May 11, 2011

Face Development in the Womb - Inside the Human Body: Creation - BBC One (video)

BBC is running a program videoing the development of a fetus inside the womb. It is pretty cool and funky. This video is about how the face is formed during the stages of the fetus, and how the philtrum is created.
The philtrum is the midline groove in the upper lip that runs from the top of the lip to the nose.

Face Development in the Womb - Inside the Human Body: Creation - BBC One


The BBC is obviously arguing with the Chaza"l that say the philtrum is created by the angel tapping the fetus on the lip to cause him to forget the Torah learning he learned in the womb prior to birth.

5 comments:

  1. I don't have access to a Gemara in Niddah right now, but I believe you're wrong. Chazal say that the angel taps us on our lip... and no more. It's Jewish folklore that the tap of the angel causes the philtrum. I've heard rabbis say that. But it's not what Chazal said!

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  2. Okay, here is the Gemara's lashon:
    וכיון שבא לאויר העולם בא מלאך וסטרו על פיו ומשכחו כל התורה כולה
    Nidah 30b

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  3. you are right, but that is not what we have all heard in the drashos...

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  4. That's because much of what we've heard in drashos has been made up, hijacked, or just plain wrong, when it comes to divrei chazal.

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  5. I'm with shaya g and David; that's not ours.

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