Why No Bris for Girls?

Question of the Week:

I appreciated your explanation of the Bris. But why is there no equivalent ceremony for girls? Don't they also deserve a sign of their connection to G-d?

Answer:

Male and female souls are different in their makeup, and come from different sources. Therefore their spiritual paths are different too.

For the male soul, physical and spiritual are two opposites in conflict. In his eyes, you can only be a soulful person if you ignore your body and the material world. A man who spends an hour grooming himself in front of the mirror every morning must not be a spiritual guy. We would call him vain and body-focused.

Not so for the female soul. She understands that physicality can be just as holy as spirituality; they are in harmony and can coexist. Caring for her body can itself be a holy pursuit. Decorating her physical surroundings can enhance her spiritual state. For the female soul, the material world doesn't necessarily contradict spirituality.

There is a Kabbalistic explanation for this difference. The male soul is sourced in G-d's light, the female soul comes from G-d's essence. G-d's light only shines in the spiritual world, but is concealed in the physical world. But G-d's essence, His very self, is everywhere equally. For G-d's light to shine, we have to get rid of the physicality that blocks it. But for G-d's essence to shine, we just need to become aware of it, for it is all around us.

So the male soul's mission is to aggressively conquer the physical world, to bring G-d's light there. That's why the six days of the week are associated with masculine energy, and the Shabbos with feminine energy - the Shabbos Queen, the Shabbos Bride. For six days we work to aggressively change the world, a male pursuit. On the seventh day we appreciate the innate beauty of the world as it is, a feminine attitude.

The Bris symbolises this male mission, to take the most physical object and transform it by cutting away the external layers that block the light from shining. But a female soul doesn't see the need to cut anything away; there is holiness within the physical as well, it just needs to be nurtured, appreciated, recognised. She doesn't need to negate the physicality of the world. So she doesn't need a Bris.

Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Moss