In case you're following the Magick, here's a new, reconstructionist midrash on circumcision.
quote:In reading chapters 17 and 21 of the book of Genesis and noting the identification, in both, of male circumcision as the sign of God's covenant with Israel, I have often asked myself: "If circumcision is, for Jewish men, a sign of covenantal membership, what sign is there, or what sign should there be, for women—i.e., what sign do women have that we, like men, are God's covenantal partners?"
Yet in rereading Genesis 17, which views circumcision as a sign of God's covenant with Israel, and Genesis 21, which describes Abraham's circumcision of Isaac, I came to realize that I had been unable to learn the answer because I had asked the right question in the wrong way. Unlike the biblical Leah, for example, who did have a daughter, Sarah had only a son.
Thus, in approaching these particular texts, my question needed to be: If God, as the biblical narrative so clearly implies, entered into a covenantal relationship with Abraham and Sarah and their offspring (not simply Abraham's, since were that the case, Ishmael would have gained membership into the covenant as well), what was the nature of God's command to Sarah?
The actual reading is kind of interesting, and equates the act of circumcision (a male activity) with suckling children (a female activity).
Here's the text in question:
quote:Genesis 17
3 Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, 4 "As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram [2] ; your name will be Abraham, [3] for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God."
9 Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. 10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner-those who are not your offspring. 13 Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant."
15 God also said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. 16 I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her."
17 Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?" 18 And Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!"
19 Then God said, "Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. (Isaac means he laughs) I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.
...
23 On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised, 25 and his son Ishmael was thirteen; 26 Abraham and his son Ishmael were both circumcised on that same day. 27 And every male in Abraham's household, including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with him.
quote:Genesis 21
1 Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. 2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. 3 Abraham gave the name Isaac [1] to the son Sarah bore him. 4 When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
6 Sarah said, "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me." 7 And she added, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age."
Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away
8 The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. 9 But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, 10 and she said to Abraham, "Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac."
11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. 12 But God said to him, "Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring [2] will be reckoned. 13 I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring."
Interesting to note that this division is, Biblically speaking, the root of the problems between Israel and Palestine.
The division between Isaac and Ishmael is the division between Jew and Arab - it's the Arab people who become the other "great nation" referred to there. |
