When God tells Avraham to perform brit milah, He says, “Walk before Me and be tamim,” meaning whole or complete.

That’s a surprising thing to say to Avraham at ninety-nine years old. This is someone who left his home because God asked him to, followed Him to an unfamiliar land, and devoted his life to faith and kindness. Yet the Talmud tells us that despite all the mitzvos he had done, he wasn’t called complete until he had his brit.

Rabbi Henoch Leibowitz asks us to think about what that means. Avraham had spent years working on himself and had achieved so much. But there was still something he couldn’t reach through his own efforts. Brit milah gave him something that all that work couldn’t.

The Talmud describes this by saying that before his brit, Avraham had control over 243 parts of his body. Afterward, he had control over 248. Those additional five were his two eyes, his two ears, and his reproductive organ.

We can understand why the eyes and ears are different. You can choose what to do with your hands, but you can’t always stop yourself from seeing or hearing something. Rabbi Leibowitz explains that brit milah gave Avraham a level of control, or a depth of understanding, that he hadn’t been able to achieve on his own.

I think we often don’t appreciate how significant that is. We know a brit is important. We celebrate it, we bring the family together, and we’re proud to continue a tradition that goes back to Avraham. But the Torah is telling us that there’s much more happening than we can see.

Brit milah was essential to Avraham’s shleimus, his spiritual completeness. Even after everything he had accomplished, he still needed it. And the sefer says that this applies to each person on his own level: the mitzvah gives him new spiritual abilities and room to grow.

We may not notice that change or fully understand it. But that doesn’t make it any less real or important. A brit is more than a beautiful family occasion. It is a covenant with God that helps us become who we have the potential to be.