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Also what's the Jewish tradition in all this? What's their reason for doing it? I've never known that and I'm curious.
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Pretty much its a 'Because God said so' sort of thing. Circumcision is a symbol of the pact made between God and Abraham. Once the child has undergone the process, they are a member of that covenant and, thus, are now Jewish. In theory it's possible to be uncircumcised and Jewish but you're pretty much banned from doing most of the traditional stuff.
As for an atheistic-historical perspective; it may be one of many reasons, including:
- Helps keep it clean in a dusty environment, reducing disease and infection.
- Some tribal societies use circumcision as a coming-of-age test at puberty. Perhaps it started off that way and then became ritualised and transferred to newborns.
- Theoretically, it reduces the impulse to masturbation.