By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel
CHULA VISTA, California — In this week’s Torah portion, we read about a strange story that nearly costs Moses his life (Exod. 4:24-27). As he was about to return to Egypt, Moses takes his wife (Tsipporah) and sons and travel toward Egypt. However, along the way, it appears that Moses (or possibly his son Gershom) gets dangerously sick from a fever. Tsipporah takes a sharp stone and circumcises her son.
The story is peculiar for many reasons and critical scholars argue that this passage may be an interpolation that really does not belong to the main narrative: Moses’ return to Egypt. According to Ramban, the story does serve a purpose. Moses had made a terrible mistake in attempting to bring his children to Egypt without taking into considerations what might happen to them once they there. Perhaps he thought that his status as a prince might exclude them from being conscripted as slaves. At any rate, this incident proved serious enough for Moses to send his family back home until they would later reunite.
Can a Woman Serve as a Mohelet?
Some important lingering questions still remain: : Can a woman serve as a Mohelet (a ritual circumciser)? According to the Halachic historian R. Daniel Sherber, there appears to be antecedent for a female Mohelet. As a proof text, he cites 2 Maccabees 6:8-10:
- At the suggestion of the citizens of Ptolemais, a decree was issued ordering the neighboring Greek cities to act in the same way against the Jews: oblige them to partake of the sacrifices, and put to death those who would not consent to adopt the customs of the Greeks. It was obvious, therefore, that disaster impended. Thus, two women who were arrested for having circumcised their children were publicly paraded about the city with their babies hanging at their breasts and then thrown down from the top of the city wall.
It is unclear whether the women were punished because they themselves circumcised their sons, or whether they may have arranged for men to perform the circumcision for them (contrary to Rabbi Sherber’s learned opinion [1]). In any event, the Greek restriction contributed to the smoldering Judean resentment that soon transformed into armed resistance against the Syrian Greeks.
Alternatively, Sherber cites from the medieval Megillat Antiochas (sometimes referred to as Megillat Chanukah) translation that was originally printed in Mantova, Italy in the year 1557. Scholars trace the origin of this Hebrew translation to the 2nd or 3rd century C.E. The relevant text reads:
- Also, a certain Jewish woman gave birth to a son after the death of her husband, and she circumcised him on the eighth day. She ascended the wall of the city [Jerusalem], with the child that she had circumcised in her hand. She began to speak: “[…] The covenant of our fathers shall not cease, [neither] from me, nor from the sons of our sons!” She cast her son under the wall, fell after him, and both died.
Interestingly enough, Sherber cites the Ethiopian custom which describes how women carry out the ritual of circumcision. One issue none of the commentaries seem to raise concerning Tsipporah’s behavior: Was it unusual for a woman to serve as a Mohelet in ancient times? Although several commentaries say that Moses was incapacitated; it is also quite possible that circumcising baby boys may have been routinely performed by women, a custom that is still retained by the Ethiopian Jewish community.
A Talmudic Discussion
There is a controversy in the Talmud concerning this very issue between Daru bar Papa who cites in the name of Rav, and Rabbi Yochanan, who differs with Rav. Here is the substance of the argument. Daru b. Papa held that only someone who is obligated to observe the precept of circumcision can act as mohel (the one who performs the circumcision) for others, whereas R. Yochanan felt that a woman can act as a mohelet as indicated in the story of Tziporah (see Exod. 4:24‑26 for details). [2]
In practical terms, R. Yosef Caro, the Halacha follows R. Yochanan and a woman may act as mohelet [3] but Maimonides adds one stipulation: this only applies in the event that a male Mohel is not available, however, she is certainly permitted to do so as a religious duty.[4] However, Rema cites authorities who differ on this matter, and discourages a woman from acting in this capacity. In fact, the same passage, in the Halachic states there is no legal obligation on the part of the mother to even circumcise her child, for the duty falls upon the father.
To the best of my knowledge, there is not a single Haredi or Hasidic scholar living today who would literally endorse such a scandalous halachic position. Were such an opinion like this considered halachically normative, many young Jewish men would probably choose never to get circumcised at a later time.
By the way, some rabbinic commentaries assert that Tziporah merely started the act of circumcision on her son, but it was really Moses who completed it.
Adding a Psychological Perspective
From a psychological perspective, the reluctance to utilize a female mohelet may have something to do with Freud’s theory of the “castration complex.” Freud theorized that castration anxiety is based on a deep‑seated fear or anxiety in boys and men said to originate during the genital stage of sexual development; Freud asserts that a boy, when seeing a girl’s genitalia, falsely presumes that the girl had her penis removed probably as punishment for some misbehavior. The young boy then becomes anxious lest the same happen to him.[5]
It is worth noting that in some cultures, notably 19th century Europe, it was not unheard of for parents to threaten their children with castration, or to otherwise threaten their genitals, a phenomenon Freud documents several times.
Freud’s Castration Complex in Patriarchal Religious Societies
Freud’s controversial theory may also help clarify why some Halachic authorities are reluctant to go along with a female mohelet. Freud’s controversial theory may even help explain why male dominated societies like the Muslim and Haredi fundamentalists fear women’s liberation.
The fear that the patriarchal conceptions of masculinity being broken, may explain in part why there exists such an animus directed toward women in these closed societies. Basically, male dominated cultures are fearful of appearing “impotent,” and will do almost anything to promote the image of strength and virility–the trademark of mullahs and Haredi Gedolim. The unraveling of the patriarchal order frightens men, perhaps on a very primordial level. Some scholars suggest that the ascendancy of the patriarchal religions of antiquity was because of their unconscious fear of the goddess religions. Whether this theory is correct is admittedly speculative and remains to be seen. However, it does seem to fit a Freudian castration theory quite well.
A Memorable Story About a Female Mohelet
One of the most moving stories involving a female Mohelet occurs in a concentration camp. In Yaffa Eliach’s “Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust,” she narrates an incident at the Janowska concentration camp where, Jewish children were brought (apparently by their parents) from the surrounding areas to be killed.
In her book, one of the great heroes, whose stories she records was Rabbi Israel Spira. Years later, he tells the story of what unfolded. “I heard the voice of a woman. “Jews have mercy upon me and give me a knife”. In front of us was standing a woman, pale as a sheet. Only her eyes were burning with a strange fire. I thought that she wanted to commit suicide. … “Give me that pocket knife !” she ordered the German [guard standing by] in a commanding voice. The German, taken by surprise, handed the knife to the woman. . . . With a steady hand she opened the pocket knife and circumcised the baby, “God of the Universe, you have given me a healthy child. I am returning to you a kosher child.” She walked over to the German, gave him back his blood-stained knife, and handed him her baby on his snow-white pillow. Amidst a veil of tears, I said to myself that this mother’s circumcision will probably shake the foundations of heaven and earth.” [6]
Another Tale from the Holocaust
In another story, Rabbi Ephraim Oshry, a survivor of the Kovno ghetto, relates the following story. In 1942, the Nazis had outlawed all pregnancy. Worse than the Pharaoh of old, begetting children became a crime punishable by death. Of course, the Jews continued having children and when circumcision need to take place, it was carried out in great secrecy. One couple had waited five years to have a son and finally they did! Just as the ceremony was about to be carried out, a German Gestapo vehicle arrived in front of the house. Everyone was terrified; the Mohel’s hands began to tremble. However, the mother showed the greatest courage of all who were present. She said, “Hurry up! Circumcise the child. Don’t you see? They have come to kill us. At least let my child die as a Jew!”
R. Eliezer Berkowitz writes about this incident:
- The story is reminiscent of a Midrash which relates that in spite of the edict of Pharaoh that all male children be drowned in the Nile, the children of Israel of Israel continued to circumcise them. When the Egyptians learned of this, they asked: “Why do you do this? What is the purpose of this circumcision? Soon they will be thrown into the river!” The Israelites responded: ” We will do what is up to us. We circumcise our children. What do we have to do with you?” It is unlikely the mother at the secret circumcision in the Kovno ghetto ever saw or heard this little-known Midrash; yet, instinctively, she acted with the Jewish faithfulness of the ages. [7]
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Notes:
[1] Daniel Sperber, The Jewish Life Cycle: Custom, Lore and Iconography
Jewish Customs from the Cradle to the Grave (New York, Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University/Oxford Press, 2008), 100
[2] BT Avodah Zarah 27a
[3] Yoreh Deah 264:1.
[4] Maimonides, MT, Hilchot Milah 2:1 By the same token, this was also the view of the Rif (toward the end of his notes in c. Rabbi Eliezer d’milah . . .) as well as the HaGah Maimoni on the Rambam, the Beit Yosef on the Tur Y.D. 261:1. However, the Tosfot rules in accordance with Rav (BT Avodah Zarah 27a, s.v. isha) namely, a woman cannot be a mohelet and this opinion has support in the Hagot Mordechai and the Semak. The same authorities permitting a woman to function as a mohelet, also allow her to recite the traditional blessings said over a brit mila.
[5] See Freud’s essay “Little Hans” (published in 1909), and On the Sexual Theories of Children (1908).
[6] Yaffa Eliach, Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust (Visalia, CA: First Vintage Books, 1988), 151.
[7] R. Eliezer Berkowitz, With God in Hell (New York: Sanhedrin Press, 1979), 44-45.