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}}</ref>
Many have wondered why God would create men with a [[foreskin]] with documented protective, immunological, [[foreskin sensitivity| sensory]], and sexual [[Foreskin#Physiological_functions| physiological functions]] only to require that it be cut off after eight days of life.
[[Lisa Braver Moss ]] (1991) wrote:
<blockquote>
I am a Jew and I question circumcision. I have been questioning circumcision ever since I learned of the rite as a girl. At that time I questioned circumcision because it seemed wrong to cause pain to infants and because it seemed strange to surgically alter a healthy God-given part of the body. As I grew into adulthood I added questions. I continue to add them. I question circumcision because of its risks. I question it because it is seen by many as a perfunctory act rather than a spiritual one. I question it because it seems to require parents to take advantage of their infant's dependence and weakness. I also question it because of the paradox that those who support infant circumcision often cringe at the idea of circumcision of an older child as a puberty rite. I am sure all of these concerns are familiar to health professionals, who also question circumcision.
</blockquote>
Michael Glass (2003) reports contradictions between the Abrahamic covenant story (Genesis 17) and other Hebrew Scripture.<ref name="glass2003">{{REFweb |url=http://www.cirp.org/pages/cultural/glass3/ |title=What the Bible Reveals About Circumcision and Sexual Violence |last=Glass |first=Michael |init= |publisher=Circumcision Reference Library |date=2003-04 |accessdate=2022-11-08}}</ref> Some contemporary Jewish parents feel that [[circumcision]] is a painful [[amputation ]] that inflicts [[pain]], physical, [[Sexual effects of circumcision| sexual]], and [[Psychological issues of male circumcision| psychological]] harm to a child. They wish to protect a son from such harm and so have adopted a peaceful, non-cutting naming ceremony usually called [[Brit Shalom]] instead of the traditional [[Brit Milah]]. [[Jenny Goodman|Goodman ]] (1999) has called for an end to ritual cutting.<ref name="goodman1999">{{REFjournal
|last=Goodman
|first=Jenny
|init=J
|author-link=Jenny Goodman
|etal=no
|title=Jewish circumcision: an alternative perspective
|DOI=10.1046/j.1464-410x.1999.0830s1022.x
|accessdate=2020-04-08
}}</ref>
Rabbi [[Sherwin T. Wine]] (1988) advised that the medical part of the covenant may be separated from the naming ceremony. While the naming ceremony, in which a newborn boy is welcomed into the world and receives his Hebrew name, is mandatory, the medical cutting part is not mandatory and may be determined by the parents based on its medical value or lack of value.<ref>{{REFjournal
|last=Wine
|init=ST
|author-link=Sherwin T. Wine
|url=https://sherwinwine.com/circumcision/
|title=Circumcision
|journal=Humanistic Judaism
|date=1988
|season=Summer
|volume=16
|issue=3
|pages=
|accessdate=2024-02-10
}}</ref>
==Debunking the Abrahamic Covenant==
Jewish Professor [[Leonard Glick]] (2005) observes that Genesis contains two covenants between God and Abraham. The first is in Genesis 15:18-21. It does not mention circumcision. The second covenant in Genesis 17 is a later addition by Judean priests.<ref name="glick2005">{{REFbook
|last=Glick
|first=LeonardB. |init=LB
|author-link=Leonard B. Glick
|year=2005
|chapter=Chapter One
|pages=15-18
|publisher={{UNI|Oxford University |Oxon}} Press
|isbn=9780195176742
|accessdate=2020-03-02
|note=
}}</ref> Child circumcision did not become firmly established in [[Israel ]] until after [[Gilgal]] in 1604 {{#tip-text:BCE|Before Common Era, an alternative to BC}}, more than two centuries after the death of Abraham. According to Glick, the priests gained control after the Babylonian captivity, which ended in 538 {{#tip-text:BCE|Before Common Era, an alternative to BC}} and at that time the changes were made to Genesis Chapter Seventeen. Glick suggests that the choice to require [[circumcision ]] of infant boys may have been because the boys cannot put up resistance.<ref name="glick2005"/> It is clear that the alleged covenant that required circumcision of male infants on the eighth day was a later fabrication by [[circumcised ]] Judean priests and did not come from God.
Modern psychology offers an explanation for such behavior by the [[circumcised ]] priests. Male [[circumcision ]] is a highly traumatic surgical amputation that affects its victims for life.<ref>{{REFjournal
|last=Goldman
|first=Ronald
|DOI=
|accessdate=2020-03-04
}}</ref> [[Bessel van der Kolk|Van der Kolk ]] (1989) has shown that traumatized persons are compelled to repeat their [[trauma ]] on themselves or others.<ref name="vanderkolk1989">{{REFjournal |last=van der Kolk |first=Bessel |init=B |author-link= |etal=no |title=The compulsion to repeat the trauma: re-enactment, revictimization, and masochism |journal=Psychiatr Clin North Am |date=VanderKolkBA 1989-06 |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=389-411 |url=http://www.cirp.org/library/psych/vanderkolk/ |pubmedID=2664732 |pubmedCID= |DOI= |accessdate=2020-03-03}}</ref> The compulsion of [[circumcised ]] men to repeat the [[Psychiatrist Discusses the Lasting Trauma of Circumcision| trauma of circumcision]] is seen in the huge numbers of men with [[adamant father syndrome]]. It appears that the circumcised priests ascribed their compulsion to an edict of God. == Does the Abrahamic covenant apply to Christians? == No, the Abrahamic covenant does ''NOT'' apply to Christians. Christians come under the New Covenant.<ref>{{REFweb |url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+15%3A1-30&version=NASB |title=Acts of the Apostles 15:1-30. |last= |first= |init= |publisher=Bible Gateway |date= |accessdate=2023-10-22}}</ref> See the [[Council at Jerusalem]] for more information.
{{SEEALSO}}
* [[Marked in Your FleshAssociation of Humanistic Rabbis]]
* [[Leonard B. Glick]]
* [[Jewish circumcision]]
* [[Judaism]]
* [[Israel]]
* [[Marked in Your Flesh]]
* [[Pain]]
* [[Trauma]]
{{LINKS}}
* {{REFjournal |last=Chessler |first=Abbie J. |init=AJ |author-link= |title=Justifying the Unjustifable: Rite v. Wrong |journal=Buffalo Law Review |date=ChesslerAJ 1997 |volume=45 |issue= |pages=555 ''et seq'' |url=http://www.cirp.org/library/legal/chessler/ |accessdate=2020-04-08}}
{{REF}}