Walk before Me: The Heart's Circumcision for Generations

1“Walk before Me and be whole.”¹ Rashi, following the Midrash, explains: “‘Walk before Me’ through the mitzvah of circumcision, and through this you will be whole. For as long as the foreskin is upon you, you are blemished before Me.” But why should the foreskin make Avraham count as blemished? Hashem said of him, “Avraham, who loves Me.”² Could Hashem, blessed be He, regard such a man as blemished and unfit for the service, like a Kohen with a blemish who may not serve in the Beis HaMikdash?

2There is a second question. At the end of the parshah it is written: “And all the men of his household, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.”³ Here the word ito, “with him,” seems unnecessary. The Torah told us this only a few verses earlier: “And Avraham took Yishmael his son and all those born in his house … and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskin … And Avraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.”⁴ So we already know that they were circumcised together with Avraham. Why does the verse stress again that they were circumcised “with him”?

3aThe explanation, it seems, is this. The Rishonim, the early authorities, wrote that one of the reasons for circumcision is to weaken the power of desire. The Ramban, the Rambam and the Ralbag all give this reason.⁵ But this reason did not apply to Avraham Avinu, who was circumcised in his old age, when the power of desire ceases. For him, circumcision served only as a sign between him and the Holy One, blessed be He. It had a further purpose as well. Through it, all who were circumcised with him would repent, and their hearts would open to Torah and yiras Shamayim, the fear of Heaven, in the spirit of the verse “You shall circumcise the foreskin of your heart.”⁶ The mitzvah was meant to do the same for the generations to come. For, as the Midrash Tanchuma and the Ramban teach, “the deeds of the fathers are a sign for the children”: what the Avos did shapes what happens to their descendants.⁷

3bAvraham Avinu himself did not need circumcision to open his heart; he had already passed so very many trials. Still, he had not yet reached the ultimate wholeness, which is to pass on Torah and yiras Shamayim to the generations after him. Through this mitzvah he brought down from Above, in full measure, the covenant of Torah and the circumcision of the heart, which lead to the fear of Hashem. That is the sense in which Avraham counted as blemished: he still lacked the wholeness of passing these on to the generations. Once he was circumcised he became whole, and it was said of him, “Walk before Me and be whole,” whole in the highest sense. For he gained, for himself and for all the generations after him, the full power of the mitzvah of circumcision, which is the circumcision of the heart. This answers our first question.

4Here, then, is the meaning of a comment by the Baal HaTurim, R' Yaakov ben Asher, in his commentary on the Torah.⁸ He notes that the verse “You shall circumcise the foreskin of your heart” comes right after “Only in your fathers did Hashem delight,” as a hint that you should circumcise the foreskin of your heart just as the Avos did. But where does the Torah tell us that the Avos circumcised their hearts? The answer is what we saw in Avraham's circumcision: the mitzvah of circumcision includes the circumcision of the heart as well. [So when our fathers were circumcised, their hearts were circumcised too.]

5This answers our second question as well. It is the meaning of the verse “And all the men of his household, those born in the house … were circumcised with him.” The words “with him” take in two groups. The first is the members of his household who were under his authority at the time. The second, [for whom Avraham's circumcision was also meant,] is the whole House of Israel in the generations to come, who are circumcised in the covenant of Avraham Avinu. All of them receive a ray of the lofty holiness that was present when Avraham was circumcised. So along with the physical circumcision, their hearts are circumcised too, and they can live out the words “Walk before Me and be whole.”

6May it be His will that we be privileged to attain the circumcision and purification of the heart. Amen, may it be His will.