Agudath Israel of America's Memorandum of Law in support of a temporary stay of NYC's requirement for informed consent before a controversial circumcision procedure can be done lies about the history of the procedure and about its safety.
Metzitzah b'peh performed by a Chabad mohel last month in Brooklyn
Originally published at 7:55 pm CDT 10-17-2012
Briefly, Agudath Israel of America's Memorandum of Law claims that metzitzah b'peh, the direct mouth-to-bloody-penis sucking haredi mohels often do after removing a baby's foreskin, "has been performed safely for millennia."
But this is demonstrably false and Agudath Israel of America knows it. Hundreds, even thousands, of babies dies in epidemics caused by metzitzah b'peh
Agudah is also wrong to claim that metzitzah b'peh has been done for "millennia."
In fact, the ancient Jewish sources that speak about circumcision and metzitzah (squeezing or suction used to draw out liquid from a sold), do not specify how metzitzah must be done, and never refer to it as metzitzah b'peh, and we do not know with certainty when metzitzah began to be done orally. The earliest reference to any type of metzitzah is from circa 200 CE, and it appears to be based on Greco-Roman medical practice of that era.
The texts of that time and of subsequent eras until the late Middle Ages refer to metzitzah as a health measure, and Jewish law viewed it as such and as a procedure separate from the religious ritual of circumcision until the mid to late 1800s when, in reaction to the Reform Movement, some ultra-Orthodox rabbis rhetorically 'elevated' metzitzah b'peh by calling it part of the circumcision ritual itself – even though there are ample proofs in Jewish law against that claim.
These lies alone invalidate the historical basis for Agudah's claims in the lawsuit against the city.
Agudah also relies almost exclusively on the medical opinion of a lone doctor, Daniel Berman, who has already been repeatedly caught misrepresenting the medical facts and attempting to mislead Jews who are trying to find out if MBP is dangerous or not.
These aren't the only inaccuracies is Agudah's filing, and relying on a person proven to have deceived and misled innocent Jews isn't the only gutter tactic Agudah engaged in. However,they are indicative both of the lack of character of the men who lead Agudath Israel of America, and of the organization's willingness to deceive to achieve its goals.
Agudah also makes a claim that contradicts Jewish law, and it does so in the context of claiming it cares about the lives of children:
In Jewish law, halakha, when a danger to life becomes known it must be immediately rectified. Every step possible must be taken to remove the danger. This is based on the halakhic principle, hamira sakanta m'isura, a danger to life is handled more stringently than a Biblical prohibition.
When credible medical experts say a procedure is dangerous, we have to react to that by immediately ceasing to perform that procedure – not by calling for studies.
If there is an argument between medical experts in that field over whether or not the procedure is dangerous, we have to follow the majority of these experts – unless there is a lone, preeminent expert, someone universally acknowledged to be head and shoulders above all the others, who has a differing opinion. Halakha then allows us to follow that lone voice. Otherwise, following a lone voice or minority voices is forbidden.
In Agudah's case, the lone voice they are relying on is not a pediatric infectious disease expert and he is not among the leading infectious disease experts in the country. And he has long since been proved to be dishonest.
In other words, Agudah's entire legal case is predicated on lies told about halakha and the history of halakha.
Writing in the Jewish Week in 2005, David Ellenson explains the real basis for what Agudah, Satmar, and the CRC are doing now:
…The late Professor Jacob Katz of the Hebrew University offered a suggestion as to why this is so in a monograph he published in his Hebrew-language “Divine Law in Human Hands.”
Professor Katz reported that the Reform Rabbinical Conference held in Brunswick, Germany, in 1844, discussed the issue of circumcision and that the question of whether metzitzah b’peh was potentially damaging to the infant was addressed. During the discussion, a Rabbi Levi Herzfeld emerged as the foremost critic of this practice, and he urged that the ritual be abolished because of the danger it posed to the health of the 8-day-old boy. While the conference took no formal vote on the matter due to lack of time, other rabbis at the conference concurred with the opinion of Rabbi Herzfeld.
As a result of the criticisms these Reform rabbis lodged against a number of traditional Jewish religious practices, as well as metzitzah b’peh, seven Orthodox defenders of the tradition immediately responded in an Orthodox collection of Jewish legal opinions titled “Torat ha-Kenaot” by claiming that this Reform opposition voiced against metzitzah b’peh was motivated solely by a desire to destroy the tradition. These Orthodox spokesmen asserted that the cautions of the medical profession on this topic should be disregarded and were unyielding in their resolve that the ritual be maintained. In so doing, the ruling of the Chatam Sofer on the subject was either ignored or rejected.
Through their insistence that contemporary Jews should honor and observe this practice as a sacred part of an inviolable Oral Tradition, they transformed the ritual of metzitzah b’peh into one of boundary maintenance that separated Orthodox from Reform Judaism. For these men, the performance of metzitzah b’peh was now an obligatory part of the brit milah ceremony.…
Agudah's secular legal argument will, I hope and I believe, be rejected by the courts regardless of Agudah's religious claims.
It is unlikely that any judge will ever have to rule on these religiously lies told by haredi rabbis.
But the judge(s) and attorneys forced to deal with this frivolous and deceitful lawsuit – and the haredim who are being deceived by their own rabbis – deserve to know the truth.
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Here are the relevant pages from Agudath Israel of America's Memorandum of Law followed by the entire Memorandum of Law as a PDF file:
Agudath Israel of America's entire Memorandum of Law:
Download Agudath Israel Memorandum of Law MBP Suit Against NYC, et al, 10-16-2012
[Hat Tip for the Agudah court filing: Metzitzah B'Peh.]