- Aposthia
Aposthia is a rare congenital condition in humans, in which the
foreskin is missing.Toward the end of the 19th century,
E. S. Talbot claimed in "Medicine" that aposthia amongJew s was evidence for the now-discredited Lamarckian theory ofevolution . It is likely that the cases he described were actuallyhypospadias , a condition in which theurinary meatus is on the underside of the penis. Neither condition has a particularly high incidence among Jews.Aposthia in Islam
According to legend, the prophet
Mohammed was born without a foreskin [http://www.phreak.co.uk/head/articles/manwoman.html] . However,Arabs had been practising circumcision long before this, and this legend is not the reason thatMuslim s circumcise.Aposthia in Judaism
The
Midrash of "Ki-Tetze" [כי תצא] notes thatMoses was born aposthic. Other sources tell us thatJacob andDavid were also born aposthic. Jewish law requires males born without a foreskin or who lost their foreskin through means other than a formalcircumcision ceremony ("brit milah " ברית מילה) to have a drop of blood ("hatafat-dam", הטפת דם) let from thepenis at the point where the foreskin would have been (or was) attached. TheTalmud (Shabbat 135A) records a discussion of whether the importance of this letting of blood supersedesShabbat , on which only a child who was born the previous Shabbat can be circumcised. If a regular circumcision is delayed, there is no disagreement that this may not be performed on Shabbat. However, in the case of aposthia, there are two schools of thought.:"R. Elazar Hakappar said that the school of
Shamai andHillel do not differ as to a child that is born without a foreskin. Both agree that the blood of the covenant must be drawn from the glans. The school of Shamai, however, contends that this may be done on the Sabbath, while the other holds that the Sabbath must not be desecrated on that account."David Levy, former Israeli Foreign Minister and member of
Knesset , was born aposthic.Arye Avneri 's authorized 1983 biography of Levy notes this::"When David Levy was born on
1937 21 December , inRabat , the capital ofMorocco , his mother Sima noticed at once that he was different from other baby boys. He had been born already circumcised, for the foreskin was entirely missing."The rabbis in Rabat proclaimed that this foretold that Levy would grow up to be a "leader of Israel", even though the State was not founded until Levy was 11, in 1948. It should be noted, however, that this proclamation was not necessarily prophetic of the founding of the country Israel, for "Israel" is a term occasionally used to mean "the Jewish people."
ources
* [http://www.mercksource.com/pp/us/cns/cns_hl_dorlands.jspzQzpgzEzzSzppdocszSzuszSzcommonzSzdorlandszSzdorlandzSzdmd_a_54zPzhtm Aposthia] in
Dorland's Medical Dictionary
*E. S. Talbot, "Inheritance of circumcision effects", "Medicine" 1898.
*"Shulchan Aruch", Code of Jewish Law, Yoreh Deah § 263 Law 4 (ש"ע י"ד ס' רס"ג הל' ד).External links
*Amin-Ud-Din M, Salam A, Rafiq MA, Khaliq I, Ansar M, Ahmad W. [http://www.emro.who.int/Publications/emhj/1302/article7.htm Aposthia: a birth defect or normal quantitative recessive human genetic trait?] "East Mediterr Health J." 2007 Mar-Apr;13(2):280-6.
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