A Project Genesis website

JewishAnswers.org

Ask the Rabbi: answers from Project Genesis rabbis

Circumcision

If Leviticus states, “Make no markings upon they body nor cuttings for the dead”, why are Jews circumcised?

Thank you

It is a separate commandment to circumcise the foreskin from every male Jewish person on the 8th day (Genesis 17:11-13). The commandment that you are referring to is forbidding the practice of making incisions in the body as a form of mourning over the dead (a pagan custom).