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Since they were created by God and did not form in a womb and had no umbilical chord did they have bellybuttons or fingerprints (that are formed by womb pressure) or upper lip ridge which the malach hits the child after birth to forget the torah learned in womb?

In other words, God created Adam as a grown and complete man (cf Rosh Hashana 11a , Chullin 60a, et al). Did this include womb dependent anatomical formations, as well?

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    According to Rabbinic sources, they were born adults, fully formed and complete... I don't think that would omit belly-buttons, as they ordinarily arise due to the non-miraculous processes everything else seems to arise from. A more interesting question I suppose is if Adam was born circumcised, I'd think the answer would be in the positive, as the most perfect person in the world after him, Moshe Rabbeinu, was born circumcised. Unfortunately, I don't know what the sources say about this. Commented May 7, 2014 at 6:10
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    There is a minor tractate in the Talmud called Brit Millah which lists all the people born circumcised. I can't remember if Adam is one of them, but Seth and Moshe are.
    – avi
    Commented May 7, 2014 at 9:02
  • @Yoni I suppose it depends if this has a significance in kabala.I think it has. Perhaps one of our mekubalim here can answer this.
    – preferred
    Commented May 7, 2014 at 11:11
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    WOW. Watching the voting on this question I see it is very controversial. It's getting many up votes and down votes. Why so many down votes...I thought this was a cute question.
    – Yoni
    Commented May 7, 2014 at 12:55
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    Re lip ridge: judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/29673/…
    – Baby Seal
    Commented May 7, 2014 at 15:00

2 Answers 2

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There is a midrash that says that Adam and Chavah did not have navels (i.e. bellybuttons.) One should wonder if Chazal meant for any such midrashim to be taken literally. After all, Chazal were interested in teaching Torah; not anthropology.

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    Do you know the location of midrash?
    – Yoni
    Commented May 13, 2014 at 23:55
  • Why is this not torah?
    – Baby Seal
    Commented May 14, 2014 at 2:43
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    @BabySeal Knowing Adam's hair color isn't Torah. Learning a lesson from it is. As long as we establish that Chazal's statement is meaningful because of the lesson learned from it, there is no necessity to assume it is historically true.
    – Double AA
    Commented May 14, 2014 at 4:00
  • @DoubleAA that doesn't sit well with me, but I understand.
    – Baby Seal
    Commented May 14, 2014 at 4:19
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    Avos D'Rabbi Nassan (31) might be interpreted to the contrary: אף כך הקדוש ברוך הוא... ברא את כל העולם כולו וברא את השמים ואת הארץ עליונים ותחתונים ויצר באדם כל מה שברא בעולמו... בורות בעולם בורות באדם זה טיבורו של אדם.
    – Fred
    Commented May 14, 2015 at 2:55
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There are some commentators who ask "If Adam cut down a tree did it have rings" and answer yes. The logic is that everything was formed as if it had grown and become fully mature (fruit trees bearing fruit) through natural means. Similarly, mushrooms were created growing on dead trees so the dead trees had to be created as well. Herd animals had to be created in herds with the appropriate mix of ages. Similarly, passenger pigeons had to be created in flocks of the appropriate sizes.

Thus, the same logic would imply that Adam and Eve were created with navels, etc.

Note that the question was asked in the "Scopes Monkey Trial" by Clarence Darrow but neither he nor William Jennings Bryan understood the question or the answer and what it meant.

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