rites of institution in which communities express their hierarchies and social
orders. While these rites symbolize the way the community wishes to present
itself, they may also express tensions existing within the social structure.^36 He
notes that a useful way of understanding these rituals is by focusing on the par-
ticipants in the ritual. As we saw before when discussing baptism, recent re-
search has underlined the importance of the roles of the participants, and es-
pecially the co-parents. In light of this research and Bourdieu’s suggestion, I
now turn to examine the ritual of circumcision.
The ParticipantsBecause of the unequal detail in the various extant descriptions of the cere-
mony, identifying the participants in the ceremony is no simple task. Later
sources from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries often provide more details
than earlier sources. It is impossible to know if the additional details in the later
sources are evidence of new customs, or simply details that were not previously
noted. The analysis that follows is based on the combined information, drawn
from all the sources. The examination of the circumcision ritual over time also
provides a better picture of both the changing and the fixed details of the
ceremony.^37
The earliest detailed description we have of the circumcision ritual in Ash-
kenaz appears in Mah·zor Vitry, a late eleventh- through early twelfth-century
compilation of customs written by a number of Rashi’s students:^38
On the eighth day of circumcision they rise early to the synagogue to pray... and
they light the candle... and they set up two chairs and they spread a mantle [prob-
ably a Torah mantle], or some thing of beauty to adorn it. One [chair] is for Eli-
jah who comes and sits there and sees the commandment being performed...
and one chair is for the ba’al britwho sits in it with the child on his knees. And
cloths are brought there for the circumciser to clean his hands with them... and
they wash the child in warm water. And they dress him in fine clothes. A cloth
gown and an overgarment and a beautiful hat for his head, as if he were a groom.
And they carry him with pomp to the synagogue after the prayers. And the [peo-
ple in the] congregation rise to their feet for him when the child enters. And they
say: “Blessed is he who comes,” and the bearer says: “In the name of God.” And
the father of the boy takes him and blesses [him] “to enter him into the covenant
of Abraham,”... and those standing there say, “As he has entered the covenant,
so shall he enter Torah and the wedding canopy (H·uppah) and good deeds.^39 ...
And the father gives him [the infant] to the ba’al brit. And he [the ba’al brit] sits
on a chair and takes him in his hands. And the circumciser recites: “Blessed art
thou who has commanded us to circumcise,” and he circumcises.^40The description of this ritual, as discussed in Mah·zor Vitry, demonstrates the
importance attributed to circumcision and the extensive preparation involved