Tuesday 16 August 2016

parts of the body - Is the Luz the Sacrum?


The Luz bone has been identified as the bone Techias Hameisim will be performed from, see for instance in Bereishis Rabba 28 3 the discussion between Rabi Yehoshua ben Chananya and Hadrian. It is described there as indestructible.


The identity of the bone is described by Rashi as being at the end of the spine seemingly a reference to the Coccyx, what we call the tailbone, and so stated on wiki here.


(I am going to ignore for the sake of this question the Kabbalistic idea that the Luz bone is at the top of the neck, from which the practice of rubbing the havdala wine upon it stems, as seen here)


Here is my question. Has anyone ever identified the Luz bone as the Sacrum? This is the triangular bone at the bottom of the spine to which the Coccyx is attached.


As seen in that wiki page, the name Sacrum has it's roots tracing back to Galen, a famous Greek physician in the Roman empire. From Wiki:



The origin of Galen's term is unclear. Supposedly the sacrum was the part of an animal offered in sacrifice (since the sacrum is the seat of the organs of procreation). Others attribute the adjective ἱερόν to the ancient belief that this specific bone would be indestructible.



I guess you see where I'm going with this. As Rabbi Hirsch pointed out concerning the human spine turning into a snake myth that Chazzal quoted from Pliny in order to teach a lesson of bowing during Modim, we can easily say they took a famous doctor's words and used it to instill faith about Techias Hameisim.*



My question again is did anyone identify this Sacrum as the Luz bone?


*I am aware that Galen would have been nine years old when Hadrian died.This does not bother me. Firstly, this bone myth may not have been his invention. Perhaps he was merely quoting some other known idea. Secondly, it's agadata so don't worry so much about these details.




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