Leviticus 12,2. “when a woman brings forth seed and gives ‎birth to a male infant,….on the eight’s day the flesh of his ‎foreskin must be removed.” Many scholars have asked ‎what conceptual link there is of the circumcision having to be ‎performed on the eight’s day after infant’s birth. ‎‎[Naturally, the Torah’s command, dating back to the ‎circumcision of Yitzchok was accepted without question. ‎Ed.] [The reader may not find the author’s ‎answer to the question below as fitting the question after having ‎read it. I therefore take the liberty of prefacing his treatment of ‎the subject by reminding the reader that the commandment to be ‎circumcised is addressed to the person himself, not to his father ‎or some other authority. The author addresses the question of ‎why the timing of the circumcision has been advanced so much ‎by the Torah that the infant in question evidently is unable to ‎perform the act himself. In other words, the question as to the ‎timing when the circumcision has to be performed could equally ‎well have been asked if the Torah had decreed the ninth day after ‎the child’s birth, when according to halachah, the function ‎of the penis as a male organ becomes relevant for the first time. ‎Ed.] We have learned in the Zohar II,13 that G’d created the ‎various universes in order that He be perceived by His creatures ‎as ‎רחום וחנון‎, ”compassionate and graceful;” on occasion G’d’s ‎compassion is “awakened” by acts performed by the Jewish ‎people, as our sages said in Yevamot 64 where the question ‎is asked from where we have proof in the holy Scriptures that ‎G’d longs to hear the prayers of the righteous. Apart from ‎quoting a verse in Isaiah, the proof is deduced from the fact that ‎Sarah, Rivkah and Rachel were not granted children until they ‎had turned to G’d in prayer.‎ What we learn from the above is that although G’d initiates ‎compassion and grace, He prefers the human input, i.e. when ‎human beings demonstrate their belief in Him through praying ‎to Him for their needs.‎‎ This is the allusion contained in the opening verse of our ‎portion ‎אשה כי תזריע וילדה זכר‎, “when the woman (simile for ‎human beings in their capacity as “recipients,”) wishes to arouse ‎heavenly compassion, ‎תזריע‎, (as simile for the source of all ‎compassion), ‎וילדה זכר‎, as a result she will give birth (successfully ‎awaken) the masculine attribute of G’d, the source of all ‎compassion, (compassion spelled with a capital C.) The overall ‎message of our verse is that when G’d’s compassion is awakened ‎through action by His creatures, it is strengthened immeasurably. ‎This concept is reflected in the commandment to circumcise the ‎new born infant already on the eight’s day of his life.‎ The whole idea is explained best when we consider the story ‎of the blasphemer who wanted to know from Rabbi Akiva ‎whether man’s creative actions are more impressive and pleasing ‎than G’d’s actions. (Compare Tanchuma Tazria 5) Without ‎repeating the entire debate related there in which the blasphemer ‎argued that man could not create a universe, Rabbi Akiva who ‎had first pointed out that the fact that we must cut the baby’s ‎umbilical cord, proves that man’s actions are more important. ‎Rabbi Akiva goes on to explain that man’s being born with a ‎foreskin which subsequently is removed is not proof of G’d’s ‎inadequacy, but, on the contrary, is proof that G’d desires for ‎man to perform the “final” touch before a human being (male) is ‎complete, i.e. perfect. G’d chose the earliest possible time in the ‎infant’s life to do this, i.e. the eight’s day, as prior to this the ‎operation endangers the life of the infant. By performing this ‎commandment at the correct time, the father/mohel ‎becomes the instrument that opens the gates to G’d’s compassion ‎in the celestial regions.‎

An alternate explanation of the line: ‎אשה כי תזריע וילדה זכר‎, ‎‎“when a woman orgasms before her partner, the resulting infant ‎is a male.” (Compare Rashi based on B’rachot 60 and ‎‎Niddah 25.) This also helps to explain the disagreement ‎between the sages if the universe was created in Nissan or in ‎Tishrey, and that the final redemption will also occur in the ‎month corresponding to the creation of the universe. (Compare ‎‎Rosh Hashanah 10) We subscribe to the rule that G’d, ‎even without being aroused by man through his actions to ‎extend compassion, will occasionally do so without prompting. ‎On other occasions, He waits with manifesting His compassion ‎until actions by His creatures, i.e. positive actions by the Jewish ‎people, His people, encourage, i.e. “awaken” Him to do so. The ‎‎“actions” we refer to are the dutiful and joyful performance of ‎the commandments laid down in G’d’s Torah. When G’d’s ‎compassion has been aroused through mitzvah ‎performance, the result of G’d’s manifesting His compassion and ‎providing His largesse will be far more impressive than if He had ‎had to display it without having been “awakened.” The Torah ‎occasionally refers to G’d as ‎איש‎, “man,” albeit in the construct ‎sense as an attribute, of course, not as part of His essence. ‎[Example: (Exodus 15,3) ‎ה' איש מלחמה‎, “G’d is a man of ‎war,” or when an angel appears to Joshua in the guise of a human ‎being and is referred to as ‎איש‎ before identifying himself as an ‎angel, (Joshua 5,13) and similar examples where the expression ‎איש אלוקים‎, appears to minimize the difference between creature ‎and Creator. Ed.]‎ Whenever the Torah uses the term ‎איש‎ as a simile for ‎Divinity, the accompanying term ‎אשה‎ also is to be viewed as ‎Divinity, i.e. the feminine receptive aspect of Divinity, or His ‎creatures.‎ When the Talmud states that when ‎אשה מזרעת תחלה‎, ‎normally translated as “when the woman orgasms first,” the ‎deeper meaning is when the woman initiates the conception of ‎life, i.e. she has aroused G’d’s compassion, then the “birth” of the ‎resulting ‎זכר‎, male, did not have to contend with obstructions by ‎negative forces in the universe, whereas when the part of the ‎איש‎, ‎the part that should have been the initiating part in this ‎interchange has been reduced to that of merely being responsive, ‎the product described is called ‎נקבה‎, “a female,” i.e. reflecting the ‎fact that it had not been initiated by man’s good deeds, but by ‎G’d’s magnanimity in displaying His compassion without having ‎specific reason to do so. ‎“Birth” of a ‎נקבה‎, “female,” is a simile for obstacles of a ‎spiritual nature having accompanied the preceding “pregnancy,” ‎‎[and it is no wonder that the period of ritual impurity of ‎the mother after she has giving birth to a female infant is so ‎much longer than when she gave birth to a ‎זכר‎, “male. ‎Ed.]‎ According to our author the lengthy debate in the Talmud ‎‎Rosh Hashanah about the month during which the final ‎redemption will occur, does not reflect a dispute. [The ‎introductory “argument” about the “month” in which G’d ‎created the universe is used only as a parallel, seeing that “Time” ‎had not been created at the point when G’d said: “let there be ‎light.” Ed.] According to our author there is not ‎really any argument between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua ‎about the “month” when the final redemption will occur. The ‎month of Tishrey is a symbol in which the letters appears in the ‎reverse order of the aleph bet, reflecting the concept of the ‎אור חוזד‎, G’d’s original light returning after having absorbed ‎human input, especially human input welcome to G’d, i.e. ‎‎teshuvah repentance. The month of ‎ניסן‎ symbolizing as it ‎does ‎אביב‎, spring, the letters ‎אב‎ appearing in their normal order, ‎symbolizes the original light emanating from G’d, something ‎that contained no human input. If the Jewish people at the time ‎of the final redemption deserve it, the redemption is viewed as ‎occurring in Tishrey, whereas if they do not deserve it, it is ‎viewed as occurring in Nissan, a period when the attribute of ‎Justice has no foothold as the world was created by pure ‎חסד‎ by ‎G’d, there not having being any need to co-opt the attribute of ‎Justice at that time. Neither of the sages claimed to be a prophet ‎who had foreseen what the moral condition of the Jewish people ‎would be at the time of the redemption.‎

Still another dimension of the opening verse in our portion ‎אשה כי תזריע וילדה זכר‎; when we look at the Zohar Vayikra ‎‎(Tazria) 42, we find the statement that from the moment a ‎woman becomes pregnant she no longer can influence the sex of ‎the infant to be born by her prayers. [as this has already ‎been decided by a higher Power. Ed.] We have a rule ‎that man needs to serve his Creator at all times, and the thoughts ‎that govern this service of the Lord must concentrate on this ‎service not being rendered for the sake of reward by the Creator ‎but in order to afford the Creator a feeling of pleasure and ‎satisfaction for having created such a human being. When he ‎does so, G’d is pleased and will dispense His largesse.‎

Another exegesis of our verse draws attention to the word ‎וילדה‎, “she gives birth,” not having been preceded by the usual ‎ותהר‎, “she conceived and became pregnant.” Rabbi Yossi, in ‎the above quoted paragraph of the Zohar, stated that G’d ‎distinguishes between a drop of semen containing predominantly ‎alkaline sperm and that which is more acidic, affecting the ‎eventual sex of the infant born. G’d, as the third partner in every ‎human being born, enters the picture after the woman has ‎received seminal ejaculation by her male partner. He then decides ‎the sex of the baby that will result.‎ Another exegesis of our verse draws attention to the word ‎וילדה‎, “she gives birth,” not having been preceded by the usual ‎ותהר‎, “she conceived and became pregnant.” Rabbi Yossi, in ‎the above quoted paragraph of the Zohar, stated that G’d ‎distinguishes between a drop of semen containing predominantly ‎alkaline sperm and that which is more acidic, affecting the ‎eventual sex of the infant born. G’d, as the third partner in every ‎‎[clearly a reference to the sacrificial offerings by the Jewish ‎people. The word used in the Zohar is ‎סעודה‎, “meal.” ‎Ed.] He understood this statement as a hyperbole, similar ‎to when Solomon says in Proverbs 10,1 ‎בן חכם ישמח אב‎ “a wise ‎son causes the father joy.” He meant that the actions performed ‎by the wise son result in his father deriving pleasure from this. ‎Similarly, the Torah’s commandments performed by the Israelites ‎provide their Father in heaven with similar satisfaction and joy. ‎In other words, the word ‎תענוג‎ can also be translated as ‎פרנסה‎, ‎‎“livelihood,.” If that were so we must ask ourselves how it is that ‎G’d Who has millions of angels at His command in the celestial ‎spheres should have to look to the Israelites to provide Him with ‎His parnassah?” In our daily prayers (kedushah) we ‎quote the angels who in a celestial choir proclaim the holiness of ‎G’d in awe and fear so that in the words of the psalmist: ‎מה אנוש כי ‏תזכרנו‎, of what significance is man that You should even make ‎mention of him?” (psalms 8,5)‎ We have to resort to a parable in order to better understand ‎the Zohar. Imagine that leaders of the gentile nations have ‎undertaken a program to teach a specific bird the language ‎spoken by humans. When somebody hears about this he is so ‎amazed that he tells his colleagues about it, inviting them to ‎personally examine the truth of this statement. The moral of this ‎parable is quite obvious. The human species (gentiles) are invited ‎to observe the effect of the Jewish people observing the ‎commandments of the Torah and the effect of their performing ‎kind deeds towards their fellow man, so that those observing the ‎exceptional success of the Jewish nation will henceforth consider ‎the angels as insignificant by comparison to the Jewish people.‎

Having said this we can also explain the Mishnah in ‎‎Avot 2,1 where Rabbi postulated that the proper course for ‎a man being to be successful is to perform deeds that reflect glory ‎on those who perform it, inasmuch as he is a human being, i.e. ‎מן ‏האדם‎. If and when man in spite of having been provided with ‎both a body and a soul, succeeds in sublimating his body to such a ‎degree that it serves almost exclusively his wish to better serve ‎the Lord and provide Him with pleasurable satisfaction, then he ‎has attained a far higher spiritual rank than the angels in heaven. ‎He has enabled G’d to “brag” about His decision to create man, ‎and has stilled once and for all the opposition in heaven which ‎had been voiced by some of the angels when His intention had ‎become known.‎ This is all parallel to the explanation of psalms 118,23 ‎מאת ה' ‏היתה זאת היא נפלאת בעינו‎, “this has originated with Hashem, ‎it is marvelous in our sight.,” by my revered teacher Rabbi Dov ‎Baer of Meseritch. He zeroed in on the word ‎זאת‎ in this verse, ‎understanding it as a reference to the female element [as ‎opposed to the word ‎זה‎ in the verse immediately following, ‎Ed.]; We explained earlier that the principal element in ‎serving G’d is to provide Him with pleasurable satisfaction, i.e. ‎making Him a recipient rather than an initiator, originator. ‎Basically, the role of a recipient is that of woman who, when ‎compared to man, is always viewed as a recipient. We have ‎already explained repeatedly that this does not make woman ‎‎“inferior,” as we described the ‎אור חוזר‎, “the reflective light,” ‎good deeds performed by man in response to G’d having blessed ‎him with light that he had done nothing to deserve, as superior ‎in moral ethical terms, to even the original light the , ‎אור ישר‎.‎

Every human being, until he became a viable human being, ‎had to undergo three stages in that development, insemination, ‎embryonic existence in the mother’s womb, pregnancy, and ‎birth. The stage we described as insemination is understood in the ‎parlance of Kabbalists, as ‎התעוררות‎, a form of awakening, arousal, ‎which calls on man’s heart to serve his Master, the Creator. The ‎stage known as pregnancy is reached when an individual is ready ‎and willing to fulfill G’d’s commandments. Finally, birth, is the ‎stage when man is actively engaged in performing the ‎commandments of the Torah. This is what our sages in Rosh ‎‎Hashanah 4 alluded to when they said, quoting psalms 45,10 ‎נצבה שגל לימינך בכתם אופיר‎, “a consort stood at our right decked in ‎gold from Ophir.” They understood the psalmist to say that as a ‎reward for the Israelites deriving more pleasure from serving the ‎Lord than the average person experiences when engaging in ‎marital intercourse, ‎שגל‎, they have been rewarded with gold from ‎Ophir. [the source of the most precious gold. Ed.]‎ On the face of it, we must wonder what prompted the ‎psalmist to make a comparison between a physical sensation, ‎such as having sexual relations, with the spiritual experience of ‎serving the Lord? The performance of the sexual act is often an act of indulging ‎one’s libido in sins of the most severe kind, so what bearing does ‎this have on how we serve the Lord?‎ ‎I believe that what the psalmist, a descendant of Korach, had ‎in mind when he said this was that the sexual act consists of ‎reciprocal parts played by the ‎משפיע‎, the initiator, the male, the ‎משפיע‎, and the recipient, the woman, the ‎מקבל‎. This is the reason ‎why the sages chose to emphasize the feeling of lust of the ‎person indulging in initiating forbidden sexual intercourse, as it is ‎contrasted by the psalmist with the exact opposite, the ‎overwhelming desire by the Jewish man to please his Creator by ‎performing His commandments with an enthusiasm similar to ‎the sinner enjoying forbidden sex. This is also what the Zohar we quoted had alluded to ‎when he said that from the moment a woman has become ‎pregnant she concentrates exclusively on looking forward to the ‎day she gives birth to a male infant. The “woman” in the ‎‎Zohar is a simile for the collective soul of the Jewish people, ‎כנסת ישראל‎, and the term “pregnancy,” refers to the moment ‎when the Jewish people made the decision to serve the Lord, ‎whereas the “birth” in that line of the Zohar, refers to the ‎time when the Jewish people collectively have made good on their ‎resolution to serve the Lord. When the “woman” in the ‎‎Zohar is viewed as looking forward anxiously to giving birth ‎to a male child, the simile describes the hope of the collective soul ‎of the Jewish people to perform its service of the Lord in such a ‎manner that it is recognized as ‎זכר‎, male, as then it will be the ‎trigger for releasing G’d’s largesse in abundant measure ‎throughout the universe‎