The Daily Strengthening from The Rav, Rabbi Berland shlit"a – Why Would Avraham Need Advice About Bris Milah?!

“And the Canaanite, king of Arad, who dwelt in the Negev, heard that Israel came by the way of the spies, and he fought against Israel and took captives from them” (Bamidbar 21:1)

“And from the womb, for Your Name, they are circumcised” (a refrain for the Bris Milah meal, Yom LaYabashah)

Wednesday, 2 Tammuz 5783 – “Only now has science discovered why it is good to circumcise at 8 days old.”

These are his holy words:

Rashi says in Parshas Chukas on the verse, “And the Canaanite, king of Arad, heard” (Bamidbar 21:1): Why does it say “the Canaanite”? Because Amalek changed their language into the Canaanite language. They switched the language—they knew seventy languages. Rashi says it was Amalek and not a Canaanite—because the main thing is that one must not change the levush (outer garment/appearance), just as Amalek changed the language, but not the levush.

The levush changes a person’s entire essence. If a person takes off the suit, the hat, he changes his entire essence—Rashi says that changing language does not change as much as changing the levush!

Mamre gave up his life by advising Avraham about Milah. What does it mean that Aner gave Avraham advice about Milah? (At the terebinths of Mamre—why specifically at the terebinths of Mamre and not somewhere else? Because Mamre gave him advice regarding his Bris Milah. For when Hashem told Avraham to circumcise himself, Avraham went to consult with his friend. Aner said to him: You are already more than ninety years old, and you will cause yourself suffering. Mamre said to him: Remember the day the Kasdim threw you into the fiery furnace; and that famine that came upon the world, as it is written, “And there was a famine in the land, and Avram went down to Egypt”; and those kings who pursued them, and you struck them—and Hashem saved you from them all. No one can harm you. Rise and do the mitzvah of your Master. Hashem said to him: Mamre, you gave him advice about Milah—by your life, I will reveal Myself only in your domain, as it is written, “at the terebinths of Mamre.” (Zohar, Vayeira 17)) Does Avraham need advice? Do we need to provide advisors for Avraham?!

Hashem told Avraham: Do Milah—so do Milah! There are dozens of explanations on this. Aner and Eshkol told Avraham: Do Bris Milah, but don’t do it publicly, because in Chevron they said: Under no circumstances.

“In the very midst of that day”—the Midrash says they said: If you start cutting people… they had never seen such a thing. Avraham was the first to be circumcised. This was the first time Bris Milah was performed. Before that, everyone was born circumcised: Sheis, Noach, and Mesushelach were born circumcised (Tanchuma, Noach 5). There is no such thing as suddenly starting to cut a human being at eight days old—it’s total madness; there is nothing like it in the whole world. In Germany they try to abolish Bris Milah, but there are also Arabs.

They took the Rav of Metz to prison for two days. They said: What will we do about the Arabs? After all, you have two million Arabs. Fine—against Jews you can “work,” telling them that whoever performs Bris Milah will be taken to prison. But what will we do about the Arabs?

So they canceled that entire law!

And this is how, each time, they try to pass new laws against Bris Milah—but the Arabs also do Bris Milah. It is a miracle that the Arabs also do Bris Milah—otherwise they would have forbidden Bris Milah. At eight days old, they take a baby and start cutting him?

Now they checked scientifically that only at eight days the body secretes a substance that clots on the spot within a thousandth of a second. Usually it takes a few minutes for blood to clot, but in a baby a special clotting substance comes out—and this happens only at eight days old. Within a second the blood clots. The baby cries only a little at the beginning when they put on the instrument, that piece of metal, but after a second he stops crying—there is no pain for the baby from this.

Only the Torah revealed this. If not for the Torah, no one would dare do such a thing. The Torah reveals that at eight days old it is already possible to cut the child, it is already possible to circumcise him—the baby cannot tolerate the foreskin for even a second; the Milah must be done immediately after Vasikin. It is forbidden to do it in the middle of the day—for the baby it is terrible suffering. He does not want the foreskin even for a thousandth of a second; he is not willing.

“And from the womb, for Your Name, they are circumcised” (a refrain for the Bris Milah meal, Yom LaYabashah)—straight from the womb: in the womb, as soon as he is formed after forty days, he already does not want that foreskin.