In Bava Kama (16b s.v. vehu delo kara) the Tosafos cites the Medrash (Bereshis Rabba, Parshah 28:3), which mentions a bone in the human spine—the nischu’i or luz—that never decays. The regeneration of those who are destined to merit Techiyas HaMeisim [the Resurrection of the Dead] will begin with this bone. The nischu’i is hard and durable. The Medrash Rabba writes that the Roman emperor Adrianus tried to destroy it by grinding it with a grindstone, burning it, and dissolving it in water, but was unsuccessful. He even tried to hammer it on an anvil, but it remained intact and the anvil broke.
What is a Melaveh Malkah for? The Beis Yosef (O.C. 300:1), quoting early commentators, writes that the nischu’i bone derives its nourishment from no other food besides the Melaveh Malkah meal on Motzei Shabbos. The Chasam Sofer (Responsa II Y.D. §337) explains that this bone remains intact even after the body decays, because it did not benefit from the fruit of the Etz Hadaas [Tree of Knowledge] when Adam and Chava ate from it on Erev Shabbos when the world was created (Sanhedrin 38b). Therefore, the nicshu’i bone was not included in the curse of “to dust shall you return” (Bereishis 3:19). The Kaf HaChaim (311:8, citing the Holy Zohar and the Ari z’l) writes at length about this topic and notes that the nefesh of the departed resides in this bone until the Resurrection. The fact that this bone never disintegrates has certain halachic implications.
Pesach Sheini because of the nischu’i bone: The Gemara (Sukkah 25b) cites an opinion that Pesach Sheini was enacted for Mishael and Elzaphan after they became tamei when they buried Nadav and Avihu, who had been burned alive (Vayikra 10:4). Many commentaries ask how they could become tamei according to the view that Nadav and Avihu were completely burned (Sanhedrin 52b) since ashes do not transfer tuma. The Paneach Raza (Bamidbar 17:2, p. 52) answers that although their bodies were burned, this specific bone was not, and rendered them tamei [see Tosafos (ibid, s.v. hahi) who explain that their skeletons remained intact].
Indeed, the Lechem HaPanim [the son-in-law of the Magen Avrohom] writes (Kuntres Acharon Y.D. 364:4) that in cases where the body of a person was burned, G-d forbid, efforts should be made to bury the ashes, since that Nishu’I bone remains intact (for another opinion see She’eilas Yaavetz II:169).
The Eliah Rabbah relates a remarkable tradition explaining the connection between the LUZ and melave malka. He points out that originally, the entire body was indestructible; Adam and Chava were meant to live forever. Death was decreed for them only because they ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. However, one tiny bone was not nourished by this fruit, the LUZ, which is only nourished by the Saturday night meal! Thus this bone retained its original, pre-fall immortality.
The location of the Luz or Nishu’I bone: The Arizal and Chida hold that it is located in the place where the knot of the tefillin is placed. This certainly sounds more mystical than some other commentators (including Aruch, Rokeach, Recanati) who believe that the Luz bone is located at the bottom of the spine and that it is nothing less than the tail bone (Coccyx), which incidentally is believed to be evidence for evolution.
The city of Luz: “And he [Yaakov] called the name of that place Beis-el, but the name of the city was Luz originally. – Bereshis 28:19. Luz is apparently the name of a kind of tree, usually translated “chestnut”. It’s one of the kinds of wood from which Yaakov Avinu made sticks for the sheep and goats to look at while drinking.
Bereshis Rabba (69:8) discusses the amazing properties of those living in the city of Luz:
- They always told the truth.
- No one in the city died. When people got old and tired, they needed to move out for nature to take its course.
- The city was never conquered by Sancheirev, and wasn’t destroyed by Nevuchadnetzar at the end of the first commonwealth. Even though both invaded Luz.
- Luz is where they made the tekheiles dye.
The process of cloning may be a scientific model for the process of T’chiyas HaMeisim, resurrection of the dead! Perhaps science is providing us with clues and rational explanations as to the process of resurrection of the dead.
The process of cloning can be described as follows: Scientists remove the nucleus from an egg cell and replace it with the nucleus from another cell. The egg is then placed into the uterus of a surrogate mother who then gives birth to an offspring that has only the genes of the original cell.
The step-by-step process involves the following: cells from a donor, the original cells to be cloned, which contain in their DNA all of the genetic information necessary to direct the reproduction of the entire organism from which the original cell came, are put into a culture dish and deprived of nutrients, in other words ‘starved,’ until they ‘die’ and thus make available their entire genetic code.
The reason the ‘dying’ cells make active their complete genetic code is not known, but what is known is that ‘live cells’ have whatever part of their genetic code repressed by their ‘aliveness,’ so that a nose is growing out of the middle of your face and not a foot, so to speak. In other words, if the entire genetic code of a ‘live’ cell were active all the time, then a complete organism would be developing from the cell all the time, and not the correct body part that is appropriate to the correct place.
The next thing that happens is that the ‘dead’ cell’s nucleus is removed (the brains of the cell, so to speak, where the complete instructions for the genetic code are housed, and this surgically removed nucleus is then set next to an egg cell that has had its nucleus removed, and for some unknown reason, when an electric shock is applied, the nucleus of the original cell ‘jumps’ into the center of the egg cell that has had its nucleus removed, then this ‘fertilized egg,’ so to speak, begins to divide and develop according to the genetic code of the donor cell.
This process is not so easy, and many malformed embryos are destroyed (r’l), until a selected, normally developing embryo, is allowed to continue development to maturity.
The stumbling block to cloning from adult cells that contain all of their genetic code, in the past, has been that cells in an adult have already chosen what they want to be when they grow up, so to speak. They are liver cells, or skin cells, or neurons, for instance. Any gene not needed in a cell is switched off, though still present.
As a result, skin cells do not make estrogen, brain cells do not make insulin, because proteins seem to block a cell’s access to those genes. For this reason, scientists had never cloned an adult cell because they could not get to all the genes needed to make a complete being.
Suggest that if we look carefully at the language used to describe the process of resurrection of the dead, as this develops from the Luz bone, we will see intense parallels to the process of cloning.
THE RESURRECTION from the Luz bone
