This week’s Torah portion (Tazria-Metzora) gives us the mitzvah of circumcision and tells us that it should be done on the eighth day after a boy is born.  We saw the idea of the eighth day being significant recently at our Passover Seders.  Towards the end of the seder many people sing the song “echod mi yodea.”  It’s a fun song for the kids (if they are still awake at that point in the evening).  It lists each number and a significant Jewish connection to that number.

The full song is quite long, but the final verse, which lists all the numbers goes like this:

שְׁלשָׁה עָשָׂר מִי יוֹדֵעַ?

שְׁלשָׁה עָשָׂר אֲנִי יוֹדֵעַ: שְׁלשָׁה עָשָׂר מִדַּיָא. שְׁנֵים עֶָשָׂר שִׁבְטַיָא, אַחַד עַָשָׂר כּוֹכְבַיָּא, עֲשָׂרָה דִבְּרַיָא, תִּשְׁעָה יַרְחֵי לֵדָה, שְׁמוֹנָה יְמֵי מִילָה, שִׁבְעָה יְמֵי שַׁבָּתָא, שִׁשָּׁה סִדְרֵי מִשְׁנָה, חֲמִשָׁה חוּמְשֵׁי תוֹרָה, אַרְבַּע אִמָהוֹת, שְׁלשָׁה אָבוֹת, שְׁנֵי לֻחוֹת הַבְּרִית, אֶחָד אֱלֹהֵינוּ שֶׁבַּשָּׁמַים וּבָאָרֶץ 

Who knows thirteen?

I know thirteen.

Thirteen are God’s principles;

Twelve are the tribes of Israel;

Eleven are the stars of Joseph’s dream;

Ten are the Commandments;

Nine are the months of pregnancy;

Eight are the days of circumcision;

Seven are the days of the week;

Six are the sections of the Mishnah;

Five are the books of the Torah;

Four are the Matriarchs;

Three are the Patriarchs;

Two are the tablets of the covenant;

One is our God, in heaven and on earth.

Each of the things on the list is really a group that adds up to their respective number.  Well each of them, with one glaring exception.  There are the Patriarchs Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, who are each a Patriarch in their own right, and if you add them together, there are three of them.  The Matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, and Rachel can be added together to make four.  Etcetera down the list.  

The odd one out is the “eight days of circumcision.”  There are not eight separate days where we circumcize a child.  We simply wait and on the eighth day of his life, we give him a circumcision.  Nobody points to a baby on his third day of life and says “this is the third day of his circumcision.”  So why is this on the list?

The Tosfos Rid says that you prepare for the circumcision during all the days leading up to it.  You find a sandek, book a caterer, inform people of the celebration, and (for the truly brave fathers who want to do the mitzvah in its ideal way) learn how to perform the circumcision on your own son.  All those days of preparation are included in the mitzvah.  

Preparation is often overlooked or not seen as important.  People enjoy beautiful Shabbos meals and don’t consider the hours of shopping and cooking that made them possible.  They go to an uplifting prayer service and don’t think about the days of practice the baal koreh spent to read so nicely from the Torah.  There are so many things in life where the completion gets all the attention and glory, but that completion could not exist without significant preparation that came before.  

Don’t skimp on the preparation.  For that too, can be a mitzvah.

Good Shabbos,

Rabbi A and the JET Team