thereby prepare him and make his suitable for the pursuit of spirituality and Divinity. As is explained in Chassidut,

the presence of the foreskin renders sexual relations more immediately personally gratifying, but desensitizes the

individual to the experience of his wife. Sexual relations thus remain an essentially narcissistic experience. The removal of the foreskin puts the individual more directly in contact with his wife, and thus he shares her experience

as well. This, of course, serves to spiritualize and therefore augment the sensual experience in ways not possible in

the narrow, egocentric context.

The removal of the foreskin, i.e., the propensity toward gross, self-oriented materialism, thus sensitizes the

individual to the presence of an other person, and ultimately, readies him for encounter with the ultimate Other, G-d.

The name “Og” [ayin-gimel] is etymologically related to the root ayin-vav-gimel or ayin-gimel-gimel, which

means, “to form a circle.” Thus, it refers to the mucous membrane which encircles the glans of the penis underneath

the foreskin, and which must also be peeled back as part of the rite of circumcision. The removal of the foreskin is

called milah (“cutting”) and the removal of the mucous membrane is called periah (“peeling” back).

This membrane is obviously much more subtle and delicate than the coarse foreskin. It therefore embodies a

much more abstract, delicate form of evil that is therefore much more difficult to root out than the usual, coarse evil.

In Chassidut it is explained that the foreskin signifies the evil that exists in the outer dimension of the heart, while

the mucous membrane signifies the evil that exists in the inner dimension of the heart. The evil of the outer

dimension of the heart is the individual’s gross lust for material and sensual forms of pleasure and gratification.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5756818&forum_id=2:#49146699)