Dear Friends, “British royal watchers continued aflutter on Wednesday as speculation mounted about the possibility that the baby prince would follow the tradition of his ancestors, and be circumcised within the week. While the custom of royal circumcision has a centuries long history in Britain, Princess Diana is believed to have ended the tradition with Princes William and Harry, according to the London Evening Standard, leaving uncertainty as to whether the religious rite will be re-instated for the new generation. Circumcision for members of the royal family in England dates back to King George I, who introduced the custom. Queen Victoria traced the British royal family’s tree back to ancient Israel’s King David, and insisted that her sons be circumcised along the lines of Jewish tradition, which calls for foreskin to be snipped on the eighth day after birth. Edward VII, the Duke of Windsor and Prince Charles all had their foreskins removed, the latter by Jacob Snowman GP, at Buckingham Palace in 1948. Charles’ brothers Andrew and Edward were also snipped. According to Anthony Holden’s biography of Prince Charles, cited by the Evening Standard, Jacob Snowman was summoned to the palace five days after Charles’s christening. Snowman was a mohel, a religious circumcision specialist, from London’s Jewish community, and he was chosen over the royal physician to perform the ritual.” (from the Algemeiner Journal, July 24 algemeiner) This isn’t the first time in history that there has been widespread speculation about whether a royal bris would occur or not. It was a dilemma faced by our ancestors in the wake of the Greek ban on circumcision during the Chanukah period and more recently during the communist ban on circumcision. Whether in caves or in cellars, with preparedness to put their lives on the line to preserve the Covenant of Abraham, Jewish mothers and fathers, sought out a mohel to perform the bris on their eight day old sons. It is the rite of royalty. “And you shall be for me a nation of royalty..” said G-d at Mt Sinai. Oppression, expulsion, torture and genocide have attempted to destroy His Royal People but to no avail. Every Jew is an essential carrier of the Royal Lineage of the King of Kings, sealed into the flesh of every Jewish male through the bris. (a woman is born with the “seal” intact, no procedures required..) One of the outstanding “Royals” of the last century, was Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Scneersohn, father of the Rebbe, who’s Yartzeit is this Shabbos – the 20th of Menachem Av. As reported in this column in June, I had the merit to visit the Ukranian city of Dnepepetrovsk, where he served as Chief Rabbi for 39 years, until his arrest, imprisonment and exile at the hands of the communists. His “crime” was his ever Royal reach: his relentless and fearless efforts to preserve our Royal way of life , under the noses of the “anti- monarchy” communists. Foremost amongst his campaigns, was assuring the continued practice of Bris. When Reb Chaim “Taskenter” came to NY for the High Holidays in 1958, Reb Zalman Duchman urged him to describe to the Rebbe in Yechidus (private meeting with the Rebbe) his meeting with the Rebbe’s father, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok, in Chiali, Russia. When Reb Chaim entered the Rebbe’s room the Rebbe asked, “You are Reb Chaim Tashkenter?” Reb Chaim related to the Rebbe that in 1940 he was standing in the train station. A person with a heavenly image and a royal appearance approached him and asked, “Are you a Lubavitcher?” to which Reb Chaim answered yes. Reb Levik continued, “Do you know who I am?” When Reb Chaim answered that he did not. Reb Levik said, “I am the mechutan (in law) of the Rebbe [Previous Rebbe]. "When Reb Chaim told the Rebbe that his father looked like a prince, the Rebbe commented, “Why not like a king?" (From CrownHeghts.info) In the moving film, the Cider House Rules, young boys in an orphanage are bidden good night each night with the words “ Goodnight you princes of Maine. You Kings of New England” Tonight as we gather around the Shabbat table, bathed in the majestic glow of the Shabbat candles, in the presence of “Shabbat Hamalkah”, the Shabbat Queen, we are all Kings and Queens, princes and princesses. And so to you I say good Shabbos princes and princesses of Boca Raton and kings and queens of Palm Beach. Rabbi Ruvi New
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 17:42:22 +0000