[Avodah] Philtrum sources

[SBA]

From: "Menachem Posner" < >
Toby Katz wrote:
   If girls don't learn Torah before they're  born, 
   why do they have a pinch under their noses?

>>>
The source of this is Niddah 30b. Interestingly, the Talmud mentions the
angel tapping the baby on the mouth but nothing about the dent (philtrum)
left behind. If this is the sole source, it would render your  question and
that of why non-Jews have dents immaterial; unless there is another source
which does mention it.

================

Here's a "source" that is cholek on your reading of that gemara...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philtrum

According to the Jewish Talmud (Niddah 30b), God sends an angel to each womb
and teaches a baby all the wisdom that can be obtained. Just before the
unborn baby comes out, the angel touches it between the upper lip and the
nose and all that it has taught the baby is forgotten.
Commentries on this particular story can be found in "What the Angel Taught
you" by Rabbi Noah Weinberg and Yaakov Salomon (ISBN 1-57819-134-3).
Similarly, in other folksayings, it is said that an angel "shushes" the baby
in the womb, to stop it from talking about heaven, or to forget. Other
stories say that it is an indent left by the finger of God. Still more say
that it is the spot where the angel put his finger to "shush" the child
after having told it a secret. (This was memorably referenced in the film
The Prophecy by the arch-angel Gabriel (Christopher Walken).)

SBA