Mila and Torah

Great is (the mitzva of) circumcision (brit mila), for if not for it, the Holy One, blessed be He, would not have created His world, as the verse [Jeremiah 33:25] states: “Thus says God: If not for My covenant day and night, I would not have appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth.” Rabbi Eliezer says: great is Torah, for without Torah, the heavens and the earth could not be maintained, as the verse states:  “Thus says God: If not for My covenant day and night, I would not have appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth.”                                                      Babylonian Talmud, Nedarim 31b – 32a

The Gaon of Vilna explains that circumcision involves a physical covenant, while the covenant of Torah is a spiritual one, and just as brit mila requires circumcision, as the verse in our Parasha [Leviticus 12:3] states: “And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised,” so too the covenant of Torah requires “circumcision” in the form of “wearying” oneself with the study of Torah, until one masters both the written and oral Torah. And since the covenant of Torah is spiritual its circumcision as well is spiritual.

Rabbi Akiva Eger (1761 – 1837) notes that the Talmud’s connection of Jeremiah’s words “day and night” with Torah is readily understandable, based upon the verse in Joshua [1:8] “you shall meditate therein day and night,” but questions the application to brit mila which may be performed only during the day. (It would seem that we can answer this question by pointing out that once circumcision has been performed, the brit is constant and exists day and night.)

Rabbi Eger quotes Tosefot Yom Tov (Rabbi Yom Tov Lipman Heller 1579 – 1654) who suggests reading the verse thus: If not for My covenant, I would not have appointed day and night, (which are) the ordinances of heaven and earth.

Rabbi Akiva Eger himself writes that the intent of our Sages’ elucidation of the verse is to teach that Torah and mila are interrelated. Brit mila, the external covenant, serves as the prerequisite for the internal covenant of “circumcising ones heart”, and once one circumcises his heart, the chambers of his heart will be open to understand the depth of Torah and mitzvot.  Thus, the meaning of “If not for My covenant day and night” is that if not for the physical circumcision, it would not be possible to enter the gates of Torah and “meditate therein day and night”.