zofsilence, the Talmud mandates sucking as the last step in the Jewish ritual of circumcision. (Remember, the Talmud, the Oral Torah according to rabbis, is equal to the written Torah in modern Judaism and its mandates MUST be obeyed to remain in good standing in modern Judaism.) If you have difficult verifying this, I can provide you with a URL that gives you a complete copy of the Babylonian Talmud.
Shabbat 133B
II.1.
A. Suck [out the wound]:
B. Said R. Pappa, "A Surgeon who didn't suck out the wound - that is a source of danger, and we throw him out."
C. So what else is new? Obviously, since we are prepared to desecrate the Sabbath on that account, it is certainly dangerous not to do it!
D. What might you have supposed? That this blood is stored up. So we are informed that it is the result of the wound, and in the status of a bandage and cumin: Just as when one doesn't put on a bandage and cumin, there is danger, so here, too, if one doesn't do it, there is danger.
The Talmud of Babylonia: An American Translation
Translated by Jacob Neusner
Number 275. Volume II.E: Shabbat Chapters 18-24.
Program in Judaic Studies Brown University
Atlanta: Scholars Press. 1993. p. 45.
And again in:
Shabbath 19:2
They may perform on the Sabbath all things that are needful for circumcision: excision, tearing, sucking [the wound], and putting thereon a bandage and cumin. If this had not been pounded up on the eve of the Sabbath a man may chew it with his teeth and then apply it.
The Mishnah
Translated by Herbert Danby
Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1933. pp. 116-117.
(It is important to keep in mind, however, that the NY Dept. of Health officials only charged Rabbi Fischer with "sucking", and not "chewing as the Talmud clearly suggests in special instances.) |
