REWIRED
I have a close friend who had his Bris as a senior in Pikesville High School. He told me that he felt a palpable change within himself, a spiritual change, once he had his Bris. What is it about the physical procedure of Bris milah that it can have a spiritual impact on a person?
In this week’s Parsha, Lech l’cha, our father Avraham undergoes a major change. HaShem instructed him to walk before Him and become perfect. He was to accomplish this perfection by circumcising himself.
Our Sages teach us that with his circumcision Avraham gained control over his two ears, two eyes and the circumcised part. This passage is very difficult to understand. Clearly, Avraham observed all the mitzvos even before his Bris. He was already controlling what he saw and what he heard. What do our Sages mean that with his Bris he gained control over them?
There is another interesting teaching that the Midrash teaches. Immediately following the Bris, Ha-Shem came to visit Avraham to check up on him. When that occurred, Avraham exclaimed that he realizes the benefit of his Bris for it was only in the merit of his Bris that he merited this visit. The difficulty with this Midrash is that we find numerous times when HaShem spoke to Avraham before the Bris?
The actions of my eyes and ears are distinctly different than those of my hands and feet. My hands can do nothing without my deliberate decision that they should do so. My eyes and ears, on the other hand, perceive what they see and hear on their own without my deliberate decision. My control over them is only after they did their deed. If I wish I can close them.
Over my hands and feet, I have absolute control but over my eyes and ears my control is limited.
With Avraham’s Bris he gained absolute control over all of his organs. But, how?
There are two components to the hearing process. One is in the mechanism of the ear which creates signals and sends them to the brain to interpret. The other is in the brain’s ability to translate those signals into meaningful hearing. Even in a healthy person whose ear and brain are working perfectly in sync, the ear does not hear everything. It will only hear sounds that have meaning to the person. Let us take for example two people having a conversation with other people nearby holding conversations in a foreign language. Even if the other conversations can be clearly heard they will not interfere with their own conversation. The reason for this is because the secondary conversations have no meaning to our friends and their ears are not distracted by the secondary talking. This is true with vision as well. Our brain does not pick up everything within its line of vision. It only picks up those things that are relevant to the person.
With his Bris, Avraham purified his inner essence to the point that when there was something inappropriate to be heard or seen his brain did not process it. If he wanted to hear it, it required his decision to do so. He had actually raised the level of control of those organs to the that of his hands and feet!
Although HaShem communicated with Avraham before the Bris, that was only in order to give him a message. However, after the bris we find HaShem visiting Avraham just for the sake of being with him with no other purpose. This is when Avraham recognized the accomplishment of his Bris. He had elevated his inner self to be completely dedicated to the service of HaShem.
The impact of his Bris affected the innermost parts of Avraham’s psyche. He rewired himself with incredible purity that the material attractions which are natural to all mankind became foreign to him. His organs no longer registered their significance and hence, he ruled over his organs rather than they being independent of him.
Perhaps, my friend’s experience was a shadow of his great grandfather’s.
Have a wonderful Shabbos.
Paysach Diskind