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 not merely its lexical but also its inner faithfulness." Robert S. C. Gordon writes that Levi went on to develop a close relationship with Reidt. The German edition contains a special preface addressed to the German people, which Levi said he wrote out of passionate necessity to remind them what they had done. "If This Is a Man" is often published alongside Levi's second work of witness, "The Truce" (Italian title: "La Tregua"). The book is introduced by a poem. The construction "If .." invites the reader to make a judgment. It alludes to the treatment of people as "Untermenschen"