A certain philosopher once asked Rabbi Hoshaya, saying to him: ‘If circumcision is so dear to Him [God], why was it not given to Adam the first man?’37The insinuation of his question was that circumcision is not a divine command, but rather a form of purposeless mutilation. He said to him: ‘Why does this man [the philosopher] shave the corner of [the hair on] his head but leave the corner of his beard?’
He replied: ‘It is because this [the head hair] grew with him in his period of foolishness.’38In his childhood. He said to him: ‘If so, he should put out his eye, sever his hands, and break his legs, because they too grew with him in his period of foolishness.’ He said to him: ‘Have we come to such [frivolous] arguments?’ This was a rhetorical question.
He said to him: ‘It is not possible for me to dismiss you with no response at all. The explanation is that everything that was created during the six days of Creation requires some action [to bring it to its perfected state], e.g., mustard requires sweetening, lupines require sweetening, wheat requires grinding. And even man needs to be perfected.’