the torah of moses: judaism in the bible 81
It was also necessary to demonstrate piety by taking care of physical
appearance in a prescribed fashion. The Lord commanded that dress
should signify obedience through the wearing of blue fringes on the
corners of garments ‘to remember all the commandments of the Lord,
that you go not astray’. Clothing should not be made of specific mixed
types of material, although the prohibition on combining wool and
linen in one garment is left as unexplained in the biblical texts as the
food taboos. Israelites should take care not to ‘round off the hair on
your temples or mar the edges of your beard ... [or] make any gashes
in your flesh for the dead or tattoo any marks upon you’. Only one rea-
son is given: ‘I am the Lord.’^15
The ultimate physical reminder (for males) of the covenant was kept
hidden, since modesty in clothing was considered a virtue. As a result,
the sign of the circumcision, performed on all male Jews through
removal of the foreskin of the penis, was generally invisible to others.
The origins of circumcision within the Jewish tradition lay, according to
Genesis, as a sign of the promise made by God to Abraham that he
would be the father of ‘a multitude of nations’, and that he would estab-
lish an everlasting covenant with Abraham and his descendants ‘to be a
God to you’:
God said to Abraham, ‘As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and
your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my coven-
ant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after
you: Every male after you shall be circumcised. You shall circumcise the
flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between
me and you. Throughout your generations every male among you shall
be circumcised when he is eight days old, including the slave born in
your house and the one bought with your money from any foreigner who
is not of your offspring ... So shall my covenant be in your flesh an ever-
lasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the
flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my
covenant.It would be difficult to overstate the importance attributed by the bib-
lical texts to male circumcision as a mark of Jewish identity. The practice
had become widespread in the ancient Near East among other peoples
as well as Jews, for reasons we do not know, and some biblical stories
suggest a number of other elements to its significance for the Israelites,
from encouragement of marriage and fertility to deliverance from evil.
But the sense that circumcision is a requirement for holiness permeates