Shmiras HaBris

The Maharal explains that the Torah HAD to be given only to the Jews as a nation and not as individuals. The question then is - why did Hashem command Avraham Avinu, an individual, to circumcise himself??

Explains the Maharal [see Tiferes Yisrael Chapter 19] that what stands between G-d and man is the ערלה [foreskin]. The ערלה "seals" a person off from G-dliness. So it was critical that Avraham receive this mitzva prior to actual Mattan Torah which transpired so many years later because otherwise he would not have been able to connect. Avraham's job is to connect the natural world to Hashem and that can only be done with a bris milah.

Based on this we can understand why the Torah commands a BABY to be circumcised before he has any sense of anything going on. The ערלה creates a metziyus where a person cannot be connected to Hashem so it is imperative that it be removed, regardless of whether the baby is aware that he is doing a mitzva.

מענין לענין באותו הענין.

What is the BIGGEST insult to a man that will cause the most profound breach in his relationship with his wife? If she takes a plate and flings it in anger at the wall, it is not an act of romantic love but also not the end of the world [just the end of the plate:-)]. If she takes her WEDDING BAND or ENGAGEMENT RING and flings it in the mud out of anger at her husband, that is a SERIOUS expression of her feeling that the relationship is in disrepair. The ring represents the depth and eternity of the love between them and her act of discarding it is the most intense way of expressing how angry she feels at him.

In a similar vein, the expression of the covenant between Hashem and every Jew is the Bris Milah. When a man uses and abuses this bris in an inappropriate way he is damaging the very life force of the relationship he has with Hashem. Even if he does everything else; he learns, davens, gives tzdaka, it doesn't matter much. He has undermined the foundation of the connection. That is why the middah of the bris is called "yesod" - foundation. It is truly the foundation of all.

When I write "uses and abuses this bris in an inappropriate way" I refer to EVERY pretty woman one looks at on the street in a lustful way, every immodest picture he sees, every erotic thought that goes through his mind.

Sweetest friends! To suggest that one should be 100 pure in this area is to suggest that one be an angel. We are not and cannot be angels. Chazal already said that EVERY MALE has improper thoughts from time to time. But we are required to do everything we can to avoid them.

How? Maybe for another post... Other obligations beckon at this moment:-).