Dvar Torah by Rabbi Leibel Agar

At the beginning of Parshas Tazriyah, the Torah tells us about the birth of a child.  It states that if the child is male, he is circumcised on the 8th day.  This seems to be a superfluous commandment, since the laws of circumcision were already mentioned to Avraham in Parshas Lech Lecha (Gen. 17:10-17:14).  It was a basic part of being a descendant of Avraham.  There was even a mass circumcision ritual performed by Moshe and Aharon right before the Exodus from Egypt!  That being the case, why is it necessary to repeat the commandment of circumcision in Parshas Tazriyah?

In order to understand this idea, we must examine both the commandment as it is given in Parshas Lech Lecha and the commandment as it is given in Parshas Tazriyah.  In Parshas Lech Lecha, Avraham is told to circumcise the males “at the age of eight days” (Gen. 17:12).  This means that the circumcision is to be performed at any time of the day or night during which the child is eight days old.  Therefore, it would be logical to conclude that if the child is eight days old on Shabbat, the circumcision (the act of which is a violation of the laws of Shabbat) should be done after Shabbat ends—i.e., on Saturday night.  However, since the commandment in Parshas Tazriyah specifies that the circumcision is to be done “on the eighth day”, our Sages of Blessed Memory teach us that all circumcisions must be done during the daytime.  Furthermore, the circumcision is to be done on the 8th day (unless it would be unsafe for the baby to have the circumcision on the 8th day), even if that day is Shabbat, a holiday, or a fast day.  May it be G-d’s Will that our community grows and flourishes, thus creating many opportunities to fulfil the commandment of “And on the 8th day, the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.”