Dostoevsky Was an Antisemite. I Still Think You Should Read Him
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The Sages teach us that an angel teaches the entire Torah to an embryo in utero. Then just before he is born, the angel taps him on his upper lip and he forgets it all – and this is the reason why people have an indentation right under their nose. But if so, why does all of mankind have the same indentation – even non-Jews who do not study Torah?
Thank you for raising the interesting issue. The source of the statement you cited is Talmud Niddah 30b. The Talmud there actually does not say anything about an indentation. It just says that the angel slaps the fetus over his mouth to cause him to forget his learning. (This is a form of Heavenly rebuke or restraint we find elsewhere. The Talmud describes an angel as doing the same to Ahasuerus (Megillah 16b) and to Nebuchadnezzar (Sanhedrin 92b).) So I’m not sure where the commonly-believed notion of the angel causing a cleft in the infant’s upper lip comes from. And as you point out, non-Jews have it as well, so this natural human trait does not seem to relate to the above Talmudic passage. (And although we often hear stories of babies born without the cleft (thanks, I suppose, to the angel’s poor aim, or a hasty c-section), and such babies begin endlessly spouting passages from the Torah and Talmud immediately upon their birth, I somehow question if such stories are reliable.)
Regardless, the underlying message of this Talmudic passage is significant: that God gives every Jewish child an instinctive connection to the Torah. Subconsciously, he will feel a natural affinity for the Torah. Studying it for him will not be an attempt to acquire new and foreign wisdom, but a returning to the knowledge which had been a part of him once before. As a result, every Jew has an inner sense that the Torah is true and contains wisdom he can readily master. Of course, babies are not allowed to remember what they learned before their birth. Life must still be a challenge, and we must work to acquire the Torah once again.
Finally, although the fact that all mankind has the same cleft is no proof, it is possible that this passage does relate to all mankind and not just the Jews. Gentiles must study and observe the Seven Noahide Laws, and Jewish women as well must learn the many commandments which apply to them. Thus, it is possible that an angel teaches Torah to all people before they are born – giving every human being an inner connection to God’s eternal wisdom which he can again discover during his lifetime.
(Source: Shelah, Sha’ar HaOtiyot, Yud – Yetzer Tov.)
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Thank you for also picking up yhe relevance for the B'nei Noach