Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Names

I have joked I can't have any more children because with five first and middle names I can't think of anymore.  I always wanted my children to have Hebrew names and names that could be shortened into nicknames. (I know some people want just the opposite)  My husband wanted to make sure they weren't too unusual or hard for Americans to say.  He had a brother that passed away in 1996 named Joey.  We named our oldest boy Yosef in his honor.  The poor boy has had to say "no that's a Y not a J" for almost 12 years now.  We thought we were being safer with the second but amazingly despite the popularity of Zachary, and the fact that it is a book of the Bible no one seems to know how to spell Zachariah.  With my daughter I thought I found the perfect balance of unusual but still "easy".  Even though I had never heard the name before I have met no less than ten Elianas since she was born.  Nathaniel has had better luck with people being familiar with his name.  For some reason it has never been shortened to Nate, little guy, big name.  When I found out I was pregnant the last time, the first name on my list was Naomi, it was the one my husband liked most too even before we had discussed it.  It seemed a natural fit.  Nathaniel calls her Mimi, I don't know if it will stick. So Yosef Dahvid, Zachariah Michael, Eliana Abigail, Nathaniel Levi and Naomi Tova.  I am officially out of names

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Circumcision

I just unliked a facebook page after seeing at least the 10th post bashing circumcision in a couple days. I cant look anymore.
I circumcised all three of my boys as a matter of course. It has been done for 3000 + years. I am Jewish, we do this.
Until this pregnancy, I never knew there was anyone else who cared what happened to my child's penis. But I discovered there is a whole movement out there who not only cares deeply about it but wants to change the law to force me to comply with their wishes.
I am pretty "crunchy" or AP, or whatever label you want to give it. And this seems to go along with not circing.. unless of course you are Jewish. I never thought anything of it. I certainly never felt the need to convience any of these friends to circumcise.
But I cant help feeling attacked lately. Not by people choosing not to circumcise but by that growing vocal minority who feel it is their obligation to stop others. When people call it child abuse and mutilation, you are attacking me and my G-d. When I hesitate to post something like this on facebook, I wonder, am I being immoral? Is this being ashamed of G-d?
I never try and convince others not to eat pork, but I never doubted my decision. I never felt the need to search for scientific backup for this command (although its there pork is gross but thats another subject).
I do these things because that is what He said to do, I do not need another reason.
This is a bit disorganized as I am just typing out what I am feeling at the moment. Sorry