MIRIAM - women mohelot

Maggie discusses how she decided to make Rashi's daughter, Miriam, a mohelot [woman who does ritual circumcision] in BOOK II - MIRIAM of her RASHI'S DAUGHTERS trilogy. Also how she researched circumcision training.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• mohel
• Rashi's
• Daughters
• Maggie
• Anton
• circumcision

[Mihai683]

I know i`ll never let her near my son i where to meet her at an event and have my son with me

[maggieanton]

MIRIAM [Rashi's daughter] the mohelet lived over 900 years ago. So you probably won't be meeting her any time soon.

[dts6b]

So, does the mohelet in the book also perform metsitsah b'pei as part of the bris? Or, does she leave that for the men to do?

[maggieanton]

@dts6b She does exactly what the men do, the entire procedure.

[joelface]

I am all for women's rights, and women being able to do anything a man can. I am all for reinterpretations and questioning of traditional life.

However, something rubs me the wrong way hearing circumcision being discussed so flippantly.

Also, whether mandated or not, something seems particularly jarring about a people who would never even consider the ethical dilemma of amputating the foreskin from a young perfectly healthy infant boy.

It is truly a disturbing topic to write about, I feel.

[Bonobo3D]

It doesn't sound like the author ever questions circumcision.

[OldSchopenhauer]

Terrible terrible women.

[Joseph4GI]

Maybe men should start sunatting girls in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore in Brunei. You know? To make things "equal." (Facepalms...)

[kidshateschool]

Of course women did circumcisions. In cultures where girls are circumcised, it's often the women who do it. That is how abuse becomes a "tradition." The victims of one generation inflict it on the next.

[trident3b]

@neechee5150 I hadn't thought about the pedophilia aspect. Good point. What a vile, and in my opinion, downright criminal practice.

[dts6b]

@maggieanton NONSENSE! sucking the blood by mouth is still done in the U.S. by

the ultra -orthodox. Just google "bloomberg circumcision orthodox" for articles in

the NYTimes about a mohel infecting 3 little boys with herpes when he sucked their

penises. Mayor Bloomberg met with at least 28 orthodox mohels to reassure them that

NYC would not stop them from sucking little boy's penises. The Catholic church doesn't

get away with this anymore!--- Well, at least not legally!

[maggieanton]

@neechee5150 Near as I understand it, sucking the blood from the wound was akin to putting a cut finger in one's mouth. The procedure is not done these days, at least not in the US, but what I describe is how it was done when the Talmud was written and during Rashi's time.

[neechee5150]

@maggieanton Just to be clear, you describe the woman sucking the blood from the fresh wound due to circumcision? This is a practice that I have never understood, and I question whether anyone's God would call for such a heinous practice. This practice has a pedophile flavor to it, and should be seen and treated as such. Disgusting, perverse and morally reprehensible.

[SSanf]

As Charles Caleb Colton once said, "Imitation is the sincerest of flattery." Therefore, I am choosing to be flattered that the troll below is imitating me.