Siman 260

The mitzvah of milah is the first mitzvah that our father Abraham was commanded, and it is the holy seal which He placed in our flesh. And He removed from us the orlah, and the orlah is loathsome, for the wicked are disgraced by it, as it is said: "For all etc."; and it is said: "This uncircumcised Philistine"; and it is said: "Lest the daughters of the uncircumcised rejoice" (Nedarim 31b). And the Holy One, Blessed be He, in His kindness, commanded us to remove it from us. And we learned in a Mishnah (ibid.): Great is milah, for thirteen covenants were made over it. For thirteen times "covenant" is written in the parsha of milah in "Lech Lecha." And great is milah, for it overrides the stringent Shabbat, as it is written: "And on the eighth day he shall be circumcised" – even on Shabbat, as will be explained in siman 266 with the help of Heaven.

Great is milah, for it was not suspended for Moses the righteous even for a full hour, but rather immediately when he was negligent, the angel sought to kill him, as it is written in Parashat Shemot, until Tzipporah took a flint and cut off the foreskin of her son. And great is milah, for it overrides nega’im, as it is written: "the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised"—and even if there is a baheret there, he shall cut it, as will be explained in siman 266 with the help of Heaven. And great is milah, for all the mitzvot that Abraham our forefather performed, he was not called "complete" until he circumcised, as it is said: "Walk before Me and be complete, and I will set My covenant between Me and you etc. this is My covenant etc. every male among you shall be circumcised." This implies that prior to this he was not "complete." And great is milah, for were it not for it, the Holy One, Blessed be He, would not have created His world, as it is said: "If not for My covenant day and night, I would not have set the statutes of heaven and earth." And even though milah is not at night, nevertheless, from the moment he is circumcised, the mitzvah exists in his body day and night (Tosafot Yom Tov). And it can further be said that this is the explanation: "If not for My covenant" of milah, "day and night" which are the "statutes of heaven and earth" as it is written "and it was evening and it was morning"—"I would not have set." (ibid. and in the Gemara ibid. and this is disputed, for Rabbi Eliezer expounds this verse regarding the Torah, about which it is written "and you shall meditate upon it day and night," see there. And this is according to the sugya of the Shas. And in truth, both these and those are the words of the living God, and one verse yields several meanings. Regarding the Torah, "day and night" is interpreted from above, and regarding milah from below, as I have written. Examine and you will find it simple.)

We have learned in Avot (Avot chapter 3 mishna 11): Anyone who breaches the covenant of our father Abraham—meaning he did not circumcise, or he stretches his foreskin so that he appears uncircumcised—even though he possesses Torah and good deeds, he has no portion in the World to Come. And in Eruvin (Eruvin 19a) we say that our father Abraham sits at the entrance of Gehenna and does not allow anyone who was circumcised to enter it, except for one who damaged the holy covenant through forbidden relations or one who cohabits with a gentile woman, for the organ is altered and he does not recognize him. Therefore, how very much one must maintain this matter in purity, so as not to defile himself with prohibition or with the emission of seed in vain. And then he can be certain that he will not fall into Gehenna.

Therefore, it is a positive commandment upon every individual of Israel to circumcise his son, and this commandment is greater than other commandments. And in the Torah it is explicit that the obligation is upon the father, as it is written: "And Abraham circumcised Isaac his son, etc." (Kiddushin 29a). And from the fact that he did not command Eliezer or Ishmael to circumcise Isaac, for they were already circumcised—learn from this that the obligation is upon the father. And since the obligation is upon him, the mitzvah is greater when performed by him than by his agent. And in the Yerushalmi (ibid.) it is derived from that which is written: "And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised," see there. That is to say: in this verse at the beginning of Parshat Tazria, it interrupts between the days of impurity and the days of purity, as it is written: "and she shall be impure for seven days, etc.", "and on the eighth day, etc.", "and thirty days etc. she shall remain in the blood of her purity." And why did the Torah interrupt between them with the mitzvah of circumcision? Indeed, all these verses refer to the man and woman, regarding what they must do. And it says that she is impure all seven days and they shall separate from one another, and on the eighth day the father shall circumcise, and upon the mother there is no obligation. And afterwards it says "and thirty days...", meaning that she shall immerse and they are permitted to join with one another. (And with this, everything they questioned regarding this is answered. Examine and you will find it simple.)