The Fig, the Blemish, and the Timing of Abraham's Circumcision

"Like grapes in the wilderness I found Israel; like the first-ripe fruit on a fig tree in its first season I saw your fathers" (Hosea 9:10). This fig tree - at first they gather it one by one, and afterward two by two, and afterward three, until they gather it in baskets and with rakes. So too, at first "Abraham was one" (Ezekiel 33:24), and afterward two, Abraham and Isaac, and afterward Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob "were fruitful and swarmed," and so on. Just as this fig has no waste except its stem - remove it and the blemish is gone - so too "Walk before Me and be whole," there is no waste in you except the foreskin; remove it and the blemish is gone. "To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose." There was a set time for Abraham our father, when circumcision was given to him: "In the midst of this day Abraham was circumcised" (verse 26). There was a time when his sons would be circumcised: "for all the people who came out were circumcised" (Joshua 5:5). Should he have been circumcised at forty-eight, when he recognized his Creator? Rather, so as not to lock the door before converts. And should you say, let him be circumcised at seventy, when He spoke with him at the covenant between the pieces? Rather, so that Isaac might come from a holy drop. Let him be circumcised at eighty-six, when Ishmael was born. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: like cinnamon I establish you in the world; just as this cinnamon, as long as you fertilize and hoe it, it produces fruit, so too Abraham, from when his blood was bound, from when his impulse ceased, from when his desire ceased. He said: if circumcision is so beloved, why was it not given to the first man? The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: Abraham, it is enough that I and you are in the world; and if you do not take it upon yourself to be circumcised, it is enough for My world until here. He said: until I was circumcised, they would come and join with me; perhaps now that I am circumcised, will they come and join with me? The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: it is enough for you that I am your patron; and not for you alone, but it is enough for the world that I am its God, that I am its patron.