More in ‘jewish body week’

Monday, October 19th
Braiding Flesh and Spirit: Kicking off a weeklong examination of the Jewish body, by Jonathan Rosen
On the Bookshelf: New books on bodies visible and invisible, by Josh Lambert
Stumped: From the archives: A new father finds that the bris ends but the foreskin lingers, by Peter Hyman
Bottled Guilt: How the debate over breastfeeding is ...

The Rabbis tell a Midrash about the soul before birth, forced to inhabit the sperm brought by an angel before God on the day of conception. The soul, which has been basking in God’s glory, has no desire to enter what it calls an “impure sperm,” but God consolingly tells the soul that the world ...