John D. Brey
Well-Known Member
Cohen is speaking of something as confounding as Abram being born-again (see, Exegeting Genesis 17:17) in a manner such that he can conceive Isaac not as the younger brother of Ishmael, but as though Isaac is his second first born. Cohen's final statement implies that for Jesus to be God's second firstborn (ala Abraham's second firstborn Isaac), the lambskin scroll (that birthed Israel even as Abram's uncut scroll birth Ishmael) must be abandoned, just as Abram's original fleshly testimony, and all that came through it, must be abandoned, if Isaac is to be a legitimate second-firstborn with as much or more pedigree than the first firstborn (Ishmael).
In Germany during the high Middle Ages, additional customs arose concerning the blood . . . some blood would be allowed to drip onto the baby's swaddling clothes, from which a Torah binder (a wimpel) would later be made and presented to the synagogue.
Shaye J. D. Cohen, Why Aren't Jewish Women Circumcised?: Gender and Covenant in Judaism (pp. 32-33). Kindle Edition.
The blood of the circumcised youth is allowed to drip onto the child's swaddling cloth which is then used to make binder (wimpel) to wrap around the scroll of the Law implying that the blood of the male-organ and the blood of the scroll of the Law are mingled in the minds or psyches of those practicing the rituals.
John