John D. Brey
Well-Known Member
Joseph said:G‑d told Abraham (Genesis 17:7) “And I will establish My covenant between Me and between you and between your seed after you throughout their generations as an everlasting covenant, to be to you for a G‑d and to your seed after you.” G‑d commanded Abraham to circumcise himself and all of his male descendants. G‑d commanded the Jewish people (Leviticus 12:2), “On the eighth day, the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised."
Sefer HaChinuch (Mitzvah 2) explains that the reason for circumcision is to create a permanent sign on the Jewish body that differentiates it from the body of a gentile. The Talmud writes that “a woman is considered to be naturally circumcised.” Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch writes in his commentary to Genesis 17:15 that "Women don’t require an external sign of the covenant because they naturally feel committed to G‑d."
. . . Concerning you're first paragraph we have Rabbi Hirsch pointing out that:
The combination of ברית and נתן almost never occurs elsewhere . . . As a rule, the formula is הקים ברית כרת ברית, not נתן ברית. It is possible then, that ואתנה בריתי does not mean "I will establish with you a new covenant," but, rather, "I will transfer to you an existing covenant."
Hirsch Chumash at Genesis 17:2.
Hirsch Chumash at Genesis 17:2.
So a new covenant isn't established with Abraham. The original covenant with mankind, enacted between Adam and God (and rescinded with the Fall), is renewed with Abraham. . . Which segues nicely with your second paragraph since the "sign" of the renewal of the original covenant is the crossing-out (literally) of the mark directly associated with the rescinding of the original covenant (the mark whose genesis is narrated in Genesis 2:21).
The first manufactured mark, sign, scar, on the human body, is created at Genesis 2:21 when, according to Midrash Rabbah, Bere****h, XVII, 6, Adam is fitted with a means of urinating more discretely: he acquires a phallus. The mark marking the first amendment to God's original design still exists on the human body in the guise of the penile-raphe which is the natural suture marking the time and place of the manufacture of the penis from what was otherwise the female form of genitalia.
Do you now see why women don't require the new mark that marks the end of the reign of the old mark?
Their bodies are the original, the prototype, Adam's pre-Genesis 2:21 body. The female body wasn't "female" until after Genesis 2:21, when two distinct genders came out of the creation of the first penis (which, the penis, is the source for gender-differentiation according to the Jewish sages). Eliminate the penis and there's neither male nor female, Jew nor Gentile, since the organ associated with the reign of difference, which Professor Wolfson calls "the reign of the phallus," has come to its end.
When God decides to re-establish the original covenant with Abraham what's the first thing he has Abraham do? He has him manufacture a brand new scar that literally crosses (seriously) out the original scar associated with the original sin (the "original sin" being the manufacture and subsequent use of the phallus). The circumcision scar cuts perpendicularly across the penile-raphe creating a Latin cross on the underside of the fleshly organ manufactured at Genesis 2:21.
The Jewish sages remark (so to say) that when the covenant-cutting is performed the "sign" of God himself is revealed on the flesh where the cutting occurs. A Latin cross x-ing out the penile-raphe is cut into the offending flesh that's in the cross-hairs when the covenant cutting occurs. The mark of God, if the sages are to be believed, is manufactured on the flesh associated with the original gender reassignment surgery. The mark of God is manufactured when the mark of circumcision crosses (perpendicular to the penile-raphe) the mark of the original sin. ------Women don't need the mark of circumcision because they have no penile-raphe; their body is either God's original and complete design, or a closer version of the original design than any body with the offending and offensive flesh.
John