The Circumcised Heart in Action
Parashat Ekev, Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25
Chaim Dauermann, Congregation Simchat Yisrael, West Haven, CT
As human beings, we are built to make decisions on limited information. If we weren’t, it’s unlikely we’d be able to survive. (Just look at how much of our business and our politics are built around making quick decisions in cases where we don’t understand all the angles.) But when it comes to matters relating to God, sometimes limited information just won’t do.
In our lives of following God, we often encounter pieces of terminology that we put into use before fully comprehending their meaning. This is only natural in a spiritual community that is held together through the ready exchange of ideas. And biblical phrases and concepts that might be more rooted in the realities of their own day than in the concerns of our present day can be especially tricky to master. This week, in Parashat Ekev, Moses speaks of “circumcision of the heart.” From his lack of further explanation, it’s clear that the Israelites who heard him, and the early readers of the Torah text, understood what he was getting at. But do we understand, too?
Only on your fathers did Adonai set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them—you—from all the peoples, as is the case this day. Circumcise the foreskin of your heart therefore, and do not be stiff-necked anymore. (Deut 10:15–16 TLV)
The Israelites are called am k’she oref—or a stiff-necked people—throughout the Torah, always in relation to their show of obstinacy, their stubbornness. Here, circumcision of the heart is presented as a natural and desirable alternative to it—circumcision of the heart is, in essence, a turn away from being stiff-necked. This heart circumcision is, of course, not a replacement for the circumcision of the flesh that God introduced as a covenant sign for his people. Rather, it is an accompaniment to that covenant—and even a desired result.
But how can a heart be circumcised? It is an image that does not compute, so long as we remain bound to the strict, literal, physical act of circumcision. But the ancient authors of the scriptures were not bound by such perceptions. Early in Exodus, on the topic of his slowness of speech, Moses describes himself as possessing “uncircumcised lips” (6:12, 30). And to the prophet Jeremiah, God says of his people, “To whom may I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot listen” (Jer 6:10 ESV). In these cases, lips and ears are “uncircumcised” in the sense that they are impeded from functioning as they ought to. Were they instead circumcised, they would be free to serve God as he wishes.
What, then, does an uncircumcised heart do, upon being freed for service? What is its proper function before God? Lips speak, and ears hear: what does a heart do? I am reminded here of a line from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s classic, The Little Prince: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” What, then, is essential? There are clues as we read further in Deuteronomy:
Circumcise the foreskin of your heart therefore, and do not be stiff-necked anymore. For Adonai your God is God of gods and Lord of Lords —the great, mighty and awesome God, who does not show partiality or take a bribe. He enacts justice for the orphan and widow, and loves the outsider, giving him food and clothing. Therefore love the outsider, for you were outsiders in the land of Egypt. (Deut 10:16–19 TLV)
With circumcised hearts, Israel is told to love the outsider, seeing him the way God sees him. And this discourse occurs amidst other discussions of what we might do with our hearts when it comes to serving God. It comes on the heels of the Shema in the previous parasha, and as Moses continues his speech to the children of Israel, its precepts continue to echo. Just a few words before the verses above, Moses reminds Israel of what the Lord requires of them: “to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all of your soul” (10:12b ESV). How are we to achieve this goal? Moses puts a finer point on it toward the end of Deuteronomy: “And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live” (30:6 ESV).
But how does all of this come together for those of us who have committed ourselves to walk in the way of Messiah? Probably the most familiar passage to believers in Yeshua regarding circumcision of the heart comes from Paul’s letter to the Romans: “For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God” (Rom 2:28–29 ESV). This passage often gets misinterpreted, even twisted, by those who would have others believe that Paul is denigrating circumcision, or declaring that being Jewish is a spiritual condition, rather than a physical reality. But if we read the Torah and understand the breadth of this concept, we see that what Paul is saying is really no different than what Moses passed down: a circumcised heart is the desired and intended result of being in covenant with God—regardless of whether that covenant comes about through physical circumcision or in the way passed down through and by Yeshua so that all peoples might enter it.
Although Yeshua is not recorded to have given a teaching explicitly about circumcision of the heart, we do have one from him that harmonizes all of these elements and points the way forward for us. In Luke 10, we encounter a Torah scholar who seeks to challenge Yeshua, asking how he can obtain eternal life. Yeshua appeals to his expertise in Torah, and the man names the same two “greatest commandments” that Yeshua identifies elsewhere: “You shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27 TLV). The Torah scholar replies with an interesting question: “Then who is my neighbor?” (10:29). Yeshua responds with the parable of the Good Samaritan. He answers the scholar’s question by holding up the Samaritan as an example: he proved to be a neighbor to the parable’s wounded man, even though he was an outsider from among the Samaritans, who were reviled by the Jews at this time. Yeshua challenged the scholar in the same way God challenged the Israelites in Deuteronomy. God’s callings are righteous, but they are seldom comfortable. They may even seem unreasonable.
A circumcised heart enables us to follow God in ways we might have previously not thought possible. Through it we can love God and love others, even the outsider, with everything we have.