Editing Brit milah (section)

== ''Milah L'shem Giur'' ==
[[File:Göttingen-Beschneidungswerkzeuge.02.JPG|thumb|right|Set of brit milah implements, [[Göttingen]] city museum]]
A ''milah l'shem giur'' is a "circumcision for the purpose of conversion". In [[Orthodox Judaism]], this procedure is usually done by adoptive parents for adopted boys who are being converted as part of the adoption or by families with young children converting together. It is also required for adult converts who were not previously circumcised, e.g., those born in countries where circumcision at birth is not common. The conversion of a minor is valid in both Orthodox and [[Conservative Judaism]] until a child reaches the age of majority (13 for a boy, 12 for a girl); at that time the child has the option of renouncing his conversion and Judaism, and the conversion will then be considered retroactively invalid. He must be informed of his right to renounce his conversion if he wishes. If he does not make such a statement, it is accepted that the boy is halakhically Jewish. Orthodox rabbis will generally not convert a non-Jewish child raised by a mother who has not converted to Judaism.<ref>Rabbi Paysach J. Krohn, ''Bris Milah'' [[Artscroll|Mesorah Publications Ltd]], 1985, pp. 103–105.</ref>

The laws of conversion and conversion-related circumcision in Orthodox Judaism have numerous complications, and authorities recommend that a rabbi be consulted well in advance.

In Conservative Judaism, the milah l'shem giur procedure is also performed for a boy whose mother has not converted, but with the intention that the child be raised Jewish. This conversion of a child to Judaism without the conversion of the mother is allowed by Conservative interpretations of [[halakha]]. Conservative Rabbis will authorize it only under the condition that the child be raised as a Jew in a single-faith household. Should the mother convert, and if the boy has not yet reached his third birthday, the child may be immersed in the [[mikveh]] with the mother, after the mother has already immersed, to become Jewish. If the mother does not convert, the child may be immersed in a mikveh, or body of natural waters, to complete the child's conversion to Judaism. This can be done before the child is even one year old. If the child did not immerse in the [[mikveh]], or the boy was too old, then the child may choose of their own accord to become Jewish at age 13 as a [[Bar Mitzvah]], and complete the conversion then.<ref>[http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/teshuvot/docs/19861990/reisner_conversion.pdf Rabbi Avram Israel Reisner, On the conversion of adoptive and patrilineal children] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101127135422/http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/teshuvot/docs/19861990/reisner_conversion.pdf |date=2010-11-27 }}, Rabbinical Assembly [[Committee on Jewish Law and Standards]], 1988</ref>
* The ceremony, when performed l'shem giur, does not have to be performed on a particular day, and does not override [[Shabbat]] and [[Jewish Holidays]].<ref>{{Cite web
 |url         = http://www.askmoses.com/en/article/212,657813/Can-a-brit-take-place-on-Yom-Kippur.html
 |title       = Can a brit take place on Yom Kippur? – holidays general information holiday information life cycle circumcision the brit
 |publisher   = Askmoses.com
 |access-date  = 2012-04-25
 |url-status  = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20120221222357/http://www.askmoses.com/en/article/212,657813/Can-a-brit-take-place-on-Yom-Kippur.html
 |archive-date = 2012-02-21
}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web
 |url         = http://www.ahavat-israel.com/torat/britmila.php
 |title       = The Mitzvah of Brit Milah (Bris)
 |publisher   = Ahavat Israel
 |access-date  = 2012-04-25
 |url-status  = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20120204162505/http://www.ahavat-israel.com/torat/britmila.php
 |archive-date = 2012-02-04
}}</ref>
* In Orthodox Judaism, there is a split of authorities on whether the child receives a [[Hebrew name]] at the Brit ceremony or upon immersion in the [[Mikvah]]. According to ''Zichron Brit LeRishonim'', naming occurs at the Brit with a different formula than the standard Brit Milah. The more common practice among [[Ashkenazic]] Jews follows Rabbi [[Moshe Feinstein]], with naming occurring at immersion.

Where the procedure was performed but not followed by immersion or other requirements of the conversion procedure (e.g., in Conservative Judaism, where the mother has not converted), if the boy chooses to complete the conversion at Bar Mitzvah, a ''milah l'shem giur'' performed when the boy was an infant removes the obligation to undergo either a full brit milah or ''hatafat dam brit''.

=== Visible symbol of a covenant ===
[[Saadia Gaon|Rabbi Saadia Gaon]] considers something to be "complete" if it lacks nothing, but also has nothing that is unneeded. He regards the foreskin as an unneeded organ that God created in man, and so by amputating it, the man is completed.<ref>{{Cite book
  | first1     = Saadia
  | last1      = Gaon
  | author-link = Saadia Gaon
  | last2      = Rosenblatt
  | first2     = Samuel (trans.)
  | title      = the Book of Beliefs and Opinions
  | publisher  = Yale Judaica
  | year       = 1958
  | chapter    = article III chapter 10
  | isbn       = 978-0-300-04490-4
  | title-link      = Emunoth ve-Deoth
  }}</ref> The author of [[Sefer ha-Chinuch]]<ref>2nd commandment</ref> provides three reasons for the practice of circumcision:
# To complete the form of man, by removing what he claims to be a redundant organ;
# To mark the chosen people, so that their bodies will be different as their souls are. The organ chosen for the mark is the one responsible for the sustenance of the species;
# The completion effected by circumcision is not congenital, but left to the man. This implies that as he completes the form of his body, so can he complete the form of his soul.

Talmud professor [[Daniel Boyarin]] offered two explanations for circumcision. One is that it is a literal inscription on the Jewish body of the name of God in the form of the letter "[[yodh|yud]]" (from "yesod"). The second is that the act of bleeding represents a feminization of Jewish men, significant in the sense that the covenant represents a marriage between Jews and (a symbolically male) God.<ref>Boyarin, Daniel. {{"'}}This We Know to Be the Carnal Israel': Circumcision and the Erotic Life of God and Israel", Critical Inquiry. (Spring, 1992), 474–506.</ref>

=== Other reasons ===
In ''Of the Special Laws, Book 1'', the Jewish philosopher [[Philo]] additionally gave other reasons for the practice of circumcision.<ref name=":10">{{Cite book|author1=Philo of Alexandria|title=Of the special laws, Book I (i and ii), in Works of Philo|last2=Colson|first2=F.H. (trans.)|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1937|isbn=978-0-674-99250-4|volume=VII|location=Loeb Classical Library|pages=103–05|author1-link=Philo of Alexandria}}</ref>

He attributes four of the reasons to "men of divine spirit and wisdom". These include the idea that circumcision:
# Protects against disease,
# Secures cleanliness "in a way that is suited to the people consecrated to God",
# Causes the circumcised portion of the penis to resemble a heart, thereby representing a physical connection between the "breath contained within the heart [that] is generative of thoughts, and the generative organ itself [that] is productive of living beings", and
# Promotes prolificness by removing impediments to the flow of semen.<li value="5">"Is a symbol of a man's knowing himself".</li>