Comment: What a lovely introduction to the world for Jewish babies. Any God that demands that you lob off the foreskin of the penis in order to praise his power is playing a very sick joke. And it is even more ridiculous to actually believe such a barbaric practice has any merit at all other than messing up the child's psychology. And now we have a court order to that effect. A mother under Israeli law, must mutilate her son's member in order to remain a good mother.
"Removal of the foreskin prepares the soul [of the baby] to accept the yoke of Heaven and study God's Torah and commandments."
What a load of tripe. The only "yoke" that the baby has to "accept" is ritual abuse masquerading as religious doctrine.
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The Telegraph
"Removal of the foreskin prepares the soul [of the baby] to accept the yoke of Heaven and study God's Torah and commandments."
What a load of tripe. The only "yoke" that the baby has to "accept" is ritual abuse masquerading as religious doctrine.
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The Telegraph
An Israeli
mother has been ordered by a religious court to circumcise her son against
her will or face fines of £90 for every day the procedure remains undone.
The unprecedented ruling has been handed down by one of Israel's rabbinical
courts, which have legal jurisdiction over religious questions - including
marriage and divorce - concerning the country's Jewish majority.
It was issued by a panel of three rabbis in the Israeli town of Netanya after
the one-year-old boy's parents filed for divorce. The father insisted during
the proceedings that his son be circumcised, as required under Jewish
religious tradition. In their ruling, the rabbis suggested that the mother's
refusal was part of a ploy to save her marriage.
The mother, who has been identified only as Elinor, said her son had been born
with a medical problem that prevented him undergoing ritual circumcision on
the eighth day after birth, as is customary in Jewish law.
"As time went on, I started reading about what actually happens in
circumcision, and I realized that I couldn't do that to my son. He's perfect
just as he is," Haaretz newspaper quoted her as saying. She said her husband
originally had no objection to not having their son circumcised but changed
his mind during the divorce case.
The woman told Israel's Channel Two television news programme that she was
unemployed and could not afford to pay the fine, which already adds up to
£450.
In their ruling, the three rabbis wrote: "Circumcision is a standard surgical procedure that is performed on every Jewish baby boy, so when one of the parents demands it, the other cannot delay it except where it is proven to be medically dangerous.
"Fulfilling the command of circumcision is not a [mere] surgical medical act....Brit milah [the rite of circumcision] is exactly what it says: a covenant that God made with His chosen people, the nation of Israel."
The judgement was upheld by a higher rabbinical court after the mother appealed. The appeal ruling warned that a verdict in her favour could trigger "a flood of [similar] cases", giving a "terrifying dimension" to divorce proceedings.
"This trend must be stopped immediately for the common good, which takes precedence over that of the individual," the judges concluded. They added: "Removal of the foreskin prepares the soul [of the baby] to accept the yoke of Heaven and study God's Torah and commandments."
Rabbinical courts are part of Israel's judicial system and are overseen by the ministry of religious services. In addition to holding exclusive jurisdiction over the marriage and divorce of Jews, they have the power to rule on matters of personal status, alimony, child support, custody and inheritance. Their rulings are enforced by the police and other legal agencies in the same ways as those of civil courts.
The mother plans a further appeal to Israel's supreme court, Haaretz reported her lawyer as saying.
The rulings come against a backdrop of rising concern in Israel over recent attempts in Europe and elsewhere to prohibit ritual circumcision on humanitarian grounds. Israeli officials and rabbis claim the trend is fueled by anti-Semitism.
In their appeal ruling, the rabbis wrote: "We have been seeing public and legal fights against circumcision in the United States and Europe for quite some time. The public in Israel stands united against this phenomenon, seeing it as another aspect of the anti-Semitic acts that must be fought."
Israel's foreign ministry condemned the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe last month after it adopted a resolution calling for regulation of religious circumcision, which is also carried out on Muslim boys shortly after birth.
The foreign ministry demanded that the resolution be annulled, saying it "casts a moral stain on the Council of Europe and fosters hate and racist trends in Europe".
In their ruling, the three rabbis wrote: "Circumcision is a standard surgical procedure that is performed on every Jewish baby boy, so when one of the parents demands it, the other cannot delay it except where it is proven to be medically dangerous.
"Fulfilling the command of circumcision is not a [mere] surgical medical act....Brit milah [the rite of circumcision] is exactly what it says: a covenant that God made with His chosen people, the nation of Israel."
The judgement was upheld by a higher rabbinical court after the mother appealed. The appeal ruling warned that a verdict in her favour could trigger "a flood of [similar] cases", giving a "terrifying dimension" to divorce proceedings.
"This trend must be stopped immediately for the common good, which takes precedence over that of the individual," the judges concluded. They added: "Removal of the foreskin prepares the soul [of the baby] to accept the yoke of Heaven and study God's Torah and commandments."
Rabbinical courts are part of Israel's judicial system and are overseen by the ministry of religious services. In addition to holding exclusive jurisdiction over the marriage and divorce of Jews, they have the power to rule on matters of personal status, alimony, child support, custody and inheritance. Their rulings are enforced by the police and other legal agencies in the same ways as those of civil courts.
The mother plans a further appeal to Israel's supreme court, Haaretz reported her lawyer as saying.
The rulings come against a backdrop of rising concern in Israel over recent attempts in Europe and elsewhere to prohibit ritual circumcision on humanitarian grounds. Israeli officials and rabbis claim the trend is fueled by anti-Semitism.
In their appeal ruling, the rabbis wrote: "We have been seeing public and legal fights against circumcision in the United States and Europe for quite some time. The public in Israel stands united against this phenomenon, seeing it as another aspect of the anti-Semitic acts that must be fought."
Israel's foreign ministry condemned the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe last month after it adopted a resolution calling for regulation of religious circumcision, which is also carried out on Muslim boys shortly after birth.
The foreign ministry demanded that the resolution be annulled, saying it "casts a moral stain on the Council of Europe and fosters hate and racist trends in Europe".
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