The Rite of Circumcision: Why Cause Pain to an Eight-Day-Old Baby?

Zehava asks: "Hello. My friend is a kind-hearted girl who has not yet returned to faith and wonders how Judaism seemingly ignores the pain caused to a baby during the Brit Milah. The health explanation doesn't satisfy her. I would appreciate your response as always."

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Hello and blessings Zehava, and thank you for the question. With Hashem's help, may you succeed in strengthening your friend.

Brit Milah is a very serious mitzvah in the Torah. Hashem commanded the people of Israel in His Torah: "And on the eighth day, every male among you shall be circumcised... And any uncircumcised male who has not been circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from its people; he has broken My covenant" (Genesis 17:9-14).

Every Jew who does not perform Brit Milah is violating a severe mitzvah from the Torah, whose punishment is karet. The sages have taught that he has no share in the world to come. The very fact that Jews throughout the generations were willing to die for their Judaism, and it is reasonable to assume that even today countless traditional Jews would be willing to die for the sanctification of Hashem's name rather than convert to a foreign religion, is evidence of the importance of the Torah and mitzvot to the people of Israel. It seems that secular Jews, in particular, should hold on to the mitzvah of circumcision most strongly and not abandon it, since their connection to other mitzvot is still tenuous, and this mitzvah is so important to their definition and Jewish identity.

Brit Milah is an act that crosses cultures and eras and serves as a historical factor that unites all Jews worldwide in a blood covenant, in every place on earth, and at every point in history starting from their inception with the patriarch of the Israelite nation, our father Abraham. It seems that even the majority of secular Israelis understand the importance of this historical connection and do not want to sever it, as 97% of Jewish men in Israel are circumcised (Wikipedia, entry on Brit Milah). Hence, Jews who recognize the importance of their Judaism will undoubtedly continue to observe the mitzvah of circumcision regardless of the cost.

Thus, Maimonides explained about the mitzvah of circumcision (Guide for the Perplexed, Part Three, Chapter 49):

"This act [Brit Milah] is not performed by a person on himself or his child except out of true faith, for this is not a scratch on the leg or a burn on the arm but something considered very difficult [meaning, this mitzvah attests to the strong and true faith of the parents]. The mutual love and mutual assistance existing among peoples who all have one sign, and that is in the form of a covenant [-circumcision connects the people of Israel across the globe as one nation also connected in the flesh]. Thus, this circumcision is the covenant that our father Abraham made concerning the belief in the uniqueness of Hashem. Every circumcised individual enters into the covenant of Abraham and accepts upon himself the covenant to believe in the Oneness [-the belief in the unity of Hashem]: 'To be a God to you and your descendants after you' (Genesis 17)."

But why were we commanded to perform Brit Milah specifically at eight days old? This is indeed an interesting question, as the significant health benefit discovered in circumcision against diseases and infections still doesn't explain why the Brit must be done at eight days old specifically. It should be noted, however, that the clotting factors in a baby's blood start strengthening for the first time on the eighth day of his life, indicating divine knowledge behind the mitzvah. Despite this, the question remains - why not wait for the boy to mature? It is known that Ishmaelites perform Brit Milah for their sons at age 13.

(Photo: Flash 90)

Maimonides addressed this issue at length and explained several reasons for it (Guide for the Perplexed, ibid), I will clarify his words in parentheses:

The perfection of this mitzvah and its perpetuation are realized by performing circumcision in infancy. There are three insights in this:

A. The first is that if the child were left until he grows up, he might not do it [-because there are many sensitive people who would not be able to imagine performing such an operation on themselves, or in any case would feel a strong aversion to carrying out this sacred mitzvah].

B. The second is that it does not hurt him as much as it would hurt an older individual, due to the softness of his skin and the weakness of his imagination, as [an older person] thinks of the event as dreadful and difficult before it happens [-that is, the baby is not yet developed and also does not understand what is being done to him and quickly forgets the pain, whereas an adolescent or grown man would feel the pain much more intensely both physically and emotionally, so the Brit would leave a psychological trauma and scar].

C. The third is that parents of an infant consider him of less value when he is first born because the imagined form compelling them to love him has not yet solidified [-because it is a known phenomenon that a newborn cannot yet recognize his parents, cannot turn on his own, and barely sees, so the emotional connection with him is yet undeveloped, unlike when he is older and recognizes his parents and can express himself verbally and through facial expressions, and by then his parents are already attached to him with many experiences and memories, making it much harder to cause him pain]... the love of a father and mother for the newborn at birth is not as strong as their love when he is one year old, nor is the love for a one-year-old like the love for a six-year-old... But at the time of birth, this imagined form is very weak, especially with the father who is commanded in this mitzvah. [Who knows if the very fact that the Arabs perform circumcision on their children at age 13 does not cause the development of a certain cruelty in parents who must overcome their compassionate feelings to perform circumcision on their grown sons. Whereas with Jewish parents, they do it before the emotional bond with the son develops and before the son knows and understands what is being done to him]."

There is no doubt that a baby can feel pain. But it is very difficult to decide how much an eight-day-old infant hurts, for the simple reason that babies experience pain very differently at that age. For example, some studies claim that an injection hurts a baby much more than a Brit Milah. Every baby must cope with his teeth growing in, and during this time he may feel much more pain than from a Brit Milah. Psychologically, too, it is evident that a baby's mental distress is very strong when he is young, even from minor things like needing a diaper change, constipation, hunger, separation from his mother for a while, or even taking his pacifier or toy away from him - such things can make a baby scream his head off, showing extreme distress. Here I will tell a true story that I saw with my own eyes during a Brit Milah in Bnei Brak: before the Brit, the baby cried intensely, perhaps because he wanted his mother, but after he was given a pacifier, he calmed down and was silent, and to my great surprise, throughout the entire Brit, he did not cry at all and seemed very calm. However, the moment his pacifier was taken away, he burst into loud cries again until he was given a bottle. It seemed that the baby lived in the moment, not recalling the last minute, and more surprisingly, the hunger disturbed him much more than the Brit. Perhaps this was a rare case, but in any event, I learned that it is very difficult to assess the level of physical or emotional pain of a baby during a Brit Milah, precisely because he is able to show enormous distress even from the smallest things and does not seem capable of grasping his condition at such a tender age. What is certain—the baby soon forgets the Brit and does not suffer "trauma" from it. I have attended several Brit Milahs where babies screamed during the Brit, but mere seconds afterward, they were very calm and behaved as if nothing had happened. It appears the infant lives entirely in the moment, and the Brit Milah leaves no mark on his psyche. It makes more sense to perform a Brit Milah at eight days old (the earliest age at which a Brit can be performed without endangering the child—when the blood's clotting factors first strengthen) rather than wait for him to mature, when the procedure would be much, much tougher for him and his parents.

As King David said: "The judgments of Hashem are true; they are altogether righteous, more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb" (Psalms 19:10). Just look at how wise and merciful the holy Torah is: even in what first seems an inconsiderate act towards the baby, there is the greatest measure of compassion, stemming from a true understanding of the soul of the newborn and the soul of the parents. Any human might think it would be better to delay the act until maturity, thus preventing its "cruelty," but human reason is limited in comprehending reality. The simple person sees the baby crying, but Hashem sees all the details of reality down to their innermost roots—"For man sees with the eyes, but Hashem sees into the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). This is further evidence of the truth and righteousness of the Torah.