To The Editor:
"HaRav Wolbe's Attitude to Torah and to Torah Im Derech
Eretz" (1 Sivan) referred to the necessity of every Jew to
have some understanding of the human body.
"The most important kavonoh that we must have when
putting on Tefillin is the gratitude to Hashem of
actually possessing an arm on which to put the Tefillin
on!" (R. Avigdor Miller).
Students at medical school spend an entire term learning
solely about the basic anatomy of the arm: about its humerus,
ulna, and radius bones, its biceps, triceps, and other
muscles, the bones and articulations of the carpals of the
wrist, the tendons to each of the 14 bones in the hand
(gematria of yad = 14!), man's unique opposable
thumb without which he would have no tool-making ability, let
alone the blood vessels and motor and sensory nervous
innervation that absorbs such a large part of the brain's
power, accounting for man's unique dexterity.
"If all of humanity since the beginning of time had done
nothing but study the wisdom of the just the cuticles at the
end of the fingers, they would not have started to scratch
the chochmah she'ein bo keitz in them!"
(Ibid.)
Chazal call the human body an olam koton, and the
Malbim compares it to the Mishkon, both operating in
Hashem's service:
The three parts of the Mishkon, the Kodesh
Hakodoshim, the Heichal and the Chotzeir,
correspond to the head (intellect), chest (vital organs)
and the abdomen (digestive organs).
The first section contained the Aron Hakodesh with the
two Luchos, symbolizing the cerebrum and cerebellum of
the brain. The two parallel carrying poles, each permanently
fixed in two rings, indicate the double synaptic links that
connect the brain to the two main organs of perception, the
eye and ear, through the optic and auditory nerves.
The second section contained the Shulchan and the
Menorah. The Shulchan and its Lechem
HaPonim stands for the heart which feeds the body through
the blood, with the pure-oil-burning seven-branched
Menorah corresponding to the pure-air-breathing seven-
lobed lung. The two animal skin coverings represent the
dermis and epidermis of the human skin. The supporting middle
bar (the briach hatichon) is like the spinal column,
joined to the 20 kroshim (boards) plus one corner
board at each end, like the 22 ribs!
The third section, the Courtyard, was separated by the
Mosoch (screen), like the diaphragm separating the
abdomen and chest. In it the Mizbeiach on which the
sacrifices were burnt represents the stomach, and "its pots
to take away its ashes, and its shovels and its basins, and
its flesh-hooks and its fire-pans" (Shemos 27) are
compared to the digestive tract, spleen, kidney and liver,
which transport the food, store and clean the blood, and
process the waste.
And in Kabboloh, the human frame is literally
beTzelem Elokim, being arranged according to the
Supernal Sefiros: Kesser to the crown of the head,
Chochmah and Binah to the right and left
hemispheres of the brain, Chesed and Gevurah to
the right and left arms, Tiferes to the torso,
Netzach and Hod to the right and left leg,
Yesod to the organ of procreation and Malchus
to the corona: "From my flesh I see G-d" (Iyov
19).
It is an outrage that most of the world today views man as
being the result of an accidental evolution from a slime
cell!
But the Jew is exhorted by the Chovos Halevovos to study in
some detail man's body, which is so much more than a physical
frame of flesh, blood, bones and skin, and will thereby come
to perceive the infinite wisdom, power and goodness of the
Creator: "I will praise You, for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made" (Tehillim 139).
Yours Truly,
Amnon Goldberg
Tzefas
