I was talking to a cardiac/thoracic surgeon recently. I mentioned that I had worked in a radiation oncology department as a physicist doing treatment planning. I wanted to be empathetic to the stress he must feel and said I had woken up a few times at night worried that I had made a mistake. He gave me sort of a blank stare and said, "I don't make mistakes."
Ah. Well, I do make mistakes. I know that other people also make mistakes. How do I know? There is a whole body of Jewish law on what to do when one has omitted a necessary insertion. For example, forgetting "r'tzei" in bentching on Shabbos. The truth is, though, I know people who need the opposite. They so rarely eat bread during the week that "r'tzei" seems like an integral part of bentching. For those people, I offer another halacha: when bentching during the week, you should first take all knives off the table. (Yes, even butter/table knives.) On Shabbos, though, those can remain on the table. Why? Because a Jewish table is essentially a private altar and our meal is essentially a private offering. The Torah forbids using iron tools in the building of the altar in the Beis HaMikdash, and so the Jewish nation has accepted on themselves the custom to remove all knives from our table when saying grace after a bread meal.
Why does the Torah forbid using iron tools in the building of the altar? The philosophical works say it is because the altar's reason for being is to lengthen life, whereas as iron instruments' (swords and the like) reason for being is to shorten life. Why don't we worry about knives on Shabbos? Since it is forbidden to build on Shabbos, it is not relevant to worry about the tools used to build it. (I know there are other reasons given. This is the most straightforward and the one I need for this TftD.)
That being the case... doesn't it seem odd that we use a metal (stainless/hardened/tempered/high-carbon/etc steel, which is iron) scalpel for bris milah? Nor is this a new thing; we have used metal knives for the bris milah for millennia. To make the question even stronger, please note that we have precisely one depiction of bris milah in our Holy Scripture that specifies the knife material used. The Torah tells us that when Zipporah circumcised her son, she used a flint knife. (Sh'mos 4:25) Isn't that interesting? (By the way, the poskim use this in the discussions of not only what materials can be used for the knife, but also who is fit to perform the ritual.)
Why in the world, then, would we prefer a steel knife over all others? (Don't try to tell me it is because that's easiest. If there is one thing that almost never figures into halacha, it is expediency.) I heard an amazing medrash. When Dovid (not yet) haMelech was on the battlefield with Goliath, he took his trusty sling shot and flung a stone toward Goliath's head. Goliath, of course, was in full armor -- even more than a usual soldier (see the account in Shmuel I, 17 for all the gory details). Goliath was wearing an iron helmet that protected even his forehead. The stone approached and said to the helmet, "Let me through! I come to kill this evil person." The iron in the helmet responded, "Why should I yield to you?" The stone persisted, "I come for the victory of the Jewish people and to sanctify HaShem's name!" The iron responded, "I will therefore yield, but on one condition -- henceforth the Jewish nation will perform the bris mila with an iron blade." The stone agreed, the iron yielded, Goliath was killed, the career of Dovid -- who would be king -- was launched... and we now use steel knives to circumcise our boys.
There is so much here... custom vs מוסר/ethics, halacha vs medrash, conversations and deals made by inanimate materials. All that and more; each of which could be the topic of several TftDs (and many have). One thing, though... this is just so cool!
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