Why I'm Circumcised and My Brother is Not

I found out why my brother isn't circumcised when my mother accidentally barged in on me while I was masturbating.

First, you might like a little back story: My name is Harold Morganstern [not his real name]. I'm 19 years old. My brother, Benjamin, is 12 months younger.

My father is a rabbi. He's a big, hairy, but very gentle guy. My mother is slight of build, with curly black hair and a somewhat high-pitched voice. I'm told people can hardly believe she's a professor of psychology. She just seems too little, too young.

For a long time, I'd been vaguely wondering how it is that as Jewish as we are, my little brother isn't circumcised. You may ask how I know that. Well, we have jerked off together many times. Oh, yes, my parents know we masturbate. They encourage it. They tell us that masturbation will keep us psychologically balanced and that it's good for our physical health also. Well, OK then, I'm all for it! It's just that they probably don't know that Ben and I often do it together and to each other.

Now, we're not a nudist family or anything like that, although we've all seen each other nude incidentally from time to time, like running from the bathroom to the bedroom after a shower, for instance. My parents took us two boys to a nude beach a few times during hot summer days. They called it 'educational.' All I know is Ben and I were pretty much oblivious to all the nudity around us, and being naked ourselves. All we wanted to do is play volleyball. But that was a few years ago.

Sorry, I'm getting off-track.

From time to time, I'd been kind of curious about Ben, but not overly much so. I mean, he's been uncircumsised forever and I've been cut, so it was just sort of natural. I asked him once, and he just shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know."

I never asked my parents. It just seemed like it would be embarrassing to ask them something like that.

So, here's how I found out: I was whacking away in my room one day, and my mother came in with a bunch of T-shirts. I guess she thought I was out playing, or she would have knocked. Mom caught me red-handed. I was fully naked, fully erect, and didn't have time to hide anything.

She just said, "Oh, excuse me!" and quickly left, dropping the shirts on the dresser and closing the door behind her.

I was freaked out. Even though my parents talked up the idea of masturbation, it had always been academic. No one ever saw me doing it. I just laid on my bed thinking. Trying to figure out the implications, and what to do about what had just happened. Finally, I lost myself in some math homework.

At dinner, there was no avoiding it. I'd have to go downstairs and face my mother. It was like a death march coming to the dining room table, where my brother and parents were already seated. Mom didn't do anything. Not a word, not even a sideways glance, as my dad lead the prayer.

Dinner was hard to eat due to the knot in my stomach. I knew at any moment, the axe would fall. Like, Mom would tell Dad what had happened. Oh, he wouldn't hit me. He wouldn't even lecture me. He'd just act disappointed, which to me, is devastating. But that never happened. She didn't say a word about it.

A week later, the whole deal was forgotten, mostly. Sometimes, something would remind me of how she saw me jerking off, and I'd feel a shot of adrenaline. A fear of something that I couldn't quite identify.

Even that wore off after another week. Then one day, my mother did knock. I wasn't wanking at the time. I was studying. I said, "Come on in."

She had a weird smile as she sat on my bed. I was wondering what in the world she wanted to talk about. It was highly unusual for her to just come in my room like that.

"You know a couple of weeks ago..."

'Oh my, here it comes.' I thought with a sudden pang of fear mixed with embarrassment. There was nothing I could do but sit there and deal with whatever lecture was coming.

"For years, I've been wondering if you were able to do that OK."

OK, so that was like the last thing in the world I expected her to say. I had no idea what she meant.

"Huh?"

"I've been worried ever since you were a little baby whether you'd be able to have, um... sexual pleasure."

I noticed her cheeks were kind of red, although probably not as red as mine.

After trying to respond several different ways and a long silence, I finally responded, "Huh?"

"I've never told you this. For a long time, you were just too young to understand. You're not too young any longer. When you were 8 days old, we had the mohel [Jewish man who specializes in circumcising babies] come over and circumcise you. Oh, you screamed, and my heart went out to you, but that's the way it's been done for thousands of years. Babies get circumcised, and that's that."

I was fascinated, freaked out, and felt like fainting.

"Well, all was well for a day, then you started crying constantly. You were screaming. I knew something was wrong. I looked at your little penis, and it was all swollen and red. We called the doctor, who rushed you to the hospital. Your circumcision had become infected. Worse, the infection had spread to your blood. You were in the hospital for a week. At one point, we thought we were going to lose you."

"Oh..." That's all I could think to say.

"In case you've been wondering why your brother Benjamin isn't circumcised, that's why. We weren't going to go through that again. Even though him having an infection like you did was unlikely, both your father and I decided to break with tradition."

After a pause, while she seemed to be weighing something, she continued. "When you recovered, I studied your penis carefully. As far as I could tell, it turned out alright, except for a pea-sized bump on the left side. But I never knew for sure if you were really OK."

After another pause, she asked in a sort of tight voice, probably because it was as embarrassing for her to ask as for me to hear it, "So, when you masturbate, is it OK? I mean, does it hurt or anything?"

"Mom, Cheesh!"

"Well, I mean, are you OK in that department? Can you get erections and ejaculate and everything? Is everything normal for you?"

"I think so. I have nothing to compare to." I know it was a lie. I'm pretty sure she knew that Ben and I jerked each other off fairly often. After all, they did encourage masturbation, but never specifically said anything about Ben and I doing it together.

She started crying. Then she broke down in big sobs, gasping, "I feel so guilty for letting that happen to you, Harold."

"Oh Mom," and I put my arms around her and held her. "I'm sure I'm fine."

After a while she quit crying, but I could see she still felt guilt and doubt.

"After you recovered, there was that bump under the skin on the left side of your penis. Did that heal? Does that give you any trouble?"

I don't know what motivated me to blurt out, "It's still there, but it's harmless. It's not even the size of a pea. It's just a little tiny bump. I always assumed it was just something natural. Maybe I should show you."

To my surprise, she said while wiping the tears away from her eyes, "I'd like to see your penis."

"Really?"

"Yes, actually, if you don't mind. It would certainly put my mind at ease."

I figured under the circumstances, it was OK. After all, she was my mother. She washed and diapered me as a baby. And, she needed to be reassured. And, she had recently seen me with an erection and everything.

Without saying more, I just pulled my shorts down, and then off. Then I removed my underwear, letting her see my penis close up. For some reason, I took off my shirt, too. So there I was, as naked as the day God made me, in front of my mother.

As she reached toward my penis, she asked, "May I?"

"Um, OK."

She grabbed my penis, turning it this way and that, looking over my circumcision scar. She also fondled my balls a bit, evidently looking for any signs of the infection I had as a baby. She then returned to my penis, running her finger over and over the left side. I felt myself starting to become erect.

"Oh, I feel the bump. It is much smaller."

"Or, I grew much larger around it."

We both laughed. However, growth was indeed an issue. As she had been continuing to fondle my penis, it was becoming more erect. Surely she noticed, but she didn't let go.

"And when you're erect, it's OK?"

"Let's find out," is all I said.

In an action that must have come normally to her, something she must have done with my father numerous times, she stroked me to full erection. This was surprisingly exciting, having her handle me this way.

"Wait!" I practically screamed as I felt an orgasm coming on.

She didn't. She just kept on stroking until all my sperm was expelled. I was breathing really hard afterward. I was also literally shivering with some sort of post-orgasmic relief. It was, without a doubt, the best, strongest orgasm of my life.

You'd think the story would end there, but there's one more little bit you might find interesting. At dinner that evening, Mom told Dad what had transpired, while I wanted to shrink under the table. I was so embarrassed to hear them talking about me that way. And, in front of my brother too. Cheesh!

She gave my dad a rundown on the whole thing, in a very clinical fashion. No excitement, no embarrassment. She started by telling him how she interrupted my masturbation two weeks ago. Hearing this, my brother grinned from ear to ear, but didn't interrupt.

She continued by telling Dad everything about what happened today. Now, my father, who I suppose could have done anything from being totally shocked to exploding in anger, simply smiled at me. Finally, he said, "I'm so glad there was no permanent damage from your circumcision. God is kind and merciful."

Privately, I have admit I was thinking, "Oh, if he's so merciful, how come he let that happen to me in the first place?" Then I knew that was a bad thought so I put it out of my mind.

To cap things off, my brother said, "So that's why I'm not circumcised. I never knew. Even when he and I masturbate each other, I never gave any thought to the bump on Harold's penis." So now, my parents knew that Ben and I masturbated together, and all was well.

Ben and I have wanked together many times since. We even experimented with sucking each other. However, Mom never touched me in that way again. Ben has been asking me to help him figure out a way to get Mom, or Dad, to jerk him off. I don't think that's going to happen!