Tazria: The Cut on the Eighth Day

(1) יהוה spoke to Moses, saying: (2) Speak to the Israelite people thus: When a woman at childbirth*at childbirth Heb. tazria‘, lit. “brings forth seed.” bears a male, she shall be impure seven days; she shall be impure as at the time of her condition of menstrual separation.— (3) On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.—

Circumcision is a positive mitzvah [whose lack of fulfillment] is punishable by karet, as [Genesis 17:14] states: "And an uncircumcised male who does not circumcise his foreskin - this soul will be cut off from his people."
A father is commanded to circumcise his son, and a master, his slaves. This applies both to those who are born in his home and to those purchased by him. If the father or the master transgressed and did not circumcise them, he negated the fulfillment of a positive commandment. He is not, however, punished by karet, for karet is incurred only by the uncircumcised person himself. The court is obligated to circumcise that son or slave at the proper time and should not leave an uncircumcised male among the Jewish people or their slaves.

When a convert enters the congregation of Israel, he is obligated to undergo circumcision first. If he had been circumcised while he was a gentile, it is necessary to extract the blood of the covenant on the day that he converts.
Similarly, a child who was born without a foreskin must have blood extracted for circumcision on the eighth day. An androgynous, a child with both male and female sexual organs, must be circumcised on the eighth day. Similarly, a child born by Caesarian section and a child who has two foreskins should both be circumcised on the eighth day.

Circumcision is performed only during the day, after the rising of the sun, as [Leviticus 12:3] states, "On the eighth day...," i.e., during the day, and not at night. [This applies to a circumcision performed] at the appropriate time, the eighth day [after birth], and [to a circumcision performed] after the appropriate time, from the ninth day and onward.
If one performed the circumcision after dawn, it is acceptable. It is acceptable [at any time] throughout the entire day. Nevertheless, it is a mitzvah to [perform the circumcision] early, in the beginning of the day, since "the eager perform mitzvot early."

Let us now turn to why the Torah wrote this piece of legislation immediately after the law about the mother who gave birth contracting a kind of ritual impurity lasting for seven days similar to the menstrual impurity. The Torah simply wanted to explain why the circumcision of the baby has to be delayed for seven days (compare Shabbat 135). This is the reason that the Torah wrote וביום השמיני, the letter ו indicating that the timing was related to what has been described previously. The Talmud in Niddah 31 elaborates further, suggesting that the "whole world should not be rejoicing when the baby is introduced to Judaism while its mother is depressed being ritually impure." Devarim Rabbah 6,1 writes as follows: "why does the baby have to be circumcised on the eighth day after its birth? G'd exercised His mercy on the baby waiting until it was strong enough to endure this operation. Just as G'd exercises His mercy on human beings He did so on animals and this is why a new born animal may not be offered as a sacrifice until the eighth day after it has been born (compare Leviticus 22,27).

Our verse may also be explained in terms of Tanchuma Tazria 5 where we have the following statement: "The Roman Governor Turnus Rufus asked Rabbi Akiva whose actions were more pleasing, G'd's or man's? Rabbi Akiva answered that man's actions were more pleasing. Turnus Rufus asked why the Israelites circumcised themselves? Rabbi Akiva said he had known that Turnus Rufus would ask him this and this is why he had said immediately that man's actions were more pleasing. Rabbi Akiva brought both ears of corns and white flour proclaiming: "the former are representative of G'd's works, the latter are representative of man's works. Are not the latter nicer than the former?" Thereupon Turnus Rufus wanted to know why G'd commanded circumcision instead of creating man without a foreskin? Rabbi Akiva replied that the whole reason for Torah legislation is in order to refine human beings as we know from Psalms 18,31 'the word of the Lord is refining;' Rabbi Akiva did not content himself with the example of the ears of corn versus the finished product, the scone or roll, seeing that the improvement necessary in order to convert ears of corn into flour is intended to add to man's enjoyment and man therefore is motivated to convert ears of corn into flour. This cannot be said of his body. Man does not feel that the foreskin is a hindrance to his physical perfection. There was a reason therefore for G'd Himself to create man without a foreskin if that was His will. Why did He leave this to man instead of doing it Himself? Rabbi Akiva therefore answered Turnus Rufus that G'd's laws are designed to refine man. This appears to be a very enigmatic answer for someone like Turnus Rufus. A pagan of the type of Turnus Rufus does not understand the concept that man has to attain his relative perfection by means of carrying out G'd's commandments. He therefore accepted the answer at face value. We Israelites, G'd's favourites, have to examine the matter on a different level. One of the remarkable things is the fact that whereas in nature we observe that nature's products reproduce themselves true to existing features, i.e. the farmer having achieved a certain strain of wheat, for instance, will find that if he sows seed of that strain they will reproduce themselves identically, the same is not true of circumcised Jews producing children without a foreskin. All our evolutionary studies ought to dictate that after thousands of years of male Jews living their lives without foreskins, their children should be born without foreskins! Even if we were to argue that once one has been born with a foreskin the laws of mutation will ignore such a fact and he will reproduce children with a foreskin, why did someone such as Moses who was born without a foreskin (compare Sotah 12) not produce children without foreskins?

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.‎