Mila and Shabbat

And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.                                          Leviticus 12:3

It has been suggested that the reason the Torah commands mila on the eighth day is to ensure that at least one Shabbat will have passed before mila.

My father explained that Shabbat represents the sanctity of time, while mila represents the sanctity of man. Mandating mila on the eighth day means that the sanctity of time will have passed over the infant, as it were, preparing him for the sanctity of man.

There is an interesting and meaningful interplay: the newborn is first endowed with the sanctity of time and then achieves the sanctity of man. Once the sanctity of man has been achieved, it exceeds the sanctity of time, since mila overrides Shabbat. Perhaps the lesson is that in order to truly reach and realize the sanctity of man, one must first accept the divinely ordained sanctity of time.