Jewish Mother Explains Her Road to Intactivism
nhapmom writes,
I am posting this as a mom who is first, Jewish, and second, who has two sons who are circumcised. Since my pregnancy with my third son, however, I have researched the issue of circumcision and have left my third son intact, as will be this fourth son due in October. Below are a few of the reasons I made this decision. For anyone planning on giving birth in the future, this information is critical to protect your unborn sons. I am certainly in no position to judge anyone who has circumcised sons, as I have no stones to throw. However, I would like to share what I have learned and hope that it does some good to protect future little boys.
America’s pro-circ camp’s invasion of Africa continues, and the armies being used are African.
And while the pro-circ camp’s “benefits” are still uncritically touted in mainstream media even if most dubious, the Intactivist voices are still increasingly resonating more clearly and are being considered more seriously.
Alice Whalen didn’t know what was happening in the hospital nursery.
It was 1975, she’d just had her first child–a baby girl–and the hospital quiet was pierced by a cacophony of painful, frightened cries coming from the newborn nursery next door.
Whalen asked her doctor what was going on. The baby boys are being circumcised, he told her.
14 comments
I don’t know who Alice Whalen is, however, I would like to mentions that generally Jewish babies are circumcised by a Mohel (and there is a certification list–at list in Israel). Having seen a good number of these guys in action my experience has been that the baby cries when the diaper is opened and stops during the circumcision usually because he is sucking on some juice and not really paying attention to all the fuss. In all cases the only wailing was being done by the mothers. With a competent Mohel this is usually the case. As for hospitals, well, no wonder they were shrieking!! There are pros and cons re: Africa, but that is not about Brit Mila–And for the record, my son is circumcised, healthy and happy and he has even provided me with a granddaughter.
Having seen a good number of these guys in action my experience has been that the baby cries when the diaper is opened and stops during the circumcision usually because he is sucking on some juice and not really paying attention to all the fuss.
Bullshit.
What a load of nonsense–ripping apart, crushing and then amputating the most sensitive part of a man’s genitals and people want us to believe teay only cry when their diaper is opened!
It is amazing what nonsense peole are able to convince themselves of to maintain their beliefs.
Even WITH full anesthesia, the pain is only reduced and many still go into a coma-like state.
“In summary, analgesia is safe and effective in reducing the procedural pain associated with circumcision ” (emphasis added)
http://aappolicy.aappublicatio.....;103/3/686
EFFECT OF NEONATAL CIRCUMCISION ON PAIN RESPONSE
THE LANCET, Volume 349 Number 9052: Pages 599-603, March 1, 1997.
Meritcare (Internet) states that “Besides anesthesia, securing your child in the padded restraint chair and giving him a sugar-dipped pacifier can help reduce his level of stress (and yours). Used together, these methods can decrease discomfort by more than 50%.”
http://www.meritcare.com/kidsh.....9&pg=3
http://www.cirp.org/pages/parents/circ-why/
PAIN, STRESS AND RISKS
Until recently it was believed babies felt no pain due to their immature nervous systems. Studies however, indicate that babies experience physical and psychological stress both during the circumcision and for hours thereafter. The procedure is undeniably painful. Some babies cease to cry or lapse into a deep sleep or coma which is how they are able to cope with the traumatic experience.
HARM CAUSED BY CIRCUMCISION
The increasing doubts about Jewish circumcision are based on the understanding that it causes harm. Anatomical, neurochemical, physiological, and behavioral studies confirm what mothers already know: infants feel pain. Drs. Anand and Hickey, in a comprehensive review of recent medical literature on newborn pain, conclude that newborn responses to pain are “similar to but greater than those in adult subjects.”11 This study is accepted by virtually all medical authorities and is often cited in the literature whenever there is a discussion of infant pain. As a surgical procedure, circumcision has been described as “among the most painful performed in neonatal medicine.”12 Studies of infant responses show that the pain of circumcision is not like that of a mere pin prick. It is severe and overwhelming.
The relationship between infant pain and vocal response needs explanation. The cry may be reduced by the effect of anesthetics given to the mother during labor.13 These anesthetics enter the infant’s body and, according to pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton, it can take over a week to leave.14 Other factors can also account for minimal vocal response. Justin Call, infant psychologist and professor-in-chief of child and adolescent psychology at the University of California, reports that “sometimes babies who are being circumcised . . . . lapse into a semi-coma.”15 Tonya Brooks, president of the International Association for Childbirth at Home and a midwife, observes, “In four of the nine circumcisions that I have seen, the baby didn’t cry. He just seemed to be suddenly in a state of shock!”16 Studies demonstrate that even though an infant may not cry during circumcision, the stress hormone level in the blood still increases dramatically, and medical researchers consider this change to be the most reliable indicator of pain response.17 Therefore, lack of crying does not mean that the infant feels no pain. It could mean that he is withdrawing from unbearable pain.
http://www.circumcision.org/spectator.htm
I’d recommend that you check out the documentary “Cut” (www.cutthefilm.com), which offers an interesting perspective on circumcision from a Jewish perspective.
brit milah is from HaShem. it’s what allows jewish baby boys to enter into the covenant of the jewish people. when done properly, by a mohel, it’s over and done with within minutes. of course there’s going to be pain, but this idiocy of “the mother wailing”, etc. is ridiculous. a jewish mother should be proud that her son is becoming a part of the jewish faith. yes, feel for the child, but know that the pain won’t last and that he’s not even going to remember it.
who are we to slap HaShem in the face for what He has given to us, the jewish people, His children? this is HIS law, HIS covenant. it’s been done for thousands of years and all of a sudden, we have people who now have to think about it. how sad that this is what judaism has become…
brit milah is from HaShem.
That’s not what many of us believe. For good reason, many of us believe that is a narrative that was attached to a ritual whose practice began in East Africa.
His children? this is HIS law, HIS covenant.
I don’t really believe that. This is a practice shared by many middle eastern and African people, and violates basic child rights.
ur entitled to ur opinion, as we all are. i just put mine in writing, is all. if u don’t accept the torah as the word of G-d, i can understand why u think this way. we either accept it all, or none at all. we don’t accept a bissel here, and a bissel there. this is why there are so many divisions in judaism. people have taken it upon themselves to re-interpret the torah. a true torah way of life does not cause the pain and anguish that we see in today’s society. brit milah is part of what it means to be a jew, just as pidyon haben and bar mitzva are. the torah is not messed up. the people are.
FWIW, there’s no way it is all. It doesn’t add up. If you push me the wall, and demand all or nothing, I choose nothing.
Most of non-Orthodox Jewry will choose the same. All makes less sense than nothing.
the torah, the way it is sposed to be lived, and taught, is all, or nothing at all. that’s just the way it is. u don’t pick andchoose. u either accept brit milah, or u don’t. u either accept the 10 dibrot, or u don’t. only man creates the gray area, not HaShem. He gave us the torah, the way that He saw fit. it’s mankind who has f*cked it up. the torah is our guidebook on how to live life, properly, as jews. unfortunately, as i said in the sentence previously, mankind has f*cked it up.
Funnily enough, the sages of old did not believe that the Torah had to be taken literally; they understood that Oriental narrative tradition validated intentions through stories, just as people still do in legends, myths fairy tales and many pieces of fiction. It was post-Modernism Orthodoxy that had also adopted the modrrn approach to reading texts that started thinking of the Torah as a piece of literature to be taken literally - decidedly switching off their minds at that, otherwise they would notice the inconsistencies and contradictions.
perhaps if the torah was to be taken literally, today, we wouldn’t have all this garbage going on - rabbis molesting children and women, as well as a government that is so willing to give up the golan heights to the syrians. i highly doubt that moshe rabeinu or yehoshuah would allow any of this to happen. as well, if the people were to approach either of these men, of blessed memory, with some whiny idea about how cruel and inhuman brit milah is, they’d either die laughing, or just look at someone with a look of “are u for real”? brit milah is part of jewish life. accept it, or not. we all make choices.
“perhaps if the torah was to be taken literally, today, we wouldn’t have all this garbage going of”
Just the opposite. A lot of these problems are exacerbated by an insistence on literalism that makes no sense at all and works badly.
i highly doubt that moshe rabeinu would allow any of this to happen.
Moshe had anti-circ leanings. Read the text and the midrashim you so arrogantly present yourself as the definitive interpretor of. He banned circ in the desert. Because there was sand.
“a government that is so willing to give up the golan heights to the syrians”
No one on this site is going to take your insistence that the Torah clearly states such a specific right-wing Zionist policy for the State of Israel. Not even the right-wing readers.
“No one on this site is going to take your insistence that the Torah clearly states such a specific right-wing Zionist policy for the State of Israel. Not even the right-wing readers.”
…
yes, i know what moshe rabeinu’s leanings were. his wife circumcised their son, remember?
i am not arrogantly interpreting anything. i am no torah scholar. but i do know that the jewish people have become so distanced from torah. we’ve gotten lost along the way. dude, there is no sand where we do brit milah these days. people come up with all kinds of excuses. it doesn’t matter what his leanings were. it is law. it is torah law. period. u have a problem with it, take it up with HaShem.
then they are not right wing enough. we have arabs sitting on jewish land. if they don’t want to live under jewish sovereignty, they have more than 20 other countries to go to, including the ones that their ancestors left in order to squat over here. any jew not willing to live here and defend our land, well, stay in ur comfy house, with the two-car garage, and manicured lawn. israel ain’t for sissies…
the torah states, implicitly, go in and take possession of the land that i have assigned to ur forefathers. how much more clear does it have to be?
yes, i am a right wing, religious jew. i have my opinions, just like everyone else. i don’t expect any of us to agree on everything all the time. but u have created this blog, which means that ur going to get other people’s opinions whether or not u like them. i have nothing against u personally cause i don’t know u. and i accept ur viewpoint for what it is. anyone who is right wing enough, will defend the land from trespassers. we were told to NOT make a covenant with any of the nations. well, we have, and now we are paying for this dearly. giving the land of israel to our sworn enemy will only bring us more death. was 6,000,000 not enough?
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