Bris, Brit, What Is the Jewish Covenant

What Is the Jewish Covenant? Entering the Covenant of Jewish Peoplehood

         What does this covenant require of a parent and participants? What is received in return? The rituals of covenanting are beautiful, visceral, and powerful. Essentially at the covenantal rituals, one is committing to creating a household dedicated to living a mitzvah-centered life. To understand the terms of the covenant, let’s look at the six Biblical points of covenant in their order of appearance in the Torah. Each one shows a maturing process reflected through the characters of G*d and Israel in the Torah. Whether one views these as foundational myths or historical events, there is meaning for living that emerges from understanding this material.

1.    Covenant of Noah. Here G*d is described as deciding not to react with violence against “his children” any longer.

Genesis 9: 8-13.“Then G*d said to Noah and to his sons with him, "I now establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature… Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood. Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth." And G*d said, "This will be the sign of the Covenant I am making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come. I have set My rainbow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the Covenant between Me and the earth.”

2. The Covenant of Abraham has five sections.

Part One: New York Times columnist David Brooks has recently pointed out that childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age, are no longer sufficient to accurately reflect the human life cycle. He documents a now fully emergent new stage of life we know intuitively to deserve recognition and attention; he dubs this “The Odyssey Years.” These are the years when, after finishing high school or college, instead of heading directly into marriage and/or careerone visits Israel, India, and beyond on a journey of personal growth and awareness. This model is not news to the Jewish people; it is one of the first spiritual instructions Abraham receives:

Genesis 12:1-3.“Go to yourself, out from the land where you were born, from the house of your father, go to a land I will show you. I will make of you a great nation and bless you, your name will become great, and you will be a blessing and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."

Part Two: After the Odyssey years of one’s youth, a yearning for children and a place to nest with them comes naturally to most of us. This is also reflected in the virtually archetypal story of G*d, Abraham, and Sarah:

Genesis 15:1-21records the actual making of the Abrahamic Covenant. G*d comes to Abraham in a vision, some call it a dream. In this experience Abraham receives a promise from G*d of great rewards —descendants more numerous than the stars, and a land for his descendants to dwell in.

Part Three: Holding a family together, no less having it remain connected enough to become a people, an enduring nation, benefits from a symbolic sign. In a rather lengthy passage, Genesis 17:1-14, we find the sign of the Covenant that Avram, at biblical age 99, his son Ishmael at age 13, and all his household and descendants are to receive. Instructions are given to undertake removal of the foreskin of all in the household and of all generations of males to come. Since the blessing is one of fertility, perhaps permanently uncovering the portal of male fertility was a substantial way to show it. In this passage, G*d also repeats the covenant with Avram, and as an additional symbol of covenants adds a letter hey from the Great Name to Avram’s name so that it becomes Avraham, known in English as Abraham.

Part Four. Mothers are a logical and vital part of any fertility blessing. Here we read that a sacred name is also provided to Abraham’s wife.

Genesis 17:15-16. “G*d said to Avraham, “Regarding Sarai your wife, no longer call her Sarai, her name is Sarah. I will bless her, and give you a son by her: yes, I will bless her, and she shall be [a mother] of nations; kings of people shall be from her.

Part Five: Is there sufficient meaning to maintaining a separate people? What is this all about? Here the answer comes: This is all for the greater good. Childhood selfishness abates with maturity. G*d, in the role of Cosmic parent, has seen what cruelty can emerge from those made in G*d’s image. It is important to note that this section goes on to the story of Sodom and Gemorrah which makes it clear additional official principles for living need to be set into motion. The covenant the Jewish people follow will become increasingly rigorous with time so that as they become able to, they will live just lives. Will G*d give these reasons for the covenant to Abraham or Sarah? If G*d does, what will be their reaction? The text lets us hear G*d as Meta-Parent thinking out loud and Abraham, like a true son, reacting and debating, pushing the parent’s perspective:

Genesis 18:17-19. “G*d said: “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed? I have chosen him so that he will teach his children and his household after him to follow in the ways of G*d by doing righteousness and justice, so that I can fulfill my vision for him. Then G*d said: “The outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their misdeeds so grave. I will go down to see whether what they have done matches the outcry, so if not, I will know…..Abraham came forward and said, “Will You sweep away the innocent along with the guilty? What if there are fifty innocent within the city; will You wipe out the place and not forgive it for the sake of the innocent who are in it Far be it from You to do such a thing, to bring death upon the innocent as well as the guilty, so that innocent and guilty are alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”
 

3. Shabbat Covenant. So the idea of a healthier form of peoplehood is hatched, but what will it take to implement? A good start is ending abusive work conditions, work-a-holism, the slavery mentality among the Israelites. This is priority one. Still quite useful today.
 

Exodus 31:12-16. "You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between Me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord who makes you holy… The Israelites are to observe the Shabbat, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant."
 

4. Covenant at Sinai. Shabbat was among the few important concepts taught to the Israelites in the infancy of the new peoplehood project, what might be called the Kodesh Project, the Holiness Project. But the first set of concepts didn’t prove sufficient for building  a civil society. A system for ethical living proved necessary. Let’s take the Deuteronomic version of this of the giving of the Torah at Sinai  in the Torah as our example. Here Moses looks back on his experience at Sinai as his life is drawing to a close. Notice how he expresses himself with the wisdom of an elder who is looking ahead to future generations.
 

Deuteronomy 29: 9-15. “You stand this day, all of you, before the Lord your G*d, your tribal heads, your elders and your officials, all the men of Israel, your children, your wives, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to water drawer--to enter into the Covenant of the Lord your G*d, which the Lord your G*d is concluding with you this day and into Its oath. To the end that [G*d] may establish you this day as [G*d’s] People and be your G*d, as [G*d] promised you and as sworn to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And it is not with you alone that I make this Covenant with its oath, but with those who are standing here with us this day before the Lord our G*d and those who are not with us this day.”
 

5. Ezekiel’s Covenant. The theme of covenant and ritual, expressed in the feminine in the Hebrew original of this passage, which is refreshing, is found in the writing of the Prophet Ezekiel, who at the time was mightily focused on getting the Israelites back on an ethical track.
 

Ezekiel 17:8-9.“I said to you: Live in your blood and grow like a plant in the field….I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you; you became mine, says the Lord G*d. Then I bathed you with water, washed away your blood, and anointed you with oil.”

For a people to survive and contribute to the human future for thousands of years, reproduction is a vital matter. Equally so is that the children are taught to perpetuate and cultivate the pathways of their people. So is the covenant in which a Jewish child, or one undertaking conversion, enrolled. The Kodesh Project, the Holiness Project is to live a mitzvah-centered life, to manifest the image we’ve had, and would like to have, of G*d through learning and living, core Jewish wisdom texts and practices. The promise continues to unfold.