Charity Begins in the Uterus Bava Basra 17-19 Psychology of the Daf

17

Tasteless Sin

Our Gemara at the end of 16b and beginning 17a teaches us that certain great tzaddikim were able to get a taste of the World to Come, while still alive on this earth. One of these righteous persons was our forefather, Yaakov.

Be’er Mayyim Chaim (Bereishis 32:33) expands on this concept with an interesting take in regard to the ancient Jewish custom and prohibition of not eating the sciatic nerve.

After Yaakov’s mostly successful encounter with the angel, the verse states:

וַיִּֽזְרַֽח־ל֣וֹ הַשֶּׁ֔מֶשׁ כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר עָבַ֖ר אֶת־פְּנוּאֵ֑ל וְה֥וּא צֹלֵ֖עַ עַל־יְרֵכֽוֹ׃

The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping on his hip.

על־כן לא־יאכלו בני־ישראל את־גיד הנשה אשר על־כף הירך עד היום הזה כי נגע בכף־ירך יעקב בגיד הנשה

That is why the children of Israel to this day do not eat the Gid Hanashe that is on the socket of the hip, since Jacob’s hip socket was wrenched at the thigh muscle.

Be’er Mayyim Chaim notes that there is something odd about the sequence. We are taught that the first verse which mentions sunrise, alludes to the healing energy and blessings from God by rays of the Sun which healed Yaakov from his injury (see Rashi ibid). If so, why offer tthe reason for Gid Hanashe AFTER Yaakov is healed?  This verse should have been stated before, while he was still limping, as this commemorates the injury.

Be’er Mayyim Chaim explains that Gid Hanashe represents the ultimate non-kosher, the impurity that somehow still sticks to a person, even when having achieved a high level of righteousness. There is a Talmudic tradition that the sciatic nerve has no taste (unlike other non-kosher foods) and yet still is forbidden. This speaks of the hollowness found in this impurity. Meaning to say, even a righteous person who has removed from himself many aspects of lust and physical desire can still be affected by the intrinsic presence of certain impurities in the physical world. Yet, because as our Gemara states, Yaakov achieved a sense of the world to come while still in this world, he was able to take it to the next level and completely expunge any residue of impurity. However, only he is the exception. The overwhelming majority of Jews, even the righteous, still must be on guard and are still susceptible to a shadow force of impurity.

Now the sequence of the verses make sense. The implication is even though Yakov achieved this great level of divine inspiration (as represented by the rays of the Sun, see Malachi 3:20) and was healed from his limp (full purification), his descendants would not be able to achieve that level en masse before messianic times. Now the verse states, “That is why the children of Israel do not eat from the Gid Hanashe”. Meaning to say, quite literally the children of Israel, do not eat from this, while metaphorically Yaakov was able to do so because of his full achievement of divestment from the physical world.

Personally, I was struck by the symbolism that the Gid Hanashe is a nonkosher form of food, despite the fact that it has no taste. I wonder, how many sins promise an illusion of tastiness when really they have no nutritious value?

18

Charity Begins in the Uterus

Our Gemara on amud aleph discusses the damage that mustard might cause to a nearby beehive, and the various liabilities that neighbors have toward each other:

“One must likewise distance mustard from bees that are in a neighbor’s field.”

Rashi explains that the mustard is sharp and that taste causes the bees to seek out a sweet taste afterward, inducing them to consume their own honey. Which is, of course, a loss of honey yield for the farmer.

Gilyonei Hashas references Rashi’s explanation to a different Gemara in Kesuvos (60b) which discusses a plethora of ways in which a mother’s dietary choices and behaviors can affect the child in utero.  As one example, “One who eats mustard during pregnancy will have gluttonous children.” Gilyonei Hashas is suggesting a mechanism similar to our Gemara. The mustard will cause a craving for sweetness, and apparently the sweet tooth will lead to craving food in general, and to gluttony.

The ancient belief and wisdom, that what occurs physiologically to the mother influences the formation of the fetus has been demonstrated by science.  The baby is in a bath of mother’s hormones, and as nerve pathways are forming, the adaptive mechanisms of the brain may already be influenced to react. Various responses become triggered way before the child has any of his or her own life experiences.  According to researchers Wu et. al. (Wu, Y., De Asis-Cruz, J. & Limperopoulos, C. “Brain Structural And Functional Outcomes In The Offspring Of Women Experiencing Psychological Distress During Pregnancy”. Molecular Psychiatry (2024)):

• In-utero exposure to maternal psychological distress is increasingly linked with disrupted fetal and neonatal brain development and long‐term neurobehavioral dysfunction in children and adults. Elevated maternal psychological distress is associated with changes in fetal brain structure and function…
• Disturbed brain microstructure and functional connectivity have been reported in the offspring months or even years after exposure to maternal distress during pregnancy. Additionally, adverse child neurodevelopment outcomes such as cognitive, language, learning, memory, social-emotional problems, and neuropsychiatric dysfunction are being increasingly reported after prenatal exposure to maternal distress.
• Exposure to prenatal maternal stress is shown to have enduring and wide-ranging consequences on brain development in the offspring, including altered regional brain volumetric growth, cortical folding, metabolism, microstructure, and functional connectivity. In addition, the long-term neurodevelopmental impairments of the offspring include a spectrum of cognitive, language, social-emotional, learning and memory, and behavioral problems, as well as neuropsychiatric dysfunction.

In the 21st Century, it would be unthinkable for a middle class pregnant woman to neglect pre-natal vitamins and routine blood tests, sonograms etc.  We see from these findings, that emotional care for the mother is also an important part of pre-natal health.  If the mother is suffering from depression, anxiety and/or relational discord, getting proper help is important and can have significant impact on future family life and child development.  A Jewish mother would never get drunk while pregnant, so neither should she or her spouse   allow for intense emotional anguish.  There is a great wisdom to the old-school practices of spoiling a pregnant woman, and being extra forgiving and generous during pregnancy, as the family’s future may depend on it.

19

A Hole is Greater than the Sum of Its Parts

As part of an ongoing discussion regarding the effects of various constructions and substances on adjoining properties, and the requirements of neighbors to each other, the Gemara on amud aleph noted a property of sand:  “It heats hot items and cools cold items”, which has implications about whether it would cause damage to a neighboring wall.

Sand is fascinating and therefore the subject of symbolic meaning and projections in our tradition. The Jewish people are compared to sand (Bereishis 22:17) in many qualities that we shall see, including what it stated above. Chashukei Chemed on this daf discusses a question regarding a Kehillah which had to choose between two rabbis, one who was more learned, and the other who was known for his passion and charisma. He ruled that the rabbi who has more passion and charisma should be given precedence, because the Jewish people are just like the sand and they become reactive to their environment. If the environment is cool, they make it  cooler. If the environment is hot, they make it hotter. An engaging Rabbi will inspire them.

There are other features of sand as well, such as what Pesikta Rabbasi 11:1 states: Why does the verse compare Jews to stars and also sand? God knew that the Jews would sin and end up in exile suffering from numerous extinction threats. However, just as sand is resilient and can be dug up, but the next day the hole fills up all over again, so too the Jews would bounce back from whatever despotic decree that would be thrown against them.

One final thought of my own regarding the Jewish people and their comparison to sand. Even though sand is composed of tiny, indivisible, distinct grains, it adds up into a formidable barrier against the powerful ocean. So too the Jewish people, though we are stubborn distinct individuals, at the same time we are capable of working together and achieving astounding feats.