Everything about Aposthia totally explained
Aposthia is a rare
congenital condition in humans, in which the
foreskin is missing.
Toward the end of the
19th Century,
E. S. Talbot claimed in
Medicine that aposthia among
Jews was evidence for the now-discredited
Lamarckian theory of
evolution. It is likely that the cases he described were actually
hypospadias, a condition in which the
urinary meatus is on the underside of the penis. Neither condition has a particularly high incidence among Jews.
Aposthia in Islam
According to legend, the prophet
Mohammed was born without a foreskin
(External Link
). However,
Arabs had been practising
circumcision long before this, and this legend isn't the reason that
Muslims circumcise.
Aposthia in Judaism
The
Midrash of
Ki-Tetze [כיתצא] notes that
Moses was born aposthic. Other sources tell us that
Jacob and
David were also born aposthic.
Jewish law requires males born without a foreskin or who lost their foreskin through means other than a formal
circumcision ceremony (
brit milah ברית מילה) to have a drop of blood (
hatafat-dam, הטפת דם) let from the
penis at the point where the foreskin would have been (or was) attached. The
Talmud (Shabbat 135A) records a discussion of whether the importance of this letting of blood supersedes
Shabbat, on which only a child who was born the previous Shabbat can be circumcised. If a regular circumcision is delayed, there's no disagreement that this may not be performed on Shabbat. However, in the case of aposthia, there are two schools of thought.
» R. Elazar Hakappar said that the school of Shamai and Hillel don't differ as to a child that's born without a foreskin. Both agree that the blood of the covenant must be drawn from the glans. The school of Shamai, however, contends that this may be done on the Sabbath, while the other holds that the Sabbath must not be desecrated on that account.
David Levy, former
Israeli Foreign Minister and member of
Knesset, was born aposthic.
Arye Avneri's authorized 1983 biography of Levy notes this:
» "When David Levy was born on 1937 21 December, in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, his mother Sima noticed at once that he was different from other baby boys. He had been born already circumcised, for the foreskin was entirely missing."
The rabbis in Rabat proclaimed that this foretold that Levy would grow up to be a "leader of Israel", even though the State wasn't founded until Levy was 11, in
1948. It should be noted, however, that this proclamation wasn't necessarily prophetic of the founding of the country Israel, for "Israel" is a term occasionally used to mean "the Jewish people."
Sources
- Aposthia in Dorland's Medical Dictionary
- E. S. Talbot, "Inheritance of circumcision effects", Medicine 1898.
- Shulchan Aruch, Code of Jewish Law, Yoreh Deah § 263 Law 4 (ש"ע י"ד ס' רס"ג הל' ד).
Further Information
Get more info on 'Aposthia'.
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