God than the blood and fat of beasts,
sacrifices of love and charity.(1423)

3. The Synagogue has its peculiar institutions and ceremonies, but no
sacraments like those of the Church. Its institutions, such as the
festivals, aim to preserve the historic memory of the people; its
ceremonies, called "signs" or "testimonies" in the Scripture, are to
sanctify the life of the nation, the family, or the individual. Neither
possesses a sacramental power, as does baptism or communion in the Church,
in giving salvation, or imparting something of the nature of the Deity, or
making one a member of the religious community. The Jew is a member of the
Jewish community by his birth, which imposes upon him the obligations of
the covenant which God made with Israel at Mount Sinai. Judaism is a
religious heritage intrusted to a nation of priests, and is not acquired
by any rite of consecration or confession of faith. Such a form of
consecration and confession is required only in the case of
proselytes.(1424) It is superfluous to state that Confirmation does not
bestow the character of Jew upon the young, any more than the former rite
of Bar Mizwah did upon the young Israelite who was called up to the
reading from the Law in his thirteenth year as a form of initiation into
Jewish life.(1425)

4. The rite of circumcision is enjoined upon the father in the Mosaic Code
as a "sign" of the covenant with Abraham, to be performed on every son on
the eighth day after birth.(1426) Therefore it is held in high esteem, and
the father terms the act in his benediction "admission into the covenant
of Abraham";(1427) but in spite of this it is not a sacrament and does not
determine membership in the Jewish community. The operation was not to be
performed by a person of sacred calling such as priest or rabbi, but in
ancient Biblical times was performed by women,(1428) and in the Talmudic
period by the surgeon.(1429) In fact, if no Jewish surgeon was at hand,
some Talmudic authorities held that a non-Jewish surgeon could perform it.
Moreover, where hygienic reasons forced the omission of the rite, the man
was still a Jew.(1430) The rite itself underwent a change; it was
performed with stone knives in Biblical times, just as in Egypt and even
to-day in Arabia and Syria.(1431) It became a mark of distinction for the
people during the Exile.(1432) But the act was invested with special
religious sanctity during the Syrian persecution, when many Jewish youths