2. The covenant of Abraham (ברית מילה “the covenant of circumcision”). God made a covenant with Abraham, and said, “Thou shalt keep my covenant, thou and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant which ye shall keep between me and you, and thy seed after thee: Every male child among you shall be circumcised when eight days old” (Gen. xvii. 9, 10, 12). If the eighth day happens to be on a Sabbath, the circumcision takes place on that day; but if, because of illness, or from any other cause, the rite has not been performed on the eighth day, it must be done on some other day, but not on a Sabbath or Festival.
Notes.—1. In reference to the importance of these mitsvoth, Maimonides, in Mishneh-torah, says as follows:—
“Although we are not commanded to get a talith, and to put it on in order to join the tsitsith (“fringes”) to it, a religious person will not consider himself free from this duty, but will always endeavour to wear a garment to which fringes must be affixed. During prayer we must be especially careful to provide ourselves with a talith. It is a disgrace for a scholar (Talmid chacham) to say the prayer without the talith. We must be particularly anxious to perform this mitsvah; it is of great importance with regard to all the precepts, according to the words, ‘And ye shall look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord’ ” (2nd Book, Ahabhah, Hilchoth tsitsith iii. 12).
“The holiness of the tefillin is great, for so long as the tefillin are upon the head and the arm of a man, he is humble and God-fearing, keeps away from levity and idle talk, does not conceive evil thoughts, but turns his heart exclusively to words of truth and justice. We ought therefore to wear them all day long; this would be the proper way. It is said of Rab, the pupil of Rabbi Jehudah, the Holy, that he was never seen otherwise than with torah or tsitsith or tefillin.
“Although we ought to wear tefillin all day long, it is our special duty to wear them during prayer. Our Sages said, ‘He who [[337]]reads Shema without tefillin rejects, as it were, his evidence concerning the Almighty as false’ ” (ibid., Hilchoth tefillin iv. 26).
“We should be particular with regard to the mezuzah, which is a duty incumbent uninterruptedly on every one. Whenever we enter or leave the house our eye meets with the name of God; we remember His love, and rousing ourselves from our torpitude, we are led to regret our foolish devotion to the vanities of the time, and recognise that nothing remains for ever except the knowledge of the Rock of the universe. We shall then at once devote ourselves to know Him, and walk in the way of uprightness. Our ancient Sages said, ‘He who has tefillin upon his head and upon his arm, tsitsith on his garment, and mezuzah on his door, he is safe from sin, since he has many reminders of his duties, and these are the angels that protect him from going astray; and to him the following verse applies: “An angel of the Lord encampeth round those who fear Him” ’ ” (ibid., Hilchoth mezuzah vi. 13).
2. The great importance of the tefillin, as described by Maimonides, was not understood or recognised by all Jews. Various sayings occurring in the Talmud indicate the existence of laxity or even opposition with regard to the carrying out of this precept in its literal sense. When persons with tefillin on their head and on their arm showed by their conduct that their heart was not filled with the holiness and uprightness of which the tefillin are the symbol, it was but natural that not only were these persons accused of hypocrisy, but the Divine precept itself was discredited. But the greater the opposition by one section of the Jewish community, the more the enthusiasm of the other section grew in its favour. Hence the numerous Talmudical and Rabbinical utterances concerning the sanctifying force inherent in the tefillin (comp. Tur Orach Chayyim xxxvii.). Thus, when a Rabbi was cautioned not to be over joyous, as excess of joy led to sin, he replied, “I lay tefillin;” i.e., “The thoughts which the observance of this precept awakens protects me from sin.” This idea of protection from sin may be the origin of the Greek name phylacterion, “protection.”—In times of persecution, when the Jews were forbidden by their oppressors to perform any of their religious rites on penalty of death, the precept of tefillin was not included among those which they performed even at the risk of their life. To this circumstance Rabbi Simeon b. Elazar ascribes the laxity with regard to the tefillin (Babyl. Talm. Shabbath 130a). [[338]]
3. There occurs in the Midrash (Sifre on Deut. xi. 18), in reference to tsitsith and tefillin, the following passage: “Also when in exile deck yourselves with mitsvoth, in order that on your return to your own land the Divine precepts should not seem to you new and unknown.” This passage has been misinterpreted as if the author of that passage were of opinion that precepts like tsitsith and tefillin did originally not apply to those who are outside the Holy Land. The meaning is rather this: Although a large portion of the laws is not in force outside Palestine, yet continue to wear these reminders in exile, in order that by this act your attention may constantly be turned to the whole Torah, to those precepts which are in force at present as well as to those which are not. Thus all the precepts will be familiar to you, and when the time comes in which the observance of all the laws will again be possible, none of the laws will appear to you new and strange.
4. There is, on the whole, no difference between men and women with regard to the obedience due to the Divine commandments. All Jews are equally bound to obey the Will of God expressed in the Law. This is absolutely the case with all prohibitions (לא תעשה). In the case of positive commandments (מצות עשה) the following rule has been laid down by our Sages: Women are exempt from the performance of such religious duties as are restricted to a certain period of time (מצות עשה שהזמן גרמא נשים פטורות). The object of the seeming anomaly is probably this: the principal duty and the privilege of women is to manage the household, a task that demands constant attention. Religious acts which are to be performed at a certain time might involve an interference with such of their household duties as demand immediate attention; e.g., nursing a patient, a task which generally falls to the lot of the female section of the family. Jewish women, nevertheless, zealously fulfil most of the duties from which the above rule exempts them. They thus are most eager to obey the laws concerning shofar on New-year, lulab on Tabernacles, and the like; and some of them are named as having conscientiously laid tefillin (Mechilta on Exod. xiii. 9). [[339]]