Mohel great amount of unnecessary pain to the newborn, cutting off the blood flow completely, which according to Jewish law is dangerous to the child and strictly forbidden, and also renders the "orlah" (foreskin) as cut prior to the proper ritual cut. Under Jewish law, a mohel must draw blood from the circumcision wound. Most mohels do it by hand with a suction device, but some Orthodox groups use their mouth to draw blood after cutting the foreskin. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning in 2012 about the health implications of this practice, citing 11 cases of
If This Is a Man (German for "sub-humans"), and to Levi's examination of the degree to which it was possible for a prisoner in Auschwitz to retain his or her humanity. The poem explains the title and sets the theme of the book: humanity in the midst of inhumanity. The last part of the poem, beginning "meditate", explains Levi's purpose in having written it: to record what happened so that later generations will ponder (a more literal translation of "meditare") the significance of the events he lived through. It also parallels the language of the "V'ahavta", the Jewish prayer that commands followers to remember and