INDEPENDENCE DAY : What makes

us unique?
Date: April 14, 2021
COVENANT & CONVERSATION A WEEKLY READING OF THE JEWISH BIBLE
LEVITICUS: THE BOOK OF HOLINESS
Sacks, Jonathan. Leviticus:The Book of Holiness (Covenant & Conversation 3) . The Toby Press.
Kindle Edition.
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Abram fell face down, and God said to him, “As for Me, this is My covenant with you: You will be the
father of many nations…” Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep My covenant, you
and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is My covenant with you and your
descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be
circumcised…. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be
circumcised.” (Gen. 17: 3, 9–12)
——————————————————————————————————————–Hence
circumcision as the sign of the covenant. The purpose of circumcision, as all the commentators note in
one way or another, is to mitigate sexual pleasure, control sexual desire, and consecrate the
fundamental biological imperative of reproduction. Given the evolutionary and genetic asymmetry
between males and females – with females placing a premium on fidelity, males on adultery and
promiscuity – it becomes obvious why this should be a constraint of male rather than female desire. For
it is males who overwhelmingly throughout history have committed crimes of violence. Eighty-seven
per cent of murders are committed by men.19 And the primary driver of violence is sexual desire. The
meaning of brit mila should now be clear. It counteracts a set of drives to which the human male is
prone, which are socially dysfunctional and sometimes dangerous. Most significant is the connection
between violence and male sexual desire. A second is the male tendency to promiscuity, adultery,
multiple and serial relationships, and the relative lack of male interest in the continuing responsibilities
of parenthood. In Britain in 2012, around ninety-two per cent of single-parent families were headed by
a woman; only eight per cent by men.20 As Margaret Mead is reported to have said, the primary
challenge of any civilisation is how to socialise males into becoming fathers.21 Covenant is about
faithfulness in human relations, especially in the bond between male and female. That bond must
be consecrated. It should be exclusive. Though the Torah does not legislate monogamy – it was not to
become obligatory until the edict of Rabbenu Gershom in the tenth century – it is clearly implied by
Genesis 2, as well as by the stories of tension between Sarah and Hagar, Rachel and Leah. Sigmund
Freud, a Jew though not a believing one, placed sexuality at the heart of his analysis of the human
personality and of civilisation itself. Libido was one of the primary human instincts. On the one hand, it
was a desire for life as opposed to thanatos, the death instinct. On the other, unchecked, it led to
conflict and chaos. Civilisation, for Freud, depended on the ability to defer instinctual gratification.
This is the key to understanding brit mila. It is the consecration of sexual desire. Judaism takes a
balanced view of the human personality. Our instincts are not evil in themselves. The religious life is
not a matter of self-denial and renunciation. But neither is it hedonism, the unrestrained pursuit of
pleasure. Instinct has its darker side, which culminates in violence. The good life involves education of
the passions and the acquisition of habits of self-restraint. The holy life involves the sanctification of
instinct. Only thus can we create a gracious society in which love, not power, rules the affairs of
humankind.
Sacks, Jonathan. Leviticus:The Book of Holiness (Covenant & Conversation 3) . The Toby Press.
Kindle Edition.