Being Circumspect with Circumcision

       In the very same Torah portion that prompted our young rabbi's hilarious comment on circumcision in my last post is the following sentence, the Lord speaking to Abraham:
 

        "And if any male who is uncircumcised fails to circumcise the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his kin; he has broken My Covenant."


       Read it aloud, and listen closely.  You will hear something strange.  If the translator had done so, I'm sure he or she would have found different words.

       Did you hear "cut off from his skin" as I did.  It's definitely there and seems to be some kind of contradiction of what has just been said!

       Language can play games with us, as we with it, and take us down peculiar, surprising pathways.