We are no less Jewish today than we were nine years ago, and our elder son could not possibly be more Jewish than our younger. Literary critic Susan Stewart wrote that the miniature always tends toward exaggeration. Whatever history, beliefs, emotions, and narratives the foreskin may signify, it is after all a piece of skin. With or without the brit, our story as a nation will remain what it was and morph into what it is to become. And even by Jewish law, it is not the foreskin that defines who we are. It is our mother. As a mother, I have made two different choices and will have to explain both as my sons grow up. Yet I find there is a certain value in their difference. It signifies our freedom, as secular Jews, to question our beliefs and practices and to shape the Jewish world according to our changing view…
Read more: https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/299027/why-we-didnt-circumcise-our-second-son