By: Rabbi Shlomo Ezagui
Rivkah from the Bible, after being barren for many years, conceived and was now expecting. The children struggled within her, and she did not yet know she was carrying twins. Rivkah went “to ask G-d” why her pregnancy was so difficult, by turning to the priest of G-d at that time, Sheim. Through Divine inspiration Sheim revealed to her she was carrying twins. Every time she would pass a house of G-d, one of the twins Jacob, was pushing to go out, and when she would pass an idol worshiping temple, the other twin Esau was pushing to go out.
Already in the womb of their mother, babies have their own individual personalities. They are distinct entities.
The Talmud written over 2000 years ago writes.” R. Simlai delivered the following discourse: What does an embryo resemble when it is in the bowels of its mother? Folded writing tablets. Its hands rest on its two temples respectively, its two elbows on its two legs and its two heels against its buttocks. Its head lies between its knees, its mouth is closed and its navel is open, and it eats what its mother eats and drinks what its mother drinks, but produces no excrements because otherwise it might kill its mother. As soon, however, as it sees the light the closed organ opens and the open one closes, for if that had not happened the embryo could not live even one single hour.
A light burns above its head and it looks and sees from one end of the world to the other……And there is no time in which a man enjoys greater happiness than in those days, for it is said, …. It is also taught all the Torah from beginning to end….”
The reason why most people sleep in the fetal position, is because they subconsciously yearn for the experience which was most sublime, transcendent and enjoyable, when they were in their mothers’ stomach.
The great mystic, the Arizal, explains the process of life coming into this world, in four stages corresponding the four letters of G-ds name and the four elements of life. By the third day from conception, 18 sparks have entered into the process. In Hebrew, 18 means, alive. At the third day there is already the identity and the soul of a brand new live “person” in the mother’s womb. It has the full spectrum of human life. This is step number one.
As many of us know, we are spirit dressed in a body. Now in full swing, goes the building of this garment for the soul, the exterior tool, the body, through which the person will relate to a physical world. At forty days which by the way medical science as well records as the stage when brain waves can be detected in the fetus, the body is already formed in its entirety.
According to the Talmud, even the gender of a fetus is already determined by the fortieth day.
In Hebrew the word for mother is “EIM” the numerical value of 41, because on the forty first day, in every sense we have a mother of a completely formed child. Soul and body.
The third stage is at three months when the baby can be noticed from the outside and the body develops further detail. The fourth stage is when the baby is finally born and there is over 60,000 miles of vessels. A truly Divine and miraculous creation, starting from the very beginning.
It is a known fact that not only will the fetus be affected by the atmosphere, music etc. it is surrounded by, while in its mother’s womb, even later on in life it will show signs of that memory.
A child in its mother’s womb especially from day three, is already a fully individualized and distinct person, living its own very transcendent and very much down to earth life.
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