By SHEA LEVY
This is an email I sent to the mohel who performed my circumcision 21 years ago. My goal in sending this was to show him the perspective of someone who wished he hadn’t been circumcised, so that he would understand what his profession could do and maybe so he would question his continued participation in the field. I’ve chosen to publish this openly for two reasons: So that my friends and family can understand how I feel personally about my circumcision (rather than just my intellectual position on circumcision in the abstract), and so that anyone out there who is considering performing a circumcision or having one performed might change their minds.
Before I get to the email, a few notes:
The account includes personal descriptions involving my genitalia. While there is nothing graphically sexual and no pictures or anything, this may make some uncomfortable.
I’m well aware that my parents had a significant role to play in my circumcision as well. I do not mean this letter to be construed as faulting only Rabbi Henesch. I am still not sure how to discuss this topic with my parents, or even if I should considering that they will not be in the position to circumcise another boy in the future.
In the email, I used some transliterated Hebrew phrases that I can be sure Rabbi Henesch knows and that some of my readership doesn’t. Such phrases will be explained in square brackets; these brackets were not included in the original email.
Dear Rabbi Henesch,
You wouldn’t remember me, but 21 years ago you changed my life. Like most of your clients, I was eight days old at the time, so I doubt I was able to articulate my thoughts on the procedure. But now I’ve had a fair amount of time living with the effects of your work, and I’d like to share with you my perspective on what you did to me.
If you haven’t guessed by my tone, I wish I hadn’t been circumcised. I could show you studies that I believe demonstrate the deleterious effects of the procedure on infants, the costs to the adults that had the procedure done earlier in life, and the falsity of the supposed health benefits of circumcision, but I won’t. There are dedicated organizations that can convey that information far better than I could. What I have to offer you is my personal experience, the costs I believe your action has lead me to bear, in the hope that you might understand on a personal level the potential for harm that comes with your profession, and perhaps even consider leaving it. This account will be both physically and spiritually personal, but as someone who has had a permanent impact on my genitals I think we’re past those types of boundaries.
Almost every single day, for as long as I can remember, I have at one point or another felt discomfort in the tip of my penis. It doesn’t matter what type of undergarments I wear, if I wear pants or shorts, or whether I’m sedentary at a desk all day or out playing a sport: eventually, my penis will brush against something in an unpleasant way. It’s not a major discomfort or pain, but it’s there and it’s noticeable, and it doesn’t feel natural. It makes me feel like something is wrong, like something is somewhere it doesn’t belong, and there’s nothing at all like it for any other parts of my body that are covered in clothing all day. I can’t verify this personally, but apparently this is a problem that only happens to some circumcised men, and not to any intact ones. In fact, it is my understanding that intact men experience significantly less genital chafing in any circumstances. Regardless of the cause, the fact remains that most days I get a physical reminder of a fact of my biology that I strongly wish wasn’t so.
The permanently uncovered portions of my glans are calloused. They aren’t big callouses like might form on your hands, but the skin is thicker, tougher, and less sensitive than the skin of the glans still partially covered. I have a scar around my penis, a visual reminder of what used to be there that I never knew. It’s not nearly as bad as some of the extreme examples of circumcisions gone wrong that I’ve seen, but it’s there and noticeable. It certainly doesn’t make me look more attractive than I otherwise would.
The area underneath the folded shaft skin that remains regularly collects dust, lint, and other foreign particles. Though I wash daily, it is fairly sticky and catches occasionally on my pubic hair or the cloth of my underwear, resulting in an unpleasant sensation when it becomes uncaught.
Sex and masturbation are less enjoyable than they could have been. I have good reason to believe, given the callouses I can feel and the physical sensitivity studies that I’ve read, that I am not capable of the same level and variety of physical pleasure that would have been available to me had I been left intact. I lose out on the sensation of loose skin sliding up and down my penis during intercourse or masturbation. My penis has less natural lubrication than it should. Sexual activity causes more friction than it should. Sexual activity is more likely to leave my penis feeling raw and sensitive for some time after the fact than it should. I am more likely to require supplemental lubrication for intercourse than I should. In particular, masturbation is more abrasive, less pleasurable, and overall more difficult than it should be (which, not incidentally, was one of the leading arguments that led to the rise in circumcision rates among non-Jewish Americans).
These physical problems are not insignificant, and I think they alone would be enough for me to regret what happened to me, but they pale in comparison to the spiritual problems. You see, Rabbi Henesch, I do not consider myself a religious Jew. Culturally, I still maintain some of the familial values and some practices, especially those that bring me closer to my family, but I do not believe in God and do not find spiritual or moral guidance from the Tanach [The Old Testament, including the Torah] or the Rabbis. I grew up going to shul [synagogue], celebrating the holidays, going to Sunday School, having a Bar Mitzvah [the Jewish coming-of-age, at 13 for boys], and even going to a Jewish Day School, yet today I am in almost complete control over the extent to which Jewish culture and Jewish religion play a role in my daily life. The exception is circumcision: For the rest of my life, I will have to live with a penis that was cut in the name of a covenant I did not agree to with a being I do not believe exists.
I expect you are a civilized man and that you would balk at the idea of adults being forced to express belief in a system they have not personally chosen, whether that expression comes in the form of a requirement to wear a cross around your neck or even a requirement that all who were born Jewish wear the tallit katan [a four-cornered garment with long fringes that is worn under everyday clothing]. Yet that is what the circumcision ritual does: it forces one participant, someone who has just barely opened his eyes to see the world, to bear a permanent, irreversible mark of the religion of the other participant. The Jewish cultural practices I’ve chosen to keep remind me of the goodness and greatness that comes from some aspects of Judaism. The physical modification I cannot change reminds me of all of the bad that helped lead me to reject it as a whole.
At one point, not too long ago, I hated you. I wanted to rage at you, to extract justice from you, to make you explain yourself. But I understand now. I understand how you could have chosen your profession, how you could have chosen to do this to me. Circumcision is viewed as a badge of honor in Judaism, is seen as fundamental to many aspects of the religion, and has a history of being a symbol for the autonomy that the Jews have held on to in the face of tyrannical governments and cultures that have conquered them in the past. I do not condone it, but I can understand why someone raised in that culture might view your job as holy and celebrated, and never even question the possible downsides. But now, you don’t have that luxury. You’ve seen the other side of the issue and now you have a choice to make.
Shea Levy is an undergraduate student in biomedical engineering and neuroscience in New York, NY. His blog is Cogitos’ Thoughts: The Musing and Contemplatons of a Young Man at the Start of his Adult Life.
Thank you for sharing, Shea. I only hope and pray that more and more and more men like you SPEAK OUT!!! This is what needs to happen, MEN who have been cut NEED to STAND UP and SCREAM OUT to STOP THE INSANITY!!!! If only we could get ALL the men to see what has been taken from them, and get ALL the men who are pissed speak out….perhaps we could get this horrific practice to STOP!
Thanks again,
Stephanie, mama to an intact 4 year old.
Written with such wisdom and grace. Thank you for sharing your experience and helping change the world around you!
I am jealous of your degree…
Would you post his response if he does reply? I would love to see how he would (if he does) justify his actions.
great letter. thanks to Jewish men like you that Jewish mamas like me are able to make different decisions for the next generation. thank you!
thank you for sharing this letter.
i almost cried while reading it — your expression of the wrongs committed against you are painful to read.
i hope you can find the healing you deserve and im sorry this has happened to you.
one major bright truth to your immense suffering is that by speaking out like you have you spread awareness to the close-minded tunnel-vision mentality that believes robbing infant boys is a honorable idea.
we share your pain <3<3 and we will learn from it.
Shea wrote: "For the rest of my life, I will have to live with a penis that was cut in the name of a Covenant I did not agree to, made with a being I do not believe exists."
I have nothing to add to that, and hang my head in sorrow.
This is a great, and heartfelt letter. I admire the author for writing it.
I disagree with him regarding one thing: he ought to confront his parents. There is simply no valid reason not to. He ought to show this letter to his parents, too. (And he might want to ask them if they signed a consent form, and if they'd assist him in filing suit against the mohel. Again, there is simply no reason not to do these things. I guarantee that later in life, he will never regret doing them.)
Excellent letter! You are a wise soul, much wiser than those that did this to you. Thank you for helping to spread the word.
Mr Levy's story strongly bears out my claim that religious circumcision should be a free adult choice made by the man the foreskin is part of. To reject this principled stance on the alleged grounds that few men who have begun their sex lives (including masturbation) will agree to have themselves circumcised, unwittingly concedes what we intactivists claim, namely that circumcision destroys a major locus of male sexual sensation.
Shea, SO very sorry for what was done to you. Really.
When will the discussion and debating end, and the nationwide banning of this horrendous, ritualistic, barbaric practice begin?
Circumcision must be criminalized.
The death penalty for prison inmates is slowly being outlawed all over the nation, and yet the humanity shown towards adult criminals is not being bestowed upon
BRAND NEW INNOCENT SOULS born into this world!!!
What is going on?
You should know that a Mohel's job is to act on behalf of your father. Instead of misdirecting your "rage" to this man your parents hired, maybe you should have a conversation with your dad and mom. Just saying.
Is there a follow-up to the original story? I do regret not tackling my parents while they were still alive, although my mother did apologise to me. But the subject of sex was never talked about, they were raised by Victorian parents themselves. It is difficult for young people to grasp that there was a time before the Internet when information on sexual matters was difficult to come by.
Maybe those who perform circumcisions should receive the death penalty!!