:
Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was found upon him (II Chron. 36:8). What is the meaning of
was found upon him? It means that he stretched his foreskin. Others maintain that this verse indicates that he tattooed his skin. Hence, we learn that both the priests and the kings abrogated the covenant of circumcision. The Holy One, blessed be He, declared: “I informed Aaron and David that their offspring would survive forever, as it is said:
Ought you not to know that the Lord, the God of Israel, gave the kingdom over Israel to David forever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt? (ibid. 13:5). And unto Aaron I swore:
It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the Lord unto thee and to thy seed with thee (Num. 18:19). But they (their offspring) abrogated the covenant of circumcision!” The Holy One, blessed be He, declared unto the prophet: Go and say
unto them: If ye can break My covenant with the day, and My covenant with the night, so that there should not be day and night in their season; then may also My covenant be broken with David, My servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, My ministers (Jer. 33:20–21). When the Israelites heard this, they cried out: Woe unto us,
the two families which the Lord did choose, He cast them off (ibid., v. 24). The Holy One, blessed be He, responded to them:
Consider thou not what this people have spoken, saying: The two families, etc. (ibid.). And He asked: “When were they cast off?” At the time they abrogated the commandment mentioned in the verse that follows:
Thus saith the Lord, If My covenant be not with day and night, etc. (ibid., v. 25), and it says:
Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion, put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the Holy City, for no more shall enter into thee henceforth the uncircumcised and the unclean (Isa. 52:1). Amen and so may it be Thy will.