Why Wait Eight Days for the Circumcision?

In stereotypical Jewish fashion, allow me please to answer your question through asking yet another question.

Why can't the brit (circumcision) wait until the child grows older? Wouldn't it be that much greater if a mature person, using his own intelligence, would choose to make the big decision himself?

But that's the beauty of a brit. We are born Jews. It is not a project we rationally decide to undertake. Our covenant with G‑d is super-rational. It does not go away in moments when our minds tell us otherwise. We do not always comprehend the reasons behind the mitzvot.

According to Kabbala, the number seven represents nature and that which is finite. Seven days in the week, seven days of creation, and seven human faculties.

Eight represents the super-rational and the infinite. The miraculous as opposed to natural. Belief as opposed to comprehension.

And so, a baby is given is brit on the eighth day. He is entering a religion founded upon faith, whose survival is miraculous, and whose potential in the world is infinite.

Yours truly,

Rabbi Yisroel Cotlar

By Yisroel Cotlar

Rabbi Yisroel Cotlar is a Chabad rabbi in Cary, North Carolina. He is also a member of the Chabad.org Ask the Rabbi team.

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September 14, 2012

The medical reason is the reason.

What I find amazing is that we sit around and think up these theories that revolve around mystical symbolism while overlooking the most amazing parts of the stories in the Bible. The Vitamin K and Thrombocin ( which is a blood clotter) are the highest in a baby on his eigth day of life. There is no way that could have been medically know at the time, therefore, the fact that it was chosen on the healthiest day for the child leads one to have to believe that the one who created the human body had to have been calling the shots. This is what is amazing about that story. Not theories of mystical number. This is why God chose the eighth day. He does what is best for us, not what helps to make numbers look cooler.

Tim Martin
livingston, tx

September 13, 2012

Re: To Shari

It actually depends on where the baby is born. Rabbi Posner is correct that the "day" begins at sundown, but incorrect in assuming that 11 pm would necessarily be after sundown. In most places, this is true year-round. However, there are a few places where sundown can occur after 11 pm during part of the year. In that situation, the answer would be Sunday. However, Monday is normally correct.

Anonymous
Camarillo, CA
chabadcamarillo.com

September 10, 2012

Why wait until the 8th day

Perhaps it is because God knew that on the 8th day it was safer for the baby. I am doing some research on this subject. There is an antibody that is produced on the 8th day after birth that keeps a baby from getting infections. If this is true, then it is a medical reason.

tim martin
Livingston, texas

January 26, 2012

To Shari

The Jewish day begins at Sundown. Thus, 11 pm on Sunday night is considered to be Monday, and the brit would be held the following Monday

Rabbi Menachem Posner for Chabad.org

January 25, 2012

when to have bris

If a baby is born around 11pm on a Sunday night, is the 8th day considered to be following Sunday or should the bris be held on Monday?

Shari M.
Marlboro, NJ

January 30, 2008

Did anyone remember about the medical reasons for it? It is the day on which the vitamin K--which is important for blood clotting-- is highest in the baby's blood, so while one may not call this "the reason" it is definitely a good reason as well.

Fraida

November 18, 2007

It is the 8th day for us because it was for Isaac

Prior to Abraham, there were no Jews. When Abram became Abraham, he was circumcised as an adult. The first child ever born to a Jew was Isaac. (When Ishmael was born, Abram/Abraham was not yet Jewish, as his mother was not Jewish and we know that he had not yet converted, because he was still uncircumcised.) Genesis says that Isaac, the first child ever born Jewish, was circumcised on the eighth day. So, to this day, we circumcise children born to Jews on the 8th day.

Stephen Weinstein
Camarillo, CA
chabadcamarillo.com

June 23, 2007

This question was posed in an Embracing Judaism class at my Synagogue. The answer came naturally ...I believe that the eighth day symbolizes the covenant in that there were 6 days of creation, rest on the seventh day. The eighth day is when the cycle starts over...it is the first day, first day of covenant. Very symbolic and beautiful.

Anonymous
TX

June 7, 2007

why not before??????????????

i guess that the reason we don't make the brit before the child is 8 days old is because i don't think he will make it...

anonymous
NY, NY

June 7, 2007

What an interesting concept to link this to the Kabbalah, I just assumed that to make a Brit Milah was on the 8th day like Hashem created the world in 6 days and rested the seventh that a Brit had to be at the end of 7 complete days. I also assumed it was this time frame that makes the baby stronger enough to go though this procedure.
Thanks for explaining the root of this special mitzvah that we may take for granted.

Gisele
Brooklyn, NY