Epispasm: no great disguise

Rabbi Eliezer HaModa'i has some strong things to say about people who prefer not to reflect Jewish identity and values. At Avot 3:15 he says:

The person who (i) desecrates those things which are holy, (ii) denigrates the festivals, (iii) embarrasses his friend in public, (iv) nullifies the covenant of our father Abraham and (v) reveals aspects of the Torah that are not in accordance with the law—even though he has Torah learning and good deeds in his hand, he has no portion in the World to Come.”

The fourth of these five items is generally understood to refer to epispasm, this being “a form of foreskin restoration to reverse circumcision, historically practiced among some Jews in Hellenistic and Roman societies.”  

This procedure is a curious way to conceal Jewish identity when one considers that, for centuries, the nations of the world appear to have had no difficulty in picking Jews out as being Jewish even when they are fully clothed.  However, the desire to assimilate into what appears to be a more sophisticated and successful society is, according to one midrashic tradition, something that Jews have had to resist even before the giving of the Torah. According to this tradition, after Joseph died the Children of Israel cancelled the practice of circumcision, saying “Let us be like the Egyptians!” This was the event that triggered a change in heart on the part of their Egyptian hosts, who ceased at that point to love the small tribe that nestled within their vast territory, despising them instead.

Rav Yosef Dov Ber Soloveitchik (Bet HaLevi, parashat Shemot) explains this Midrash as teaching that the Children of Israel did not just give up circumcision of their children: worried about their future in Egypt and concerned as to how they might make themselves more beloved to their hosts, they first performed the operation in order to fulfil the mitzvah but then carried out an epispasm—and it was this that caused the Egyptians to despise them. The message for all generations is clear: making oneself more like a prevailing non-Jewish culture is no guarantee of peace and happiness. This is particularly true when, in doing so, we appear to be deceitful, duplicitous, unprincipled and ready to put our obedience to God firmly in second place, behind our desire to be more like those who do not obey Him.

Not all commentators consider that this Mishnah refers to the practice of epispasm. One such view is that it relates to a refusal to circumcise at all;  such a person presumably would rather be attached to his foreskin than to his Creator.