The Pruned Vine and the Joy of Circumcising a Son

A foreskin is mentioned regarding a tree: "And when you come into the land and you shall regard its fruit as forbidden [literally, you shall treat its foreskin as foreskin]" (Leviticus 19:23). The tree mentioned here is none other than the grapevine. And if they do not cut off its foreskin, all the fruit it produces are small, plucked clusters, not good to look at. After they cut it off, the fruit it produces is good to look at, and their wine is chosen to be offered upon the altar. So too our father Abraham: until he was circumcised, the fruit he produced was not good in its deeds and was disqualified from upon the altar; and when he was circumcised, the fruit he produced was good in its deeds and was chosen to be offered upon the altar. From here you learn that anyone who brings his son near for circumcision is as if a high priest were offering his meal-offering and his libation upon the altar. From here they said: a person is obligated to make a feast and rejoicing on the day he merits to circumcise his son.