Why are Jewish boys always circumcised?
God directed Abraham to circumcize himself (ow…) and all the males in his household as a token of the covenant between God and the descendants of Abraham. We continue to obey that commandment today. Jewish babies are circumcized on the 8th day of life; male converts to Judaism are also circumcized (under anesthesia!!) if they were not circumcized as infants. If they WERE circumcized, then a single drop of blood is drawn from the penis as a sort of “token” circumcision to enable the appropriate blessings to be spoken; the ceremony is called a Hatafat dam brit (“drop of blood” [of the covenant] – הטפת דם ברית in Hebrew). I’m Jewish.
Hi…. A lot of answers here are ‘not’ correct about the reason why Jews are circumcised! The Ancient Egyptians circumcised their young boys/men… This can be seen on Ancient Egyptian wall reliefs and ancient papyri, dating to well before the birth of the Jewish people or nation! The tradition was taken from Egypt, by the later to be known ‘Jews’ in the Exodus! This is just one of the ‘many’ traditions and beliefs that the Jews took from Egypt!! .
According to Jewish tradition it was a covenant between God and Jews, a sign that set them apart from others. A more anthropological explanation is that it reduced the incidence of disease within a desert-dwelling group of people who were facing the very real possibility of extinction and therefore had to do everything possible to increase their rate of reproduction. That theory also helps explain the Torah’s objections to things like onanism, homosexuality, marrying gentiles and any activities that were life-threatening to people living in those conditions e.g. eating shellfish etc. How much of this is still applicable in this age of refrigeration, soap, and the State of Israel, is up for debate.
