Commentary for Avodah Zarah 53:14
ומי איכא למאן דאמר אשה לא והכתיב (שמות ד, כה) ותקח צפורה צר קרי ביה ותקח והכתיב ותכרות קרי ביה ותכרת דאמרה לאיניש אחרינא ועבד ואיבעית אימא אתיא איהי ואתחלה ואתא משה ואגמרה:
But does anyone really hold that a woman is not [qualified to perform circumcision]. Is it not written, “Then Zipporah took a flint” (Exodus 4:25)? Read it, “she caused to be taken.” But it also says, “And she cut off!” Read it, “And she caused it to be cut off,” by asking another person, a man, to do it. Or you may say it means that she only began and Moses came and completed it.
Daf Shevui to Avodah Zarah
The problem with saying that a woman cannot circumcise is that Zipporah circumcises her and Moses’s son on their way back to Egypt. The Talmud tries to read this as if she told someone else to circumcise, or only began the circumcision. Needless to say, these are not the simple readings of the text.
In the Middle Ages there were occasionally women who performed circumcision, especially in remote areas with few men. Today, I do believe that in some circles it is possible to find mohalot, but the practice extremely rare and certainly not found in the Orthodox world.
In the Middle Ages there were occasionally women who performed circumcision, especially in remote areas with few men. Today, I do believe that in some circles it is possible to find mohalot, but the practice extremely rare and certainly not found in the Orthodox world.
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