19

Since they were created by God and did not form in a womb and had no umbilical chord did they have bellybuttons or fingerprints (that are formed by womb pressure) or upper lip ridge which the malach hits the child after birth to forget the torah learned in womb?

In other words, God created Adam as a grown and complete man (cf Rosh Hashana 11a , Chullin 60a, et al). Did this include womb dependent anatomical formations, as well?

Yoni
  • 7,530
  • 18
  • 38
  • 3
    According to Rabbinic sources, they were born adults, fully formed and complete... I don't think that would omit belly-buttons, as they ordinarily arise due to the non-miraculous processes everything else seems to arise from. A more interesting question I suppose is if Adam was born circumcised, I'd think the answer would be in the positive, as the most perfect person in the world after him, Moshe Rabbeinu, was born circumcised. Unfortunately, I don't know what the sources say about this. – Ploni Almoni May 07 '14 at 06:10
  • 1
    There is a minor tractate in the Talmud called Brit Millah which lists all the people born circumcised. I can't remember if Adam is one of them, but Seth and Moshe are. – avi May 07 '14 at 09:02
  • @Yoni I suppose it depends if this has a significance in kabala.I think it has. Perhaps one of our mekubalim here can answer this. – preferred May 07 '14 at 11:11
  • 2
    WOW. Watching the voting on this question I see it is very controversial. It's getting many up votes and down votes. Why so many down votes...I thought this was a cute question. – Yoni May 07 '14 at 12:55
  • "cute" doesn't mean good. Why should anyone have ever cared if he had a belly button or not? Could he roll his tongue? Touch his toes? – Double AA May 07 '14 at 13:02
  • @DoubleAA LOL - I added a few more womb dependent biological items - some with more significant implications that might broaden the interest. I think, as PloniAlmoni commeneted, this has greater philosophical signifcance - but I was hoping someone might answer as much. – Yoni May 07 '14 at 13:35
  • 3
    Re lip ridge: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/29673/what-is-the-source-for-the-tradition-that-the-philtrum-is-formed-by-an-angel-bef/34175#34175 – Baby Seal May 07 '14 at 15:00
  • http://www.dinonline.org/2011/01/03/a-baby-born-circumcised/ – Gershon Gold May 07 '14 at 15:06

2 Answers2

4

There is a midrash that says that Adam and Chavah did not have navels (i.e. bellybuttons.) One should wonder if Chazal meant for any such midrashim to be taken literally. After all, Chazal were interested in teaching Torah; not anthropology.

Yahu
  • 16,076
  • 1
  • 30
  • 66
  • 1
    Do you know the location of midrash? – Yoni May 13 '14 at 23:55
  • Why is this not torah? – Baby Seal May 14 '14 at 02:43
  • 1
    @BabySeal Knowing Adam's hair color isn't Torah. Learning a lesson from it is. As long as we establish that Chazal's statement is meaningful because of the lesson learned from it, there is no necessity to assume it is historically true. – Double AA May 14 '14 at 04:00
  • @DoubleAA that doesn't sit well with me, but I understand. – Baby Seal May 14 '14 at 04:19
  • @Yoni, I have seen it inside, I just need time to refind it. – Yahu May 13 '15 at 22:10
  • 2
    Avos D'Rabbi Nassan (31) might be interpreted to the contrary: אף כך הקדוש ברוך הוא... ברא את כל העולם כולו וברא את השמים ואת הארץ עליונים ותחתונים ויצר באדם כל מה שברא בעולמו... בורות בעולם בורות באדם זה טיבורו של אדם. – Fred May 14 '15 at 02:55
  • @Fred, great source. Like you said, it might be interpreted to the contrary. From some of the meforshim it does seem that it is meant to be a reference to Adam HaRishon the individual. e.g. Binyan Yehoshua says in his 2nd explanation that just like boros (a word used for open air water wells/pits) are open, so is the navel open while Adam is in his mother's womb. His first explanation would be able to fit and could be construed as proving Adam HaRishon had a navel, but from the fact that he does not mention this important difference & merely transitions with "alternatively" . . . – Yahu May 14 '15 at 03:22
  • is quite suggestive that he understood the braita to be about Adam, the species, i.e. Mankind – Yahu May 14 '15 at 03:23
2

There are some commentators who ask "If Adam cut down a tree did it have rings" and answer yes. The logic is that everything was formed as if it had grown and become fully mature (fruit trees bearing fruit) through natural means. Similarly, mushrooms were created growing on dead trees so the dead trees had to be created as well. Herd animals had to be created in herds with the appropriate mix of ages. Similarly, passenger pigeons had to be created in flocks of the appropriate sizes.

Thus, the same logic would imply that Adam and Eve were created with navels, etc.

Note that the question was asked in the "Scopes Monkey Trial" by Clarence Darrow but neither he nor William Jennings Bryan understood the question or the answer and what it meant.

sabbahillel
  • 43,108
  • 7
  • 47
  • 88