The Bruchim Podcast

What a season it’s been on the Bruchim Podcast! Eli and Max debrief the conversations we’ve had with an incredible variety of guests. We cover: hatafat dam brit, including its ethics, lived experience (for good and bad) and future possibilities; the significance of circumcision as a ritual act vs. a bodily state; the medicalization of circumcision and its social and religious impact; what the future looks like for brit milah and ot...

We talk a lot about Jewish circumcision on this podcast, but what’s the significance of the foreskin? Can we even think about the foreskin apart from circumcision? Eli and Max are joined by Prof. Jonathan Allan (Brandon University), author of Uncut: A Cultural Analysis of the Foreskin, to tackle these questions. We discuss the impact of the foreskin on identity, and the aesthetic power of the foreskin (including the foreskin on Mic...

Your body is good enough just as it is — or so Prof. Clare Chambers (Cambridge University) argues in her book Intact: A Defence of the Unmodified Body. She joins Eli and Max to explain her Principle of the Unmodified Body, which is a political principle for resisting pressure to engage in body modification. We discuss the different kinds of reasons for body modification and the fuzzy boundaries between cultural, cosmetic, and clini...

Should Jewish practices related to anatomy be revised in light of new understandings of sex and gender? Should hatafat dam brit replace circumcision both for the bris and for conversion? Eli and Max are joined by brin solomon, author of “Conversion & Circumcision: A Trans Approach,” to discuss brin’s proposals in this responsum. First we discuss the problems which trans and intersex experiences pose for circumcision in the case...

What is it like to undergo circumcision as an adult for the purpose of Jewish conversion? Matthew Barron-Jones tells Eli his story: how he came to Judaism, what his  process of conversion was like, how his circumcision went down, and the spiritual power of being able to choose circumcision for himself. Along the way, Eli and Matt draw some contrasts between infant and adult circumcision.

Soul Publications online and on Ins...

A family shaken by a traumatic hatafat dam brit shares their story with Eli and Max. This wrenching personal account touches on hatafat dam brit and conversion; on the moral dangers of hatafat dam brit for children past infancy; and on the unpredictable and overwhelming ways that trauma, especially related to unwanted genital contact, can manifest long after an initial triggering experience.

Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon, “For So ...

How does hatafat dam brit fit into the process of Jewish conversion, and what is the religious and psychological significance of this practice? Eli and Max are joined by Rabbi Oren Steinitz to dig into these questions. Rabbi Oren describes how he talks about hatafat dam brit and circumcision in the conversion process, including the importance of transparency in these conversations. Then we discuss the meaning of hatafat dam brit an...

This episode begins our series on hatafat dam brit, a Jewish ritual performed in place of brit milah that involves pricking the circumcision scar to draw a small amount of blood. Eli and Max are joined by Max Buckler, who has recently published the first bioethics paper on hatafat dam brit and its relationship to debates about circumcision. We discuss Max’s argument that hatafat dam brit is the least extreme form of genital cutting...

Many Jewish males are circumcised in the hospital without any Jewish ritual, but how did this become the case? Eli and Max are joined by the historian Prof. Elizabeth Reis (CUNY), who has studied the medicalization of circumcision in mid-century New York. While rabbis were glad to see mainstream support for circumcision, they worried about a shift away from the religious component of circumcision, which is exactly what happened. We...

How might childhood trauma relate to some of the big problems in our relationships and our world? Eli is joined by the psychologist Dr. Ronald Goldman, a longtime Jewish opponent of circumcision, to talk about Ron’s new book about empathy. Eli and Ron discuss mother-infant bonding and the effects it can have on adults, the systemic issues that prevent optimal mother-infant bonding, the psychology of trauma, and Ron’s journey as a w...

How do you make decisions about whether to circumcise your future kid? For feminist filmmaker Jessie Kahnweiler, the answer is by making a movie! Jessie joins Eli to discuss what it’s like to make a film about the sensitive subject of Jewish circumcision, how to balance different perspectives on a controversial topic, and the position of women in conversations about male circumcision. Eli and Jessie further explore how Jessie’s Jew...

Interested in the ethics of circumcision? You’ve come to the right place! Eli and Max are joined by the bioethicist Prof. Brian Earp (National University of Singapore and Oxford University), a leading scholar of genital cutting and bodily integrity. Brian walks us through recent developments in the ethics of bodily integrity, and then we discuss the pros and cons of focusing on harm in ethical debates about circumcision. We raise a...

In this episode, Eli and Max are joined by Dr. Na’ama Carlin to discuss her book Morality, Violence, and Ritual Circumcision. They talk about Dr. Carlin’s distinction between two types of violence: Manichaen violence, which is done by and to people; and generative violence, which helps to create identities." They discuss the contemporary circumcision debate and how Jewish circumcision resists its logic. Further, they talk abou...

In his second appearance on The Bruchim Podcast, Jeff presents his view on the ethics of circumcision, and Max and Eli respond with their own views on the matter. They discuss the right to bodily integrity, the right to self-determination, the differences and similarities between male and female genital cutting practices, and the possibility that circumcision wrongs people without harming them.

Show Notes

Eli’s Te...

In the third part of this  series, Eli and Max are joined by the moral philosopher Jeff Helmreich. After Jeff gets up to speed on the conversation, he complicates matters by introducing a fifth option for the relationship between ethics and Jewish law. The group digs into the "Oven of Akhnai," a famous story from the Babylonian Talmud. Jeff then talks about the process he went through when deciding to circumcise his son a...

In the second part of this series, Eli is joined by Bruchim’s Director of Education, Max DuBoff, to look at an essay by Rabbi Ethan Tucker that is directly relevant to the relationship between Ethics and Jewish law. After a brief introduction to Rabbi Tucker’s place in the Jewish world, they try to understand how Rabbi Tucker's view fits into the categories delineated in the first part of the series. They conclude by discussin...

Are Jewish law and ethics in conflict? Eli is joined by Max DuBoff, Bruchim's Director of Education, to explore this question. They begin by defining their terms and explaining what they mean by ethics and what they mean by halakha, Jewish law. Max then proposes four possible positions that one might take regarding the relationship between the two, based on two questions: 1) Can ethics and Jewish law conflict?; and 2) If they ...