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© 2015 John D. Brey.
Any
number of times I've been reprimanded for treating בת (beit-tav) bat, as though
it means a Jewish virgin, when the traditional Hebrew word for
"virgin" is בתולה (beit-tav-vav-lamed-heh) betulah. The traditional
word for "virgin," is the word for a Jewish daughter, with the
addition of vav-lamed-heh ולה, which is to say that the traditional word for
"virgin" is the word bat בת with some additional letters. The
traditional word for "virgin" starts with a bat בת,
a Jewish daughter, and adds some letters that suggest that the Jewish daughter
remains a "virgin."
Since
every Jewish daughter begins as a virgin, and only loses her virginity at the
point of phallic-sex, only phallic-sex can presumably change the status of the
בת from virginity to something else. ----So when a Jewish daughter marries, and
has phallic-sex, it's presumed that she's no longer a virgin; the word meaning
"virgin" should no longer apply? ----But this is not the case, since
the Jewish daughter's groom is ritually emasculated (as the sign of the
covenant) making her a perpetual virgin. The Jewish groom's sanctity comes from
sacrificing the phallus, while the bride's sanctity (i.e., her perpetual
virginity) comes as a result of the groom’s sacrifice.
In
his Chumash, Rabbi Hirsch implies
that "opening the womb" (Ex. 13:2) doesn't sanctify the firstborn so
much as it sanctifies the womb from whence he escapes. The womb is sanctified
by his particular means of escape (periah). This is an incredible statement
from a Jewish exegete since it justifies the idea that the Jewish
"firstborn" is sanctified by the fact that his father is ritually
emasculated, while he himself, the firstborn, sanctifies his mother by
"opening the womb" which, since his father is ritually emasculated,
is, at least ritually, symbolically, still closed.
A
Jewish reader whose mind is not still closed would perhaps marvel at the idea
that the father and son are sanctified through periah, the tearing of a tiny
membrane (associated with virginity), by means of a Jewish male's hand (nails
in his hand), while the mother is sanctified by the exact same tearing of the
exact same membrane by the exact same Jewish male's hand.
This
is to say that a Jewish woman is "circumcised" the same way as her
husband: periah.
Periah
(the tearing of the membrane of virginity by a Jewish male’s hand) is the
symbol of sanctification be it on the man or the woman. The Jewish man and woman
are sanctified, circumcised, in an almost identical manner: the tearing of the
membrane of virginity, by a Jewish male's hand. This suggests that in the
symbolism, both the Jewish groom, and the Jewish bride, are perpetual virgins.
By means of this symbolism, Judaism
undoes the original sin, which was the original case of phallic-sex; the act
from which the firstborn-sinner was conceived: i.e., the murderer Cain. In
Genesis chapter 17 God makes it clear that ritual circumcision is not the
actual circumcision, but merely a symbolic act signifying the nature and manner
in which mankind will return to the idyllic state of Eden that existed prior to
phallic-sex.
Ritual circumcision involves
three primary symbols: milah, periah, and metzitzah.
Milah is the mohel pulling
the foreskin loose from the male hymen. He removes the flesh and blood
symbolizing the penis (the foreskin represents the entire penis). Milah
symbolizes the emasculation of the organ that initiated the original sin. The penis
having thus been symbolically removed, the same mohel takes a fingernail,
previously sharpened for the occasion, and tears the membrane of virginity (periah)
that would normally be tore by the penis freeing itself from the hymen (and,
or, violently entering the female hymen). Ideally, the penis would tear its own
hymen the same moment it severed the virginity of the virgin bride. . . Lastly,
the mohel symbolically partakes of the unleavened bread produced by an
emasculate conception: metzitzah (John 6:53).
The importance of this virginity-symbolism
is related not merely to the betulah kind of virgin (who ---the betulah ----is
a Gentile type of virgin, i.e. a virgin who is sexually pure either by choice,
the luck of the draw, or the ugly truth . . . . ugliness). On the contrary,
Jewish virginity symbolism is about perpetual-virginity. Perpetual-virginity
requires that the first child born of the woman be both a male, and conceived
through a process that doesn't open the woman's womb (the membrane of
virginity) during the act of conception. Consequently, Jewish law states that
there's more than one kind of Jewish firstborn. The only one that’s sanctified
and set apart as the "Jewish firstborn," is the mother's first male
child who must open the womb ---to
signify that it was closed during the whole process of his conception.
If the mother's first child
is a female, she (the mother) can never birth a Jewish firstborn (and thus
cannot become a symbol of perpetual-virginity) since females are never
"womb-openers."-----If a daughter is the first child from a woman's
body, she, the mother, can't become a type of "perpetual-virginity."
Her first child must be a "male" in order that her son, rather than
her spouse, open her womb. A woman who has an abortion prior to her first live
birth can’t birth a Jewish firstborn. Nor can a woman whose first birth is
through a C-section. Even if the mother's firstborn is male, if he’s born of
C-section he can't be sanctified as a Jewish firstborn (meaning he's just an
ordinary Jew) since to be a Jewish firstborn, he must open a closed-womb on his
exit (to signify it remained closed throughout his conception). He can't do
that if he comes out of an opening made by a hand or organ other than his own.
According to scripture, and
Rabbi Hirsch points this out, if the first child born from a mother's womb is a
Jewish firstborn, meaning he opens a previously closed female body ---for the
first time, rather than the second time ---his opening of the womb so
sanctifies that womb that should it be entered by a phallus, post birth of the
firstborn, the phallus is no longer capable of contaminating the womb, or the
fruit of the womb, since it's been permanently sanctified (the womb has) by the
birth of the Jewish firstborn. The womb of a virgin must be opened by a hand
(from the inside out) rather than a phallus (outside in), such that if this
occurs, the mother is sanctified as a perpetual-virgin, and whatever passes
through that opening (outside-in or inside-out) post Jewish firstborn, is the
product of a perpetual-virginity empowered by the unique birth of the Jewish firstborn.
The
rituals of Judaism imply, and particularly the founding ritual, that Jews are
sanctified as virgin "houses" of the Lord, virgin temples, where God
can dwell ---precisely because of a particular kind of sanctity: virginity. ----The
apostle Paul played on this Jewish idea when he pointed out that the "Church"
is the virgin house of God --- the beit (house) sealed with a cross (the tav)
בת ---- the "house" where the Son of God perpetually resides. The
Church is a “house” ב, sporting a “cross” ת; it’s a
perpetual virgin בת, since unlike the בתולה, the Church remains virgin even
after conceiving the Son, through whom she emanated.
As
Rabbi Hirsch brilliantly intuits, "opening the womb" (Ex. 13:3) sanctifies
the mother, and not the "firstborn," since the firstborn's sanctity
comes from his father's perpetual virginity (signified by ritual emasculation),
while he gives the mother the status of perpetual virgin by opening the same
membrane the tearing of which made his father a perpetual virgin (periah). This
suggests that the word בתולה is a Hebrew word speaking only of a woman who has
not taken the normal steps to get pregnant, while the letters בת (the house of
the cross), the Church, represent "perpetual virginity," a virginity
unaffected by the birth of a firstborn.
In
Jewish nomenclature, properly exegeted, a bat בת, far from merely representing
a woman who has yet to give up her virginity through phallic-sex, represents a
perpetual virgin: a woman who received her perpetual virginity the same way as
her groom, when a thin membrane, representing virginity, was torn by the nails
in a Jewish man's hand.
The fore-going speaks of
Israel as a perpetual virgin, the temple of the "firstborn."
The "firstborn"
"opens the womb" (the curtain of the temple) therein transforming his
mother and father into perpetual virgins, since his ability to "open the
womb," means it wasn't opened in the natural way, phallic-sex, which,
phallic-sex, is the enemy of virginity, and particularly perpetual virginity. The
father sanctifies himself, marking himself a perpetual virgin, by wearing a
necrotic sign on the organ that would otherwise pierce his bride's virginity,
rupturing his and her sanctity, and thus the sanctity of their firstborn.
Since the father sanctifies
himself in this manner, God sanctifies his firstborn, born of the blood of the
father's offering, such that the son then sanctifies the mother, by performing
periah at his birth (Isa. 66:7-9). This makes the nation of Israel the living
temple of the firstborn of creation, born (the firstborn), to two perpetual
virgins. The father who sacrifices his phallus and offers the blood as proof of
his perpetual virginity, the son born of the covenant of blood, rather than
semen, and the mother who has periah performed on her by her son rather than
the serpent.
All Jews are perpetual
virgins in a symbolic sense. The groom is emasculated (circumcision) and the
bride has periah performed on her by the nails in her firstborn son's hand.
There's nothing particularly
ironic about this since according to Rabbi Hirsch the Abrahamic covenant is not
a new covenant, but the renewal of the original covenant between God and the
first human. Similarly, according to Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, circumcision makes the
Jew (male and female) like the first human prior to the original sin of
phallic-sex (which phallic-sex sired Cain rather than the Messianic Jewish
firstborn). This helps explain why many Jews have such difficulty with the idea
of the need for a redeemer to "save" them from the condemnation of
their first birth into original sin. They aren't born into original sin since
symbolically they’re perpetual virgins.
They are ritually,
symbolically, like Adam's offspring would have been had not the original sin of
phallic-sex taken place. They’re what we would all be if Adam remained a
perpetual virgin by birthing a virgin firstborn as the original consummation of
his union with God. Circumcision signifies, ritually, that Jews are the
offspring of Adam without the original sin having taken place. The sages say
that only Jews are Adam to signify precisely the foregoing.
If
Adam would have been worthy and would not have sinned, then all of his
descendants would have been worthy of the Torah. If not for Adam's sin, all
mankind would have had the status of Israel. . . To some degree,
circumcision restored Abraham and his descendants to the status of Adam before
his sin.
Rabbi
Aryeh Kaplan, Handbook of Jewish Thought,
p. 39, 47.
Jews may not think of
circumcision as ritual emasculation, symbolizing that they're all perpetual
virgins, nevertheless, they live and practice a faith that takes these things
for granted. When it's understood that Jews are programmed to think of
themselves as though the Fall has been rescinded (or never took place), because
of the Abrahamic covenant, the peculiarity of their rejection of a need for a
"Savior," to save them from their sins (and the death that is a
result), actually makes sense. It also makes perfect sense that if Abraham is a
new Adam (and in the sagely mind he is) then circumcision marks Abraham as more
spiritually adept than the first human, since Abraham ritually removes the very
organ the heavenly surgeon (the angel of death) placed on the first human in
order to make the original sin possible (Gen. 2:21).
What the angel of death adds
to the human body to make the original sin possible, Abraham removes to make
the original sin impossible.
When Abraham removes the
filthy flesh added to the human body, by the angel of death, he triumphs over
the angel of death, rescinds the Fall, making all of his offspring precisely
what Adam's offspring would have been had Adam not succumbed to the serpent’s
temptation. ----- Had Adam in fact rejected the serpent’s temptation, he would
have birthed Messiah, instead of Cain, thwarted the original sin (phallic-sex),
and eliminated the need for the entire human race, save Jews, to be Saved.
If
Adam had not sinned the world would have entered the Messianic state on the
first Sabbath after creation, with no historical process whatever.
Gershom
Scholem, The Messianic Idea in Judaism, p. 46
