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<DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>R' Binyomin Hirsch writes:<BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>
<DIV><BR>"If girls don't learn Torah before they're born, why do they have
a pinch under their noses?" <BR>>>By extension the same question can be
asked ad to why all humans have that pinch mark under their noses, everyone from
the Chinese to the lost tribes in Africa. Did they all learn Torah, and if they
did is that more problematic than a woman learning
Torah?<<<BR></DIV></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>and R' Menachem Posner writes:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>>>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.<<<BR></DIV>
<DIV>>>>>></DIV>
<DIV>In reality my question about the dent under the nose was meant half in
jest. I don't /really/ believe it's there because the malach tapped you
under the nose. (I know someone who does not have that dent under her
nose and she does NOT remember learning the whole Torah from an angel before she
was born :- ) )</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>But my question about girls learning Torah in utero was meant
seriously. And RBH's question -- which I didn't think of, though I should
have -- is also a logical question. Do goyim learn Torah in utero?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I can think of a number of possibilies:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>1. Females and goyim learn what they will some day need to know, and
no more than that.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>2. Females and goyim do indeed learn the whole Torah.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>3. Females do but goyim don't (because their neshamos are different
from Jewish neshamos? speculative).</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>4. Goyim do but females don't (because goyim can become geirim some
day and so at least the possibility exists that some day they will learn Torah
and will need to know it, but females will never become males and will never
have a mitzva of limud Torah).</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>5. Other?<BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><BR><B>--Toby
Katz<BR>=============</B></FONT></DIV></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">See what's new at <A title="http://www.aol.com?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001170" href="http://www.aol.com?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001170" target="_blank">AOL.com</A> and <A title="http://www.aol.com/mksplash.adp?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001169" href="http://www.aol.com/mksplash.adp?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001169" target="_blank">Make AOL Your Homepage</A>.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>