Reset Password
Reset Link Sent
| Blogs > tazzerman2000 > Cosmic Debris Part Three! |
Correcting some possilbe misinformation
|
Correcting some possilbe misinformation  One this blog post [post 3464229] the writer included this paragraph regarding Jewish, ritual circumcision: "Bar mitzvah, Jewish men have kinda of a choice they don't receive it until they are thirteen. After this age, the boys bear their own responsibility for Jewish ritual law, tradition, and ethics, and are able to participate in all areas of Jewish community life. Traditionally, the father of the bar mitzvah gives thanks to God that he is no longer punished for the 's sins (Genesis Rabba, Toldot 23:11). In addition to being considered accountable for their actions from a religious perspective, b'nai mitzvah may be counted towards a minyan (prayer quorum) and may lead prayer and other religious services in the family and the community." Everything is pretty much correct EXCEPT for the first sentence. Jewish boys do NOT get circumcized at age thirteen and no, they do NOT have a choice! Typically, a Jewish boy is circumcized EIGHT days after birth in a ceremony called a Brit Milah which is then followed by a celebratory meal (seudat mitzvah). The circumcision represents the covenant between G-d and the Jewish people. (Genesis 17:10-14) God commanded the Biblical patriarch Abraham to be circumcised, an act to be followed by his descendants: 10 This is My covenant, which ye shall keep, between Me and you and thy seed after thee: every male among you shall be circumcised. This ritual is specific to Jews but these days, particularlly in the U.S., most male babies are in fact circumcised. I'm not going to go into a huge diatribe about WHY that occurs but it really has nothing to do with the Jewish religion. I can't post a comment on that girls blog or I would have posted this there so instead, I thought I'd post it on my blog just to make sure to address what I preceive as some serious misinformation. It's a public service eh?  -tm |
||||
|
Well - the no-tattoo prohibition would only matter to anyone who wants to be buried in an Orthodox cemetery. Since I'm not Orthodox AND I want to be cremated, I have tattoos.
| |||
|
I can't believe that any writer could make such a mistake. I often wonder what the original purpose of circumcision was. The Egyptians also practiced it, according to Herodotus. It set the Jews apart from their neighbors, and in the writings of Josephus, he mentions that after battles, the foreskins were cut from the penises of their enemies as prof of the number of men killed. (Kinda like Indians taking scalps.) One thought that I had, was that in a region where war was so frequent and your children were taken and put into slavery, perhaps circumcision arose as a way to recognize members of your "tribe" - as Jews also had prohibitions against tattooing and scarification, which is practiced widely by African tribes (but I've never seen any archeological discussion regarding whether it was prevalent in the Levant - though I do know there was som tattooing in Egypt.)
| |||
|
the circumcision of (male) babies is indeed a tradition still widely observed in USA, I thought pretty much everyone knew that but TBH I wasn't aware of it spreading outside the religion. thank you
|
Become a member to create a blog
