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Parsha Eikev: Cut-Fil-A: The Heart Wants What The Heart Wants (Deut 7:12 – 11:25)

July 24, 2013 by Jeremiah

Editor’s note: this is a repost from last year.

Moses continues his sermon in Parsha Eikev reminding us all on the importance of honoring our covenant with Hashem. To emphasis this he promises blessings, warns of curses, and tells us to circumcise our hearts.

The human heart is an extremely fragile yet efficient organ so how can anyone survive cutting a piece off? This is not a command for a physical invasive procedure but a spiritual and personality act. One of the major pro-circumcision arguments for men is it leaves that area cleaner and thus less susceptible to disease. Real talk, as a dude I don’t want to smell or get sick down there, just saying. Circumcision of the heart follows the same principle in this case cleanliness and health is a just and orderly society made up of people who are not stiff necked and hard to get along with.

Eikev could not have come at a better time this year.

If you live in the United States you know exactly what I’m talking about. Several weeks ago, a portion of the majority felt the need to protest what they claim is a suppression of their freedom of speech and religious belief in regards to sexuality. I’m not going to go too deep into why I think everything played out the way it did but I will say this as someone of a different faith their protest really turned me off to their religion. On one hand like them I fall into the majority of peoples sexual orientation but as a Jew I do not fall into the religious majority. Simple put I’m a Jewish dude who has never made out with another dude.

We as Jews face the same problem. This past year stories of the Ultra-Orthodox protesting modernity and spitting on secular women have sprinkled themselves throughout the media. As hard as it is to deal with those views and actions internally the damage to Judaism externally is much much worse. Circumcising your heart is just that — cutting away the stench of filth that will make others think less of the people you represent.

Moses tells us in Eikev to circumcise our hearts because the uncircumcised individual will forever stand on the shores of the Jordon yearning for the Promised Land just out of reach, but the circumcised heart of a people will receive Hashem’s promises of peace and happiness.

Jeremiah@punktorah.org Twitter: @circlepitbimah

Filed Under: Community Member Blogs, Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud), Rants Tagged With: chic-fil-a, Circle Pit The Bimah, circumcision, convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, Deuteronomy, jeremiah, lgbt jew, Moses, online conversion, Parsha Eikev, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, Social Action

Circumcisions For Men, Women and Everyone In Between (Parshat Ekev)

August 16, 2011 by Patrick Beaulier

“Circumcise … the foreskin of your heart,” G-d says in Devarim 10:16. But how the heck do you hack off the skin around your heart? And by the way, the heart doesn’t have a foreskin!

Here’s what I gather: circumcision is a mitzvah because Abraham did it, and so should we, right? On the other hand, a circumcision isn’t a child’s choice. It’s something that happens to you without your consent. I suspect if babies could talk, they wouldn’t be too keen on elective surgery.

Also, it’s unfair that men have the opportunity to perform mitzvot that women can’t. And what about transgender people or people with ambiguous genitals? Aren’t we all children of the same G-d, fair and equal? How can G-d put us in a position where one person’s ability to glorify Him/Her is above others? Seems lame to me.

Circumcising the heart resolves that issue. It tells us, metaphorically, to remove the junk that surrounds out hearts, that keeps the good stuff from coming in. Regardless of who we are, and what we have going on “down stairs”, we can equally take part in the mitzvah of circumcision by putting G-d first and peeling away the layers of our own ego that keep us from being truly made in the image of the Lord.

 

Filed Under: Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud), LGBTQ & Women Tagged With: circumcise heart, circumcision, convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, D'var Torah, darshan yeshiva, ekev, online conversion, parshah ekev, parshat ekev, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, This week's D'var, this week's torah portion

Circumcision: Our Community Dialogue

August 31, 2010 by Patrick Beaulier

In our first of several multimedia community discussions on controversial issues in Judaism, PunkTorah is proud to present Cut, a film by Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon about circumcision. We hope that the film will stimulate dialogue about Contemporary Judaism and ritual.

After the film, we invite you to post your thoughts about circumcision below. Also, we will be having live discussions in our OneShul prayer services and a Q & A with the filmmaker after High Holidays.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx89xECfHG4&feature=player_embedded

Please give the movie a few minutes to buffer (load up) if you are on a slow internet connection.

Filed Under: Jewish Media Reviews, Judaism & Belief, Podcasts & Videos, Random (Feelin' Lucky?), Rants Tagged With: bris milah, brit milah, circum, circumcision, convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, genital mutilation, hatafat dam brit, online conversion, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier

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