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For a male converting to Judaism, circumcision is part of the process (which also includes immersion in a mikvah and accepting the commandments). In the event that the prospective convert was already circumcised (as is often the case in the U.S.), a symbolic drop of blood is drawn.
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Circumcision. If you are a male, you will need to be...
- Why Wait Eight Days for The Circumcision
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Actually, there is no explicit commandment in the Torah requiring circumcision (or immersion) for proselytes. The Talmud the Oral Lawis where the laws and debates about initiation rites are found. There was general, though by no means universal, agreement among the rabbis that male converts must undergo both circumcision and mikveh [immersion in a ...
The ritual requires that a single drop of blood be taken from the site of the circumcisionmore precisely, from the corona of skin that surrounds the head (or glans) of the penis. The person performing the hatafat dam brit applies an alcohol swab to the area and then pricks the skin either with a hypodermic needle or a sterile lancet. The blood is c...
Hatafat dam brit is generally performed by a mohel, a ritual circumciser. (The Yiddish pronunciation is moil, the Hebrew is mo-hail.) A mohel is someone trained to perform both the covenantal prayers and the surgical procedure of brit milah. Traditionally, one becomes a mohel by apprenticeship with an established practitioner, but since the 1980s t...
Rabbis and mohelim tend to insist that hatafat dam brit is painless. Converts allow that although its over in a second, painless is not an altogether accurate description, though some men find the alcohol wipe more irritating than the jab. Physicians who perform hatafat dam brit sometimes prescribe a numbing cream, which is applied to the area a fe...
Despite the minor physical and not-so-minor psychological discomfort (the anticipation is always worse than the event), converts invariably say that the importance of the ritual far outweighed any pain. And as one man said, You wouldnt believe the kind of respect it earned me from my mother-in-law.
Of course, modern medicine greatly minimizes the danger and pain associated with circumcision, and since urologists and some general surgeons routinely perform circumcisions for medical reasons, the procedure itself is fairly easy to arrange.
Only an experienced urologist or general surgeon should undertake an adult circumcision, and several of the mohelim certified by the Conservative and Reform movements are qualified in these fields. A Jewish surgeon who is not a mohel can perform brit milah by saying the blessing before he does the surgery. If the only available surgeon is a non-Jew...
Is b’rit milah required for conversion? When an adult man who is already circumcised converts to Judaism, it is customary to take a symbolic drop of blood - effectively consecrating his pre-existing circumcision as being for the sake of entering the covenant of circumcision, this is called tipat dam (also known as hatafat dam berit ).
This study might involve working directly with a rabbi or study in a conversion or introduction-to-Judaism class. Consider circumcision. Orthodox and Conservative rabbis require a male candidate for conversion to have a circumcision (or a symbolic one, if a circumcision has already been performed). Reform Judaism does not require a circumcision.
- Lawrence J. Epstein
By Menachem Posner. In order for a male to be entered into the covenant of Abraham, it is not enough for him not to have a foreskin. Rather, a circumcision needs to be carried out by a G‑d-fearing Jew, with the express intention to perform the mitzvah of brit milah.
Jewish law prescribes several rites for conversion. A male proselyte is circumcised, and both male and female proselytes immerse in a mikveh (a ritual pool) or other suitable body of water. If the male was already circumcised before his conversion, a drop of blood is taken from the spot that was once covered by his foreskin.
