'Haredi Rabbis Duke It Out Over Circumcision Sucking Ritual'

Submitted by anthony on Thu, 2012-03-29 00:27

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Satmar leader’s comments stand in stark contrast to statements made by Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky, the founder and dean of the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia and a senior member of Agudath Israel’s Council of Torah Sages, the prestigious haredi rabbinical policy-making body. When asked about rabbis who believe that using a tube is not valid under Jewish law, Rabbi Kamenetsky replied, “Nobody holds like that.” Told of those who make this claim, the apparently incredulous rabbi said only, “I don’t think there’s a response to them. Chas v’shalom [God forbid], if [children are] getting sick [from oral suction], [under halakha, Jewish law, you] wouldn’t do it.”
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3. The slippery slope argument that Rabbi David Zwiebel, Agudah's executive VP, so favors. Even if stopping MBP is the right thing to do, even if the only way to save the lives of a few Jewish babies is for the government to ban MBP, the next issue the government gets involved with may be to ban or regulate circumcision itself – something Agudah would strongly oppose.

How could Rabbi Niederman deny medical fact? How could Agudah not speak out against MBP? In other words, what is the halakhic peg they're hanging their collective hat on that allows them to behave in a way that certainly will sicken, maim and even kill babies?'

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Comments

... it's a harder habit to break. Ever try to quit smoking? Same idea. The wronger a practice is to be doing, the harder it is to stop doing it.

Literally hundreds, maybe thousands of rules in Judaism (and Islam) have fallen by the wayside over the centuries. Customs have come and gone. Some were supposedly, like circumcision, mandated directly by God on pain of damnation should one fail to observe. Yet these customs nonetheless have gone the way of the dodo, usually for good reason, but sometimes just because they were impractical.

A tradition like circumcision, be it secular like most circumcisions in the West are, or religious, as found in Islam and Judaism (and who knows what other religions - sorry if I leave any more out), is wrong. Very wrong. And thus it is harder to stop. Just like smoking, after a lifetime of smoking. Same thing.

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Submitted by Matt on Thu, 2012-03-29 00:41