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There were these pamphlets in shul today from toras avigdor on this week’s parsha and in it he talks about doing a mitzvah l’mafreiah and he brings an example of a bris and says that in order to get a zechus for the milah you have to think now that you’re happy you got a bris, to counteract the being upset as a baby
Now for the question
Why is this so, why isn’t just not being moshech b’milah showing that you want the milah and additionally you kicked and screamed when you’re a kattan and had no idea what was happening (except that it hurt)
I hope my question is clear enough
Do you really want to know?
The מלא הרועים on סוגיות מצות צריכות כוונה ס’ק ט says that a mitzva like milah where the result is the mitzva kavonoh does not matter. That is why by tzadakah kavonoh does not matter and he can give it in order that his son should live long, as long as the mitzva is done properly by a Jew.
Being מושך בערלתו is quite a drastic step. Not doing do doesn’t prove you’re happy with the מילה.
I’ll give you an example. You go to buy a used car. You find one that’s affordable to you, large enough for your family, and the model you want, with low mileage.
The only problem is, it’s green, and you really don’t like green.
You’ve checked four dealers, and nobody else has the model you want with the other factors that make you want this one. So you go ahead and buy it. It doesn’t prove that you like green, it just proves that you don’t hate it enough to spend the extra effort, time and/or money to find the car you want in a different color.
You don’t like the color. You just don’t bother getting it painted.
Someone could be upset that he has a bris but be too lazy or cheap to undo it.
You asked, “why isn’t just not being moshech b’milah showing that you want the milah?”.
Is that part answered to your satisfaction?
You’re taking Rav Miller too literal. This concept is mentioned in earlier sources (possibly chasam sofer). Of course, the mitzva is accomplished without the daas of the baby, however, we add to the shleimus of the mitzva by expressing our happiness later for it. After all, according to some opinions the mitzvah continues throughout a person’s lifetime.
I think it is perfectly logical.
If you do nothing to actually counter-act the Bris, you are Yotzeh having a Bris and aren’t Chayav Kores.
But if you expect the huge rewards that come with having a bris – which you did nothing to get and in fact seemed to show displeasure, you have to show satisfaction and acknowledge your consent.
If someone takes off maaser for you without your knowledge and you don’t complain about it you get the mitzvah
What does “get the mitzvah” mean?
Just like a person can lose the reward for doing a mitzvah by later regretting doing it, so too we can enhance a mitzva later by feeling happy for doing it. A mitzvah is a live reality which can be affected even after the act of performance as well as before.
What’s the source that you lose a mitzvah if you later regret having done it?
however R Miller disagrees
R’Miller holds you would get kareis if you’re not happy you got a bris?
To lose a mitzva when you regret it afterwards is if the mitzva is the maasei hamitzva but if the result or tachlis is the mitzva then you still have the mitzva afterwards regardless if you regret it or not.
מושך בערלתו he is physically undoing the mitzva, whereas not being happy might not be nice, but he does not physically undo the mitzva.
A goyish baby can be converted but he can refuse and regret the conversion when he becomes bar mitzva except if he practices yiddishkeit. If he refuses, the conversion is botel retroactively but I have never heard that the milah gets invalidated on a jewish baby.
coffee addict,
This is word for word from the pamphlet “and it’s not just any mitzvah that you protested against. You have to know that the mitzvah of milah is one of only two mitzvos in the Torah for which you get kareis for not doing. It’s a very important mitzvas asei if he refuses to let himself be gemalt then he’s chayav kareis and hereyou were refusing it, you didn’t want any part of it
Honestly I have no idea what that last sentence means (it seems to be missing some important punctuation/words), but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t say that you get kareis for regretting having had a bris milah.
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