CAESAREAN AND CIRCUMCISION

QUESTION:

A boy child was born by Caesarean operation on a Saturday. The eighth day, the day of his circumcision, should normally be on Saturday. But the father refused to permit the operation on the eighth day, but postponed it to Sunday, the ninth day. Is this justified? (Asked by Rabbi Kenneth Weiss, El Paso, Texas.)

ANSWER:

Caesarean operations were not unknown in the past. In fact the very name is, I believe, derived from the fact that Julius Caesar was born of such an operation. Jewish law required that such an operation be performed under certain special circumstances. In fact the operation is considered so important that the knife needed for it may be carried and brought even on the Sabbath day, which under normal circumstances would be a violation of the Sabbath. The law as given in the Shulhan Aruich (Orah Hayyim 330:5) is: “If a woman is about to give birth and dies, the knife may be brought even on the Sabbath day to open her body and bring forth the child.”

But I do not know of any rule in the law which distinguishes a child born by Caesarean from a child born in the usual manner. Every child must be circumcised on the eighth day. The only reason to postpone a circumcision is the health of the child, not the manner of his birth. If this child is healthy, he should have been circumcised on the eighth day. Perhaps this father had in mind certain special regulations which have come up in the relatively recent past. About a generation ago, when the violations of the Sabbath increased among European Jews, certain rabbis in Hungary decreed that children born to these Sabbath violators should not be circumcised on the Sabbath (even if it is the child’s eighth day). This decision was strongly attacked by Rabbi Yudalevitch (Bet Av V 281) and he said, of course, that the child must be circumcised on the proper day, namely, the eighth, even though it is on the Sabbath. I also remember that one American rabbi (I cannot for the moment recall the source) suggested that a child of Sabbath violators should not be circumcised on the Sabbath because their friends and relatives would all violate the Sabbath by riding in their automobiles to the circumcision. But all such negative reactions are not according to the law. A child born by Caesarean is like any other child, and should have been circumcised on the eighth day of his life.

There is indeed considerable discussion in the halakhah with regard to the Caesarean operation, but none of it directly concerns the question asked here. A great deal of the discussion centers on the question of the health of the mother. Are we absolutely sure that she is dead? If we are not sure, if, for example, she is only in a coma, then performing the Caesarean would be committing murder (Reform Responsa, pp. 212 ff.).

There is also discussion concerning the child born of the Caesarean. If it is a boy child and is the first-born of the mother, does he have to be redeemed by the ceremony of pidyan ha-ben, since Scripture specified that the first-born must be the one that “openeth the womb” (see Responsa for Our Time pp. 266 ff.). But as far as I know, there is no doubt in the minds of the authorities and therefore no question at all that if this boy child is healthy, he must be circumcised on the eighth day of his life.

It was not correct when I gave the impression that there was no statement in the law as to special circumcision rules with regard to a child born by Caesarean. The Shulhan AruIch (Yoreh Deah 266:10) states that the child born by Caesarean and the androgynous child (i.e., a child whose sexual organs are not clearly defined) are not to be circumcised on the Sabbath although they are (except for the Sabbath) to be circumcised on their eighth day. Joseph Caro bases his statement upon a similar statement by Maimonides (Yad Hil. Milah 1:11) who also speaks of the Caesarean and the androgynous as not to be circumcised on the Sabbath even though it is their eighth day.

However, this opinion is open to strong doubt because it over extends the statement in the Mishnah (Shabbat 19:3) which speaks only of the androgynous and does not at all mention the Caesarean child. And even as to the androgynous itself, Rabbi Judah disputes the opinion and says, it must be circumcised on the Sabbath. The Talmud (Shabbat 134a) also mentions only the androgynous and does not mention the Caesarean. The subject is discussed also by Aryeh Grossnass of the Bet Din of London in the second volume of Lev Aryeh #29. But he is concerned with the question, not with regard to the Sabbath, but with regard to circumcision on the second day of the festivals.