Dear Chaim,



First we will bring the Talmudic source: R. Simlai taught: Moshe heard 613 commandments. The 365 prohibitions correspond to the days of the (solar) year and the 248 positive commandments correspond to the limbs in a man” (Makkot 23b).

Note that the number of prohibitions (365) correspond to the days of the solar year and not the number of tendons. The tradition of a specific number of tendons (365) is not found in the Talmud; it is from Targum Yonatan: “G-d created man in His image and His likeness, with 248 limbs and 365 tendons” (Targum Yonatan on Genesis 1:27).

The correspondence between the number of tendons and the number of prohibitions was made in the late Talmudic era, as the Zohar writes: “Since there are 248 bones to a man he was given 248 positive commandments, and since there are 365 tendons he was given 365 prohibitions” (Zohar volume 1 (Genesis), portion of Vayishlach, pg. 170b).



Before we compare the number of bones known to Chazal with modern medical knowledge, we will cite the words of R’ Chaim Vital (1542-1620), the student of the Ari. “Each bone of the 248 bones is nourished by its own commandment which is attributed to it; when a person does not fulfill a certain commandment, the corresponding bone will lack the nourishment which it attracts” (Shaarei Kedusha by Rabbi Chaim Vital, part 1, shaar1). Even those who aspire to uncover “the secrets of the Divine creation” are like the common man, who errs and invents his own human knowledge.

Now to compare the Sages’ knowledge and that of science. The Mishnah lists man’s limbs for halachic purposes (a whole limb, even if it is smaller than an olive, impurifies). The halachic definition of a limb requires a bone, flesh, and a tendon (Chulin 102b), so the tongue, for example, is not counted, as it is only flesh. The Mishnah writes (Tractate Oholot 1:8):

There are 248 bones in the human body.



30 in the foot — 6 in each toe

10 in the ankle

2 in the shin

5 in the knee

1 in the thigh

3 in the pelvis

11 ribs (in the chest)

30 in the hand — 6 in each finger

2 in the forearm

2 in the elbow

1 in the upper arm

4 in the shoulder

(A total of 202) 101 on the left side and 101 on the right. In the center of the human body there are the following bones:

18 vertebrae in the spine

9 in the head

8 in the neck

6 in the opening to the heart [the chest is considered the opening to the heart, for following the movements of the chest the lungs are drawn towards the heart, and the chest is like an opening which permits the air to come in and the smoke to go out — Maimonides in his commentary on the mishnayot]

5 in the organs of birth [Maimonides, ibid.].

To make things easier we have created a table comparing what is written in the Mishnah and what is known to science (the data comes from the book Guf HaAdam by Dr. Eran Tamir.

From the table you can see that Chazal erred in the total number and in the specific counts, even for body parts they should have known, such as the number of ribs and hand and foot bones. (According to Chazal the number of bones in each finger is the same, when the thumb, in reality, has one less bone.)

But do not worry, the gates of apologetics are never closed. Thus does a commentator who lived in the era of the Enlightenment (Tiferet Yisrael, in his commentary Yachin section 15) write:

But I am very puzzled, because in our mishnah they only list 11 ribs, and when I counted there were 12, as was found by the masters of anatomy. It seems that no secret was hidden from our rabbis, nor was anything forgotten in the places where they sat. One cannot, Heaven forbid, say that our rabbis erred in such an obvious matter; a rib, after all, is not as small as a needle. The answer is that the two small uppermost ribs, the ones near the neck which are not connected to the backbone by tendons, are one unit with the vertebrae and therefore they were counted with the vertebrae.

Of course his words are incorrect and all the ribs are connected to the vertebrae by cartilaginous joints, but the religious people, whose faith is the backbone of their existence, will stop at nothing to come up with stories which make everyone else laugh.



But it is not Chazal’s errors which demand our attention. Every person errs and makes mistakes. What we have to look at is their strange and fantastic method of determining reality. They sat in the study hall and through sophistry and rumors determined and legislated laws which they had no intention of investigating and verifying via any consistent methodology.

Thus, for example, the Talmudic story (Bechorot 45a): A king once sentenced a prostitute to death. She was burned and boiled in water, and the students of R’ Yishmael counted her bones, finding 252 (and not 248 as in a man). R’ Yishmael said to them: the number of bones in a woman is different from that in a man; a woman has two extra hinges and two extra doors. Two hinges, as is written: “She was seized by labor pains [tzireiha — also “her hinges”] and she crouched down and gave birth” (I Samuel 4:19). Two doors, as is written: “Because it did not block the doors of my [mother’s] womb” (Job 3:10). According to Rabbi Akiva a woman has 253 bones. He adds one to the count of a woman’s bones claiming that “as the home has a key, so does a woman, as it is written ‘her womb opened [vayipatach, from the same root as maphteyach, a key ” (Genesis 30:22) The sages of the Talmud asked how Rabbi Akiva explains that the students of R’ Yishmael found only 252 bones (and not 253, as Rabbi Akiva claimed there to be). They answer on their own, without troubling to investigate that perhaps the extra bone (the key to the house) which Rabbi Akiva added was so small that it was burned in the fire and so the students of R’ Yishmael did not find it.



Note that the sages of the Talmud ask and dissect matters based on the interpretation of verses, from stories of the students of R’ Yishmael, and do not bother to say “let us go and check” nor to bring in the knowledge of the physicians of their time.



Incidentally, women have the same number of bones as men.



Sincerely,



Daat Emet