Editing Brit milah (section)

=== Uncovering, ''priah'' ===
[[File:Britmila2.jpg|thumb|Infant after brit]]
[[File:Brit milah cushion.jpg|thumb|Circumcision cushion, [[Jewish Musem of Switzerland|Jewish Museum of Switzerland]]]]
At the neonatal stage, the inner preputial [[epithelium]] is still linked with the surface of the [[Glans penis|glans]].<ref>{{Cite journal
 |url         = http://www.cirp.org/library/general/oster/
 |title       = Further Fate of the Foreskin
 |access-date  = 2010-11-14
 |last        = Øster
 |first       = Jakob
 |date        = April 1968
 |journal     = [[Archives of Disease in Childhood]]
 |volume      = 43
 |pages       = 200–02
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20100629054954/http://www.cirp.org/library/general/oster/
 |archive-date = 2010-06-29
}}</ref>
The ''mitzvah'' is executed only when this epithelium is either removed, or permanently peeled back to uncover the glans.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Mishnah Shabbat 19:6 |title-link=Mishnah |quote=circumcised but did not perform priah, it is as if he did not circumcise.}}
The [[Jerusalem Talmud]] there adds: "and is punished [[kareth]]!".</ref>
On medical circumcisions performed by surgeons, the epithelium is removed along with the foreskin,<ref>[http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/pediatrics;103/3/686.pdf Circumcision Policy Statement] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090320161602/http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/pediatrics;103/3/686.pdf|date=2009-03-20}} of The [[American Academy of Pediatrics]] notes that "there are three methods of circumcision that are commonly used in the newborn male", and that all three include "bluntly freeing the inner preputial epithelium from the epithelium of the glans", to be later amputated with the foreskin.</ref> to prevent post operative penile adhesion and its complications.<ref>{{Cite journal
 |url         = http://www.cirp.org/library/complications/gracely1/
 |title       = Further Fate of the Foreskin
 |access-date  = 2010-11-14
 |last        = Gracely-Kilgore
 |first       = Katharine A.
 |date        = May 1984
 |journal     = [[Nurse Practitioner]]
 |volume      = 5
 |issue       = 2
 |pages       = 4–22
 |url-status  = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20100628100443/http://www.cirp.org/library/complications/gracely1/
 |archive-date = 2010-06-28
}}</ref>
However, on ritual circumcisions performed by a ''mohel'', the epithelium is most commonly peeled off only after the foreskin has been amputated. This procedure is called ''priah'' ({{langx|he|פריעה}}), which means 'uncovering'. The main goal of "priah" (also known as "bris periah"), is to remove as much of the inner layer of the foreskin as possible and prevent the movement of the shaft skin, what creates the look and function of what is known as a "low and tight" circumcision.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web
  | url     = http://www.circlist.com/styles/page3.html
  | title     = Styles – Judaism and Islam
  | publisher     = Circlist
  | date     = 2014-03-07
  | access-date     = 2014-06-11
  | url-status     = dead
  | archive-url     = https://web.archive.org/web/20140515075416/http://www.circlist.com/styles/page3.html
  | archive-date     = 2014-05-15
  }}</ref>

According to Rabbinic interpretation of traditional Jewish sources,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Glick |first1=Leonard B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SF6fbjNe0yYC&q=peri'ah |title=Marked in Your Flesh: Circumcision from Ancient Judea to Modern America |date=2005-06-30 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-517674-2 |pages=46–47 |quote=the rabbis go on to dedicate all of chapter 19 to circumcision .. ''milah'', ''peri'ah'', and ''metsitsah''. This is the first text specifying peri'ah as an absolute requirement. The same chapter is where we first find mention of the warning that leaving even "shreds" of foreskin renders the procedure "invalid".}} (note: section 19.2 from Moed tractate [[Shabbat (Talmud)]] is quoted)</ref> the 'priah' has been performed as part of the Jewish circumcision since the [[Israelites]] first inhabited the [[Land of Israel]].<ref>{{Cite book |author=Rabbah b. Isaac in the name of Rab |title=[[Talmud Bavli]] Tractate Yebamoth |chapter=71b |quote=The commandment of uncovering the corona at circumcision was not given to Abraham; for it is said, At that time the Lord said unto Joshua: 'Make thee knives of flint etc.'. But is it not possible [that this applied to] those who were not previously circumcised; for it is written, For all the people that came out were circumcised, but all the people that were born etc.? — If so, why the expression. 'Again!'. Consequently it must apply to the uncovering of the corona.}}</ref>

The ''Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion'' states that many Hellenistic Jews attempted to restore their foreskins, and that similar action was taken during the Hadrianic persecution, a period in which a prohibition against circumcision was issued. The writers of the dictionary hypothesize that the more severe method practiced today was probably begun in order to prevent the possibility of restoring the foreskin after circumcision, and therefore the rabbis added the requirement of cutting the foreskin in periah.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Werblowsky |first1=R.J. Zwi |last2=Wigoder |first2=Geoffrey |year=1997 |title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] }}</ref>

According to [[Shaye J. D. Cohen]], the Torah only commands milah.<ref>{{Cite book
  | url     = https://books.google.com/books?id=PmL-LogqJ-YC&q=milah&pg=PA25
  | page = 25
  | title   = Why Aren't Jewish Women Circumcised?: Gender and Covenant in Judaism
  | isbn    = 978-0-520-21250-3
  | last1 = Cohen
  | first1  = Shaye J.D
  | date    = 2005-09-06
  | publisher = University of California Press
 | quote = These mishniac requirements have three sources: the Torah, which requires circumcision (''milah''); the rabbis themselves, who added the requirement of completely uncovering the corona (''peri'ah''); and ancient medical beliefs about the treatment of wounds (suctioning, bandaging, cumin). The Torah demands circumcision but does not specify exactly what should be cut or how much.
}}</ref> [[David Gollaher]] has written that the rabbis added the procedure of priah to discourage men from trying to restore their foreskins: "Once established, priah was deemed essential to circumcision; if the mohel failed to cut away enough tissue, the operation was deemed insufficient to comply with God's covenant", and "Depending on the strictness of individual rabbis, boys (or men thought to have been inadequately cut) were subjected to additional operations."<ref name=":8">{{Cite book|author=Gollaher|first=David|title=Circumcision: A History Of The World's Most Controversial Surgery|publisher=[[Basic Books]]|year=2001|isbn=978-0-465-02653-1|location=[[United States]]|pages=1–30|author-link=David Gollaher}}</ref>
[[File:Woodcut bris.png|thumb|Engraving of a brit (1657)]]