The Jewish child : its history, folklore, biology, & sociology / by W.M. Feldman ; with an introduction by Sir James Crichton-Browne.

  • Feldman, W. M. (William Moses), 1879-1939.
Date:
1917
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Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: The Jewish child : its history, folklore, biology, & sociology / by W.M. Feldman ; with an introduction by Sir James Crichton-Browne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    X.] Philosophical Speculations 147 but take it every morning to paradise, where it can see the reward of the good and the just, and every evening through hell, to show it the punishment of the sinners. A light is said to be burning on the head of the embryo or foetus, by means of which it can see from one end of the world to the other. This is nothing strange, explains the legend, since it is well known that a man sleeping here in Palestine may see in his dream what is taking place in Spain. When the time comes for the child to be born, the angel comes to him, and says, It is time that thou goest into the world's atmosphere, and the child replies, Wherefore dost thou wish me to go there ? But the angel rejoins: My child, know thou that it is against thy will that thou hast been created, and it is also against thy will thou art now about to be born, and against thy will that thou wilt die, and against thy will that thou wilt have to give a full account of thy actions before the King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He ! The child still refuses to go, until the angel strikes him on the mouth and extinguishes the candle.^ According to the Talmudic version, the object of the blow received by the child at the moment of birth is to make it forget all that it had seen and learned, so that its experience may not interfere Avith the subsequent exercise of its own free will.^ The infranasal depression in the upper lip is supposed to represent the injury received by such a blow. This is a hyperbolic expression of the Platonic view that study is only a recollection, because the soul knew everything before entering the world. Güdemann is of opinion that both the Talmudic speculation and Plato's view originate from the same source—viz., an Egyptian ^ Tanchuma Pikkude. ^ Nidah 30Ò and 34.