Hi everybody. Sorry my response to the Great Circ Debate was
delayed. Israel had its Memorial Day followed by Independence Day
followed by its weekend, so my network accesser went to his
parents in Tel Aviv. I'll try to be brief. Catherine was quite
correct that Terry's Jewish circ stories are kabbalistic. The
Kabbala is Jewish mysticism-fables, definitely not "religion" per
se. Jewish practice of circumcision is based on Genesis 17.
Period. Thinking about it more deeply, though, I have 2 theories.
One is alluded to by Catherine: to physically mark Jewish males,
so that in battle they would fight more fiercely, unable to claim
that they were not part of the Jewish "invaders".
Another theory is that it was done for health reasons. Many
ancient/primitive cultures circ males, without the command in
Genesis 17. To give further weight to this, there are quite a few
Jewish religious practices, based on biblical commandments, with
resulting health benefits. Making pork taboo helped eliminate
trichinosis. Ritual bathing once a week greatly reduced Jewish
deaths from Black Plague in the Dark and Middle Ages. And we
certainly can't argue the health benefit of not working one day
out of 7! And so on.
Fascinating about coagulation factors peaking on 8th day, the
usual day for Jewish ritual circ - the ancients must have
discovered that by trial and error.
The numerical equivalent of the Hebrew word for "knife" is 140,
not 8. Eight is a single letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and no
Hebrew word of one letter exists.
As far as pain post-circ affecting breastfeeding, I've never
heard any Jewish mother complain, but of course that would be
cultural, since it wouldn't occur to them. I do have a question,
though. How could Becky's mothers and the mother in Jan Barger's
The Nurturing Parent be sure that it was circ that interfered
with bf and not another variable?
Almost forgot - in Jewish ritual circ, the only
anesthetic/analgesic offered the infant is about a teaspoon of
wine. Believe me, after my 2 sons' circs, I was much more
stressed out than they were. Regards from Israel, Judy Knopf