Since the days of the Roman Empire two thousand years ago until Communist Russia in recent times, Brit Milah has been one of the first Mitzvot to be outlawed when anti-Semitic authorities came to power. Yet, time and time again, Jews have risked their lives to ensure that their children received a kosher Brit Milah.
God promised Abraham that through the mitzvah of Milah “I will establish My covenant between Me and you and between your children after you, throughout their generations, as an everlasting covenant, to be a G-d to you and to your children after you” (Bereshit 17:7).
The Maharal of Prague explains that “Every instance of the word “brit” in the Torah is translated as something that has permanence. This is because through Brit Milah one has a connection to Hashem, just as any two people make a pact/covenant between them.”
Brit Milah is therefore the sign of a permanent relationship between Hashem and the Jewish People.
This is also the reason why the brit is the only mitzvah that becomes ingrained as a part of the flesh of the body. Similarly, this is why the Talmud exclaims that a Jew, no matter how distant they might have strayed from Jewish practice, they are still a Jew- since our bond with God is essential and eternal.
The Talmud describes an incident in which David Hamelech came to recognize the importance of Milah as the Mitzvah that is always with the person, even when he has nothing else:
When King David entered the bathhouse and saw that he was standing naked, he proclaimed, “Woe upon me, for I stand naked, without any mitzvah”(as no mezuzah is put up in a bath house). But when he recalled his Milah, he was consoled. And after emerging from the bathhouse, he composed a song upon it, as it is written, “For the conductor, on the eighth, a psalm by David” (Tehillim 12:1): on Milah, which was given on the eighth [day].
May we merit to experience our closeness to Hashem always. Shabbat Shalom!