Embryology in Talmudic and Midrashic Literature Author(s): Samuel S. Kottek Source: Journal of the History of Biology, Vol.

14, No. 2 (Autumn, 1981), pp. 299-315 Published by: Springer Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4330788 . Accessed: 07/08/2011 04:17
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in Embryology Talmudic Midrashic and Literature

SAMUELS. KOTTEK Divisionof the Historyof Medicine Hadassah MedicalSchool HebrewUniversity Israel Jerusalem,

The word Talmud means teaching, or leaming. The Talmud is a composite work, encyclopedic in nature,but mainly consistingof a detailed explanation and application of the law that is merely indicated in the Bible. If Galen (and many others) have composed commentaries on Hippocrates'Aphorisms, the part of the Talmud called Gemara(the Complement)is a subtle scholastic development of the older Mishnathat is, the oral teaching - completed in its written versionabout 200 C.E. There are two redactionsof the Talmud,the Talmudof Jerusalem, completed about 400 C.E., and the Talmud of Babylon, much more comprehensive,completed about 500 C.E. The Midrash,often translatedas "legend," was compiled later, in the fifth to seventh centuries. It is an anthology of homiletics and exegeses of the Bible, a type of literature that continued to flourish late into the Middle Ages. But the Talmud itself is also interspersed with moral or homiletical tales (the Aggada,meaningnarration).These tales, as well as the legalistic discussions,reflect the knowledge of the Sages on any subject relevantto the debate, includingfolklore, history, cosmogony, hygiene, and medicine. Given the time involved in the composition of the Talmud and the and Midrash, the many contributionsin each, it is often difficult to date - and thereforeto find a source for - any single statement,since it may have been transmittedpreviouslythroughseveralgenerations scholars. of In studying these statements, one must be careful not to go too far beyond what is explicitly said, because the statementsare often incomplete and merely indicative,the aim of the treatisenot being medical or biological,and the study not being a systematicresearcheffort. The embryologicaldata contained in the Talmud are mainly related to the problem of the mother'simpurityafter childbirth.The principal question is: How long does she have to remainin defilement after giving birth to a male or a female child? These discussionsare essentiallybased on the biblical paragraphthat begins with the verse (Lev. 12:2): "A woman that will conceiveI and give birth to a son . . . " There are,
1. Literally:"givesforth seed lTazrial ."
Journal of the History of Biology, vol. 14, no. 2 (Fall 1981), pp. 299-315. 0022-5010/81/0142/0299 $01.70. Copyright ? 1981 by D. Reidel Publishing Co., Dordrecht, Holland, and Boston, Mu

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however, severalother scripturalreferencesto the early developmentof the child,2 and some of them will be recalledlaterin this paper. TERMINOLOGY
embryo was referredto in the Scripturesas "Peri-Beten" that 77Te is, the fruit of the womb - a term best preservedin the Germanword Leibesfrucht. The Talmudic word 'Ubbaris still in use in modern Hebrew. It deriveseither from 'Ab (thick, swollen) or from 'Abar(to pass: perhaps with the meaningof the male seed passinginto the female). I shall not dwell here upon the severalsynonyms cited in the Talmud,3 each of which correspondsmore or less to a givenstage of development. Conception is the first stage of generation.Its literal meaningis to become pregnant. But I venture a philosophical remark:To conceive is also to comprehend; it "suggeststhe apprehensionor graspingof something as a notion" (Webster's Dictionary). The corresponding term in Hebrewis Hara, which appearswith the second meaningin Isa. 59:13.4 But the initiativeof the act of generationis given to man (Gen. 4:1): "And Adam knew his wife Eve, and she became pregnant."He knows and she conceives, knowledgeversusconception. It thus appears that this "intercourse" both physicaland spiritualimplications,and has that it adumbratesthe dual problem of the developmentof the body and it animation. Fertility ("Poriut,' that is, fruitfulness)is not considereda natural phenomenon in the Scriptures. Most of the Mothers suffered from (temporary) barrenness. Sara, Rebecca, Rachel, and Hanna were "Aqarot" (rootless) accordingto some authorities.Although the First Commandmentof the Bible is to multiply and have children (Gen. 1:28), there is a Talmudicadage that "the key of the womb is in the hands of the Lord"(Ta'anit,2a). This homileticalexegesishas obviously the meaning of bestowing on the act of reproduction a dimension greaterthan simply the naturalimpulseof humananimality.

GENERATION Let me discuss first the famous cheese analogy. We read in Job,
2. See Job 10:10, Ps. 139:16, Cant. 7:6, Eccles. 1:5. 3. See J. Needham, A History of Embryology, 2nd ed. ( 959), p. 77. Needham explains the concept 'Ubbar as meaning "something carried," an interpretation that does not exactly agree with mine. 4. Isa. 59:13: "We have conceived lies in our hearts and repeated them" (77Te

New EnglishBible, 1970).

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Embryologyin Talmudicand Midrashic Literature 10:10-11: "Didst Thou not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese; Clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews?"5 Accordingto M. H. Segal, the book of Job can be dated to approximately the last quarter of the sixth century B.C.E., before Hippocratesand, of course, Aristotle.6 It thus appearsthat the image of curdlinglike cheese did not "beginfresh with Aristotle."' Nevertheless, one of the characteristicpassagesof Aristotle should be cited here: "The male contributes to generation . . . the form and efficient cause, while the female contributes the material.In fact, as in the coagulation of milk, the milk being the material,the fig-juiceor rennetis that which contains the curdlingprinciple,so acts the secretion of the male, being dividedinto partsin the female."8 This image was often used during the Middle Ages (by Arabic commentatorson Aristotle, St. Hildegard,and others). It appearsalso in old Indian(Hindu) medicine, particularly the Susruta-Samhita. in These writingshave in common with the Talmudthe fact that they were slowly aggregated duringcenturiesand were basedon even older traditions. The text of Job is cited in the BabylonianTalmud,9 and appears with additional details in the Midrash.I translate: "When the womb of the woman is full of retained blood which then comes forth to the area of her menstruation, by the will of the Lord comes a drop of white-matterwhich falls into it: at once the embryo is created. [This can be] comparedto milk being put in a vessel: if you add to it some lab-ferment [drug or herb] , it coagulates and stands still; if not, the milk remainsliquid."10 The Sages of the Talmudaccepted the theory of the two seeds. The main reason is obviously the wording of the Bible (Lev. 12:2): "A woman that will conceive" and give birth to a male child . . . " The Sagesstated:
5. The New English Bible. 6. M. H. Segal, Tarbiz, 20 (1950), 3548. 7. Needham, History of Embryology, p. 85. Aristotle himself stated (De generatione animalium, 1. 19. 727a 3): "It is plain .. . that the catamenia are ... analogous in females to the semen in males." He also said (1. 19. 727b 32): "It is clear that the female contributes the material for generation, and that this is in the substance of the catamenia." Quotations are from the English edition of J. A. Smith and W. D. Ross, trans. A. Platt (1912). 8. De generatione animalium, 1. 20. 729a. 9. Tractate Nidda, fol. 25a. 10. Midrash Levit. Rabba, 14, 9. 11. LiteraUly, as in note 1. Intercourse with emission of semen is called "laying down of seed [Shikhvat Zera] ." See Lev. 19:20.

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There are three associates in [the creation of] man: the Lord, the father, and the mother. The father provides the white-seed, from which are formed bones and nerves, the nails, the brain, and the white of the eyes. The mother provides the red-seed, from which are formed the skin and the flesh, the hairand the black of the eyes. And the Lord gives spirit and soul, facial expression, faculties of vision and hearing, power of speaking, movement, comprehension and intelligence."12 Here again I provide a brief reference from the Hippocraticauthor 13 of the treatise On Generation. He thought that there were two seeds, the male one being stronger than the female one, and the sex of the embryo being determinedby the finalproportionsof the two seeds.This of and theory was also defended by severalforerunners contemporaries Hippocrates,such as Pythagoras,Alcmaeon, Empedocles,Parmenides, and Epicurus; whereasDiogenesand Anaxagoras recognized Democritus, only the male seed. Regardingthe respective contribution of both seeds to the composition of the embryo, recall that Galen, who did not devote much attention to embryology, thought that blood vessels, nerves, tendons, bones, and cartilage derived from the male seed, while the uterine membranesoriginated from the female. As for the muscles, liver, and other viscera, they were generated directly from the blood."4 The held that the solid parts(such as hair,bones, Hindus(Susruta-Samhita) teeth, muscles, veins, and nerves) were providedby the father,whereas the soft parts (flesh, fat, blood, viscera) originated from the mother. And J. Needhamsays in his Historyof Embryologythat in New Guinea the natives make a distinction between the red flesh providedby the mother and the white bones coming from the father.15This last instance is a strikingexample of the worldwide dispersionof ideas, apparently, in this case, basedoriginallyupon an opposition of colors: white = male, red = female. It can be alleged that the Sages of the Talmudwere to some extent aware of the main theories of Greek antiquity on generation. They seemingly achieved a kind of synthesis of the Hippocraticand Aristotelian approaches.On the one hand, they held that both man and
12. Tractate Nidda, fol. 3 la.

in 13. On Generation, OeuvrescomplMtes d'Hippocrate, E. Littr6,10 vols. ed.

(Paris, 1839-1861), VII, 471. 14. Kuhn ed. of Galen, IV, 188 ff.

15. Needham, Historyof Embryology,p. 78n.

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Embryologyin Talmudicand Midrashic Literature woman produce seed. On the other hand, they accepted the image of the catamenialblood's being curdledby the male seed. But some of the medieval commentators on the Bible were not satisfied with such a hybrid theory. I quote from the remarksof the learned scholar of the thirteenth century Rabbi Moses bar Nahman (Nachmanides),who was also a trainedphysician: It was not meant [in the Scriptures] that the embryo is formed from the seed of the woman. Although she has "testicles" just as man, either there is no seed at all producedin these glands,or that seed is not 16 coagulatedand has no influence on the formation of the child. But the wording "she brings forth seed" is meant to be the blood of the womb that accumulated at the end of coition, and becomes fastened17 by the male seed. They [the Sages of the Talmud] hold that the embryo is formed from the mother'sblood and the father's white matterand they refer to both as "seed."18 This theory of generationwas developedmainly in mystical writings. But there is a brief reference to it in the Mishnaictreatise Aboth: "Aqabiaben Mehalalel said: reflect upon three things ... From whence you came? - From a putrefied(or putrefying)drop."19 Thereis in this statement more than a moralizingreflection on the originof man. As Needham pointed out,20 such a theory occurs in the works of Paracelsus,where he describes his "method" for creating a "homunculus": "let human sperm putrefy for forty days and then feed the solution with human blood for forty weeks."21 This "experiment"is
16. Another version is extant - "that seed is coagulated," and, therefore, has no influence on generation. The word Niqpa means, literally, congealed. 17. Literally: "[the catamenial blood] is seized, or held fast, by the male semen." 18. My translation of Nachmanides' commentary on the controversial verse Lev. 12:2. 19. Aboth, chap. 3, 1. The author of this statement lived at the end of the first century B.C.E. 20. Needham, History of Embryology, p. 83. 21. On Paracelsus see: Theophrast von Hohenheim, Samtliche Werke herausgegeben von Karl Sudhoff (Munich and Berlin, R. Oldenburg, 1922-1933). The description of the generation of a "homunculus" appears in Die 9 Bucher "De natura rerum" (angebl. Villach 1537), Liber primus, De generationibus rerum naturalium, XI, 317. At the beginning of the treatise we read: "Die Putrefaction ist der hochst Grad und auch der erst Anfang zu der Generation," which means: putrefaction is the highest degree and also the very beginning of generation (p. 312). In the Liber de homunculis (XIV, 327-336), we read: "So bald der

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in fact less a prefigurationof the test-tube baby than an ultimate illustrationof the power of creation claimed by the Alchemists,and is legendof the Golem. not without connection with the Cabbalistic For the Hippocratic author, the seed originates from the whole body, from the solid and liquid parts.22A kind of foam, it arisesin the spinal cord, and flows thence through the veins to the kidneys, then to the testicles. This happensin both man and woman. Theseemanations from the parental organs determine the correspondingorgans of the fetus. If more matter comes from the father, the child's organ will resemblethat of his father, and vice versa. The Talmudalso deals with this question: Can we say that the organ [of the father] producesthe [corresponding] organ [of the embryo]? ... Or do we say that the seeds [of the two parents] are mixed together?" The answer is: "of course the seeds mix together. If not, a blind would producea blind child, and a cripple would generate a cripple. It is thus evident that the seeds
are mixed.23

The Hippocraticauthor briefly mentions this problem, saying that usually when a limb of a parent is damaged,the child is normal, but when an organ of one parent is malformed the child often bears the
same blenmish.24

embryogenesis,the Sages of the Talmud, while accepting Regarding the Hippocratic theory of the two seeds, did not clearly agree with Hippocraticpreformationistideas.25 Neither did they make theirs the Aristotelian theory of epigenesis. This great achievement of Aristotle was generallyignored, as has been often stated, until Harveyrevivedit in 1651. The Talmudic scholars seemingly supported vaguely a pangenetic
Sperma generirt ist . . . so ist petrefactio [sic] do, er sei ausgefallen oder nicht." i.e., as soon as sperm is generated, putrefaction is present, whether it falls out [of the uterus] or not (p. 330).

22. On Generation, VII, 475.

23. Tractate Hullin, fol. 69a. 24. On Generation, VII, 485. 25. See Regimen I, chap. 26: "AU the limbs are separated and grow simultaneously ... The larger become visible before the smaller, yet they are formed none the earlier . . . Some [fetuses] have everything visible in forty days, some in two months, some in three months and others in four." (Trans. W. H. S. Jones, IV, 263-265).

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Embryologyin Talmudicand Midrashic literature approachto embryogenesis.They probablyhad in mind the somewhat elliptical descriptionin Ps. 139:16 (my translation): Thine eyes did see my substance26 Yet being unperfect And in thy book all [my members] were fashioned When [as yet there was] none of them.27 FETALDEVELOPMENT In accordance with the verse in Lev. 12:2 that I have repeatedly cited, the Sages of the Talmud held that the sex of the child is determined from the moment of generation. A Sage of the Talmud was asked whether it is lawful to pray after intercoursethat the child be a son. The question was answeredaffirmatively,but prayerwas permitted only during the forty days following conception. By the fortieth day, there is a generalagreementthat the sex is definitely determined.Until this limit, such a prayercould be helpful in the specific case of husband and wife havingbroughtforth seed at the same time.28 It is particularly interestingthat the sex of the fetus was consideredby the Sagesof the Talmud to be definitely determined by the fortieth day, an opinion apparently based on observationof the products of abortion. But this issue is related to a very curious"experiment"that seems to have had a strongimpact on the scientific world of those times. There was a controversy between Rabbi Ismael and a group of Talmudicscholars.Both partiesagreedthat the male embryois complete in its organs ("knitted")29 by the forty-first day, but they disagreed about the female embryo. Rabbi Ismaelmaintained:"It happenedthat
26. See The Holy Bible, King James' version. Golem is the informal mass, or magma, that prefigures the development of the embryo. 27. I.e., all the organs were prefigured beforehand. 28. Tractate Berakhot, fol. 60a. In any other case, the sex of the child was determined from the moment of conception. 29. The Hebrew "Shafir Meruqam" - knitted chorion, i.e., fetus - is noteworthy. At this stage, the fetus is characterized by its membranes, which represent its limits. It is interesting to note that the Hippocratic school called chorion the membranes "spreading out of the embryo," i.e., the placenta, which corresponds to the Hebrew Shilya. See H. Fasbender, Entwickelungslehre, Geburtshulfe und Gynakologie in den Hippokratischen Schnften (Stuttgart: F. Enke, 1897), p. 93. If the word Shafir is usuaUly translated by the term chonon and means in this context the whole fetus, the word Meruqam means exactly knitted, embroidered. The Hebrew modern word Riqma, related to Meruqam, means tissue.

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Cleopatra,the Queen of Alexandria,presented to the physicianssome of her maids who had been condemned to death and they were dissected. It was found that the male embryo is complete after forty-one days and the female embryo after eighty-onedays."30 The other Sages objected: "You cannot take that as a proof," becausecopulationcould have taken place before the experiment began, for instance, with the maids'guardian. Strangelyenough, the story appearsa second time on the same folio, but is cited by the Sages as contrary to Rabbi Ismael'sopinion. Their versions differ as to the results of the experiment: accordingto what they heard, there were found, after forty-one days, male and female embryos at the same stage of completion. Again, the same objections about the conditions of the experimentwere raised,this time by Rabbi Ismael. But the Sages replied that an abortive drug31had been given previously. Rabbi Ismaelwas not convinced,thinkingthat some people are not receptive to the drug. Needham briefly describesthis controversy and adds: "it providesan example . . . of a serious discussionon scientific method and the planningof an experiment. It demonstrates how near men could come to the Baconianoutlook."32 Early Greek authors had varyingopinions on embryonicformation. Empedocles(cited by Plutarch)held that "'men begin to take form after the thirty-first day and knit in their parts within forty-nine days."33 Asclepiades thought that males are shaped within twenty-six days and are complete in all limbs within fifty days, whereasfemalesrequiretwo months to be formed.' An interesting and lesser-knownsource to which I would like to refer here is the short work Nutriment. Its author is unknown, but he was probablya pupil of Heracitus. Weread: For formation, 35 days; for movement, 70 days; for completion, 210 days. - Others, for form, 45 days, for movement 90 days, for delivery, 270 days. - Others,50 for form;for the first leap, 100; for completion, 300 days. - For distinction of limbs, 40; for shifting, 80; for detachment, 240 days. It is not and is. There are found
30. Tractate Nidda, fol. 30b; see also Tossefta Nidda, chap. 4, 8. 31. Literally: a drug that shatters the semen in the womb. 32. Needham, History of Embryology, p. 65.

33. Plutarchi Cheronei: De philosophorumplacitis libellus elegantissimus

trans. G. Bud6 (Argentorat., 1516). This work of Plutarch has several times been claimed to be spurious. The statement by Empedocles appears in Book V. 34. Also cited in the ibid. See Needham, History of Embryology, p. 29.

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Literature Embryologyin Talmudicand Midrashic therein both more and less, in respect of both the whole and the parts, but the more is not much more, and the less not much less.35 Here the Pythagoreaninfluence is particularlyevident. The power and the harmonyof numbers,whichlead also to the doctrine of criticaldays, are emphasized.There are four dates that are associatedwith complete development. They appear in the order, mentioned above, of seven, nine, ten, and eight months. Note that the eight-month fetus is listed last, an indication of its special status. Regardinganimation, the fetus "is not and is," which means that it is living,accordingto the author, a special kind of life. I need not cite at this point all the Greek sources, but must, nevertheless, recall that the Hippocraticauthor of On Generationthought that the female embryo is formed by 42 days at most and the male by 30 days, and sometimes sooner.6 Here I must refer to Aristotle. Examininga male embryo aborted at the fortieth day, he noted that it was "as big as one of the largekind of ants; and all the limbs are plain to see, includingthe penis,and the eyes also . .. But the female embryo, if it suffer abortion duringthe first 3 months, is as a rule found to be undifferentiated;if however it reach the fourth month it comes to be 37 subdivided quickly attainsfurtherdifferentiation." It thus appears and that none of the Greek authors is in full agreementwith the statement origin.38 in the Talmud,which apparentlyhad an Alexandrinian
35. See Hippocrates, trans. W. H. S. Jones, Loeb Classical Library (London, 1948), 1, 337-341. The text quoted appears in Jones's translation on p. 357 (chap. 42). The short, aphorism-like statement renders its interpretation somewhat difficult, but the numbers could be summed up in the following table: Formation Movement Completion delivery* detachment** 35 70 210 (7 months) 45 90 270* (9 months) 50 100 300 (10 months) 40 80 240** (8 months)

36. On Generation, VII, 501 and 503. The author states that he has seen in products of abortion that male fetuses were "articulated" at the age of 30 days and female ones at the age of 42 days (p. 505). 37. Aristotle, Historia animalium, 7. 3. 583a, ed. J. A. Smith and W. D. Ross. 38. Regarding the "Queen Cleopatra" cited by the Talmud, there were several queens bearing this name in Egypt. The last one, the lustful wife of Antony, lived from 69 to 30 B.C.E. A little treatise on gynecology was ascribed to a certain Cleopatra (?) and was included in the well-known gynecological compendium of Israel Spach (Strassburg, 1597), based on the previous works of Caspar Wolf (1566) and Caspar Bauhin ( 15 86).

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The question of where the embryo begins its development was discussedby variousauthors in antiquity. Let me quote first the opinions of the Sages of the Talmud: "It has been taught:Wherefrom does the formation of the child [begin]? - From his head!" As usual in Talmudic discussions, the unknown author of this statement brings biblical verses to support his opinion,39 then continues: "Said AbbaSaul: [it begins] from its navel, and roots developin all directions."40 The head is the noblest and highest part of the individual,and in the embryo and young child it is large in relation to the rest of the body. The Talmudicopinion on the source of the embryo had been defended by the pre-SocraticphilosophersAnaxagoras,Alcmaeon, and Hippo of Samos, all of whom held that the head was formed first in embryonic development. The navel, being the organ related to the mother and markingthe middle of the fetus, could also logically be considered the origin of embryonic differentiation. But the Talmud wants its statement on this subject to be clearly understood: "This opinion of Abba Saul only means that this Sage thought that the embryo begins to develop from its middle. But he agrees that life begins at the nose, according to the biblicalverseGen. 7:22." I shall retum later to the controversialproblemof the source of the embryo's animation. Consider now what the Greeks said about the navel. The author of On Generationwrote: "The seed is in a membrane the umbilicus occupies the middle of it . . . and the membersare attached to the umbilicus."41 Aristotle had the image of the umbilical cord sending roots hither and thither: "The embryo, then, grows by means of the umbilicus in the same way as a plant by its root"; and further: "In viviparous animals, as said before, the embryo gets its growth through the umbilical cord ... It straightawaysends off this cord like a root to the uterus." But Aristotlealso said that the cephalic partsof the embryo are formed first.42 It should be emphasized that the Talmud does not deal with the problem of the first organ to be completed in embryogenesis (the heart, accordingto Aristotle), but is interestedonly in detenniningthe topographicoriginof the fetus' development. A difference of opinion about the priority of appearanceof organs
39. Ps. 81:6 and Jer. 7:29. 40. Tractates Sota, fol. 45b and Yoma,fol. 85a. 41. On Generation, VII, 29. 42. De generationeanimalium,2. 4. 740b and 7. 745b; Historiaanimalium, 8. 6. 586a; and 742b. 308

Embryologyin Talmudicand Midrashic Literature is also known in early Hindu medicine. The head, navel, and heart had their respective defenders. The final conclusion, however, was that all organsoriginatedat once.43 Let me return now to the problem of animation and the beginning of life. We read in the Mishna:"Antoninus44 asked Rabbi Judah HaNasi 45 'At which stage is man animated,at the moment of conception or when the embryo is shaped?' The Rabbi answered: 'When the embryo is formed.' But the Roman dignitaryremarked:'Is it possible that a piece of meat should stay for three days without salt and not become spoiled?"'46 Rabbi Judahaccepted the objection, and the idea that the soul enters the body from the moment of conception. Interestinglyenough, this decision had no influence on Jewish law. Abortion was not regardedas homicide, and, indeed, it was not even a matter for consideration,having seemingly not been performed in early Jewish society, although embryotomy in case of dangerfor the mother was permitted.47 The only Jewish authors in antiquity who associated abortion with homicide were Philo and Josephus, and it is not a coincidence that both of them were in contact with Greek and early Christiancircles. The Christianswere mainly influenced by the rules formulated by Tertullian (155-222 C.E.), who believed that the soul is present from the moment of conception, and accepted all the legal implicationsof that opinion. Another point should be added. The emperors named Antoninus, especially the second, were followers of Stoic philosophy, which denied the existence of a soul before birth,48 although they agreed that
43. Dhanvantari taught that all the partsdevelopsimultaneously, some of but them areimperceptible the beginning(Susruta). at 44. Some scholarsthink that the interlocutor RabbiJudahwas the Emperor of Antoninus Pius (86-161); others hold that it was his successor,Marcus Aurelius Antoninus(121-180), who was in fact a contemporary RabbiJudah. of 45. Rabbi JudahHa-Nasi(the Prince),lived about 135-220, was the compiler of the Mishna.His leadingposition among the Palestinian Jewsbroughthim into frequent contact with the Roman administration. For him, the Greek tongue was to be preferredto the Aramaic(used in the Talmudof Babylon). He once exclaimed: "Whathas the Syrian tongue to do with the Landof Israel?Speak eitherHebrewor Greek"(TractateBabaKama,fols. 82b-83a). 46. TractateSanhedrin, 91a-b,and Gen. Rabba,34, 10. fol. 47. On the problemof abortionand the entry of the soul into the body, see I. Jakobovits, JewishMedicalEthics (New York, 1967),.pp. 174-191. 48. See Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. J. Hastings(Edinburgh, 1908-1921), VI, 56: "An attempt was madeby the Antoninesto preventthe loss of childrenconsequentupon the practice[of abortion]." 309

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animation occurred on the fortieth day. It thus appears that the "Antoninus"of the Talmudcontradictsthe Stoic doctrine. Embryologicaldescriptionsin the Talmud,like many descriptionsin Semitic literature,tend to be lively and flowery, though the Sageswere not particularlyinterested in elaborate descriptions. On the general appearanceof the fetus, we read: "RabbiEleazarsaid: 'To what does a fetus bear resemblancein its mother's womb? - To a nut[-shell] in a vessel full of water. If someone touches it with his finger, it moves hither and thither?"49 Regardingthe "formed"embryo, which, as I have previouslynoted, interested the Sages of the Talmud for several reasons, they gave an interestingdescription: The Sages inquired: "What is a 'knitted' embryo?"50 Abba Saul said: "Its developmentbeginswith its head,51and its eyes are similar to two drippingsof a fly." 52 Rabbi Hiyya taught: "its two nostrils are [at a distance one from another] similarto that of the eyes of a fly. Its mouth is like a hair-thread its genitalslike a lentil. If it and is a female, it has a longitudinalsplit as [does] a barley-corn.Arms and legs are not yet separated[from the body] ."I' There follows a detailed description of how to differentiatebetween male and female embryos, succeeded by a descriptionof the "sandal" - the fetus compressus - which is a consequence of superfetation; neitherof these will be discussedin detail here. The descriptions above also appear in the Midrash:"At the beginand ning, the embryo looks like a locust . . . "The eyes, nmouth, nostrils are referredto as in the descriptionsabove, but the earsare mentioned also, and the arms, "which are like two threads of silk." The other

49. Tractate Nidda, fol. 3 la. 50. "Shafir Meruqam"; see note 29. 51. There is a second reading, which is retained in the later version of the Midrash: "it looks like a locust" (perhaps because its head is bent over the rest of the body). The terms Rosho (his head) and Rashon (locust) could easily have been exchanged by mistake in early manuscripts. 52. Understood by the commentators as: similar to the two eyes of a fly (which are black and bulging). 53. Tractate Nidda, fol. 25a.

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Embryologyin Talmudicand Midrashic Literature organs "are miniaturedin [the embryo] as in an unfinished lump."54 Moreover,"the handsand feet are not yet differentiated."55 Then the Midrashhas anothierextensive discussionthat also appears in the Talmud: Rabbi Simlai taught: To what does a fetus bear resemblancein its mother's womb? To a folded pinax,56 and it lies with its arms [pressed] against its sides, its elbows on its knees, its heels against its buttocks. Its head is restingbetween its knees. Its mouth is closed and its navel open. It is nurtured from what its mother eats, and drinks from what she takes in. It does not excrete any waste matter lest it should cause its mother's death.57Whenit comes out to the open air, what was closed opens and what was open closes, if not, the child could not surviveone single hour.58 This last descriptionis of a fully developedfetus, in which all the parts are clearly differentiated. Let me turn now to the Talmud's remarksregardingexternal, or magical,influences on embryogenesis.We read: "Rabbi Isaac said: 'He who sleeps with his bed set in the directionnorth-south,will have male children . .. ' Rabbi Nachman ben Isaac added: 'And his wife will be protected from abortion.'"59 As usual, the Sages bring verses of the Bible to support their statement. The famous commentator Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac ("Rashi"), who flourishedin the eleventh century, explains that a man should sleep with his head facing the north and his feet toward the south. The allegedreasonis that the divinepresence is located in the east or west and therefore such directions would be unfitting for intercourse. More interesting for the medical historian is the explanation of
54. Once again we find the word Golem - an unformed mass, or the unfinished mass of the sculptor. 55. Lev. Rabba, 14, 7. 56. The Greek word pinax means writing tablet, which could be folded. The derived word pinqas is still used in modern Hebrew for a notebook. 57. A very similar description can be found in Aristotle's Historia animalium (7. 8. 586b). The idea that the presence of meconium within the vitelline membrane could harm the mother was current in antiquity, whereas today its presence is a sign of fetal distress. 58. Tractate Nidda, fol. 30b. 59. Tractate Berakhot, fol. 5b.

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Nachmanides(thirteenth century): "They [the Sages] meant of course that his bed should be put between cold [north] and warm [south]. It is well known that a child bom from a cold drop [of semen] will be foolish and simple, whereas the one bom from a warm drop will be passionate and irascible. But the child born from a seed of medium 60 temperaturewill be cleverand level-headed." There is a similarstatement in Aristotle: "The shepherdssay that it not only makes a difference in the production of males and femalesif copulation takes place duringnorthernor southern winds, but even if the animals, while copulating, look towards the south or north. So small a thing will sometimes tum the scale and cause cold or heat, and these again influence generation."And some lines later: "For attaining the artistic and natural product, we need the due mean between the extremes."61 Hippocratesalso insists on the influence of winds on fertility, for instance, in "a city that lies exposed to the hot winds ... and sheltered from the north winds ... many [women] are barrenthrough disease and not by nature, while abortions are frequent." In cities "facingthe cold winds ... but sheltered from the hot winds and from the south .. . many [women] become barren through the waters being hard, 62 indigestibleand cold . . . [But] abortionis rare." The Talmudicstatement,however,seems nearerto the idea expressed by Aristotle, which is based on popular beliefs ("the shepherdssay"), as well as on the old theory of the four properties (cold, hot, dry, moist). I do not intend to dwell here on the problem of abortion and of the "fetus compressus"63or other products of abortion.64 But the TalmudicSages, being true polyhistors,took into account experimental biology as well as popular beliefs. The Babyloniancontext can easily explain the fact that some magical practices, such as amulets and
60. Iggerethha-Kodesh,chap. 3. Mostscholarsnow hold that this workis not amonghis printedworks.The translation but that of Nachmanides, it still appears is mine.
61. De generatione animalium, 4. 2. 767a.

trans.W.H. S. Jones, Loeb Classical in Spaces", Hippocrates 62. "Airs,Waters, Library (London, 1948), I, 75-81. 63. See TractateNidda,fol. 25a, and T. Jerus.,Nidda,III, 50. 64. Sometimes called Shafir (chorion), sometimesHatikha(a fragment),the products of abortion could take all kinds of strangeforms. There are several in references the Talmud,which cannotbe presentedhere. teratological

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Embryologyin Talmudicand Midrashic literature incantations, were accepted in the Talmud, although the Scriptures strongly objected to "black magic."65 But anything done for the sake of healing (including prevention) was permitted by the Sages.66 One of these amulets was the "even tequma" - the preservingstone which young women were allowed to weareven on the Sabbath,67and even without being pregnant,for they could be with child without yet knowingit. A similartalismanis describedby Pliny.68 Finally, let us consider the problem of the eight-months' child, a controversial case in ancient embryology. The author of the brief Hippocratic treatise on the seven-months'child was convinced that a child born after a period of eight months could "certainly not survive."69 This idea was very widely accepted in antiquity and the Sages of the Talmudexpressedit severaltimes.70Aristotle, however,observed that such children could sometimes survive,71 and the Sages of the Talmud were clearly aware of the fact that many an eight-months' child surviveddespite predictionsto the contrary.The problemfound a rathersophisticatedsolution in the following discussion:"It is written: The Lord created [vayitser]72 man . . . It thus appearsthat there are two types of formation [of the embryo] , one for seven months and one
65. See, e.g., Deut. 18:10-14. 66. Tractate Shabbat, fol. 67a, and Hullin, fol. 77b. 67. Tractate Shabbat, fol. 66b. It is generally prohibited to carry anything from private property onto public property on the Sabbath. 68. For more details and bibliography on this preservation stone, see Jakobovits, Jewish Medical Ethics, p. 270, note 82. 69. Of the Seven-Month Fetus (Lat.: De septimestri partu). This little treatise had been admitted as genuine by Galen (Ad epidem., 6. 6. 27) and by Foes (Opera, 1, 318), but by no modern authority. It appears in Littre's classification among the writings of the School of Cos (class IV) and in Adams's list as the work of Hippocrates's disciples, from notes or memory of the master's teaching (class 11). 70. See, e.g., Tractate Shabbat, Tossefta, 16, 4. 71. Historia animalium, 7. 4. 584b: "In Egypt and in some other places where the women are fruitful . . . in these places the eight months' children live and are brought up, but in Greece it is only a few of them that survive, while most perish. And this being the general experience, when such a child does happen to survive, the mother is apt to think that it was not an eight months' child after all, but that she had conceived at an earlier period without being aware of it." Could the Jewish people be ranged among those where "women are wont to bear many children without difficulties," as Aristotle said (ibid.)? 72. The word has an unusual spelling characterized by the duplication of the letter i (yod), and this point is used to support the following statement.

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for nine months."I Now if the child was scheduledfor a seven-months formation but remainedlonger in his mother's womb and was bom in his eighth month, he would live. But if the child was scheduled to be fully formed after nine months and was bom one month earlier, he would die. This would, of course, also be the case if such a child was born in his seventhmonth. Somebody asked Rabbi Abbahu: "Wherefromdo we know that a seven-months'child is viable?" The Sage answeredhis Greekinterlocutor: "I will illustrate this question in your own language: 'Zuta epta, eta octo,' which means: 'life at seven, death at eight.'"74 This epigrammaticanswer, in the manner of Heraclitus, could hardly be consideredan explanation. But it is interestingto note that the Sages, or at least some of them, masteredthe Greek languageand even condescended to let such a Greek formula enter the Talmudic corpus. CONCLUSION In this paper I have not, of course, presentedall the embryological data that can be collected from the Talmudicand Midrashic literature. Moredetails can be found in JuliusPreuss'classicalwork on biblicaland talmudic medicine, now availablein Fred Rosner'sEnglishtranslation and in a French M.D. thesis by MartineMichel.7 I also did not present any data on teratology, and did not deal with the very rich Jewish mystical lore, the Cabbala.But a few commentsare in orderhere about the materialon embryology. 1. There are very few original ideas in the Talmudic corpus on embryology, but it is obvious that the Sages were well aware of the Greekand Romantheories on embryology. 2. The fact that the Talmudis a compilationthat was built up slowly, during several centuries, explains why the information recorded in it cannot be ascribed solely to one school of thought or one clear-cut influence.
73. Tractate Yevamot, fol. 42a. 74. MidrashlGen. Rabba, 14, 2. Rabbi Abbahu, who lived about 300 C.E. in Cesarea, was held in great esteem by the Roman authorities, with whom he was in close contact. He was learned in mathematics, rhetoric, and Greek, which he taught his daughters. 75. Julius Preuss, Biblisch Talmudische Medizin (Berlin: S. Karger, 1911); Preuss, Biblical and Talmudic Medicine, trans. Fred Rosner (New York: Sanhedrin Press, 1978); M. Michel-Strub, "Contribution a l'etude de l'embryologie biblique et talmudique" University of Nancy, 1978.

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Embryologyin Talmudicand Midrashic Literature 3. When a definite problemwas difficult to solve because there were many different theories about it, the Sages based their opinion on a famous experiment that seemed to offer guaranteesof validity. This was the case with the controversialproblem of the formation of the embryo and its sexual differentiation,where the Sages made use of an experimentallegedlyinitiated by Cleopatra. 4. The Sages were ready to discuss scientific problems with nonJewish scholars and even to accept their arguments.This was the case with the important topic of the time of the entry of the soul into the embryo. But the legal conclusions drawn from the Sages'opinion were not consistent with those declaredby ChurthFatherssuch as Tertullian. Embryotomy,for instance, was permittedby Jewishlaw. 5. Wide interest, scholarly discussions, suggestive descriptions and readiness to inquire and to obtain detailed information characterized the Talmudicdiscussionsof embryology. In conclusion, I quote a Talmudic text that reviews the whole process of embryologicaldevelopment throughthe sequence of prayers of a faithful Jew who leams that his wife is expecting a baby. The first three days, [he should pray to the Lord] that the seed should not putrefy. From the third to the fortieth day: that the child should be a male. From the fortieth day to the third month: that there should not occur any superfetation, which could lead the first embryo to be a fetus compressus. From the third to the sixth month: that an abortion should not occur. From the sixth to the ninth month: that the birth should be without problems.76 Apart from the still controversialproblem of superfetation, there is nothing in this sequence that contradictsmodernviews on the development of the embryo.

76. Tractate Berakhot, fol. 60a.

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