The word luz in Hebrew (Hebrew: לוז) means nut or almond, and refers to what some Jewish scholars assert is a bone that hosts the
soul in the human body. Interpretations disagree as to whether it refers to a bone at the top or bottom of the spine. Some say it refers to the small, almond-shaped bone at the top of the
spinal column
The vertebral column, also known as the backbone or spine, is part of the axial skeleton. The vertebral column is the defining characteristic of a vertebrate in which the notochord (a flexible rod of uniform composition) found in all chordates ...
(the
first cervical vertebra, C1 or the Atlas), underneath the brain, on the top of the spine, (the bone where the knot of the tefillin rests). It is about the size of a kernel of barley . Other tradition however identified it with the
coccyx
The coccyx ( : coccyges or coccyxes), commonly referred to as the tailbone, is the final segment of the vertebral column in all apes, and analogous structures in certain other mammals such as horses. In tailless primates (e.g. humans and other ...
, as a bone shaped like almond at the bottom and end of the eighteen vertebrae. The Talmud for example mentions a small bone at the end of the spine, identified as Luz by some.
[Preuss, Julius "Biblical and Talmudic Medicine" Jason Aronson Incorporated, 2004, p. 65.] Julius Preuss discusses the Rabbinic views on this and agree that the Luz refer to the coccyx.
[Preuss, Julius "Biblical and Talmudic Medicine" Jason Aronson Incorporated, 2004, p. 65.][Schofer, Jonathan W. "Confronting Vulnerability: The Body and the Divine in Rabbinic Ethics" University of Chicago Press, 2010, p. 34.] Similarly, Saul Lieberman also mentioned that the very popular Jewish tradition identified Luz with the end of the spine and understand it to be the coccyx.
[Schofer, Jonathan W. "Confronting Vulnerability: The Body and the Divine in Rabbinic Ethics" University of Chicago Press, 2010, p. 34.]
In the
Kabbalah tradition, the ''
Zohar'' states that the luz is the bone in the spine that appears like the head of a snake, implying that is the
sacrum at the bottom of the spine, because the sacrum is the only bone in the spine that looks like the head of a snake. The sacrum has similar significance to the luz as a source of resurrection in Egyptian and Greek cultures contemporary to the ''Zohar'' and
Talmud. The sacrum has a pattern of dimples and shape that appear similar to those of the
almond shell.
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
ish traditions teach that this is the bone from which the body will be rebuilt at the time of
resurrection, and share the idea that this bone does not decay. Rabbi Shraga Simmons teaches that destruction of this bone by
cremation could prevent resurrection.
Midrash
There is an
aggadah
Aggadah ( he, ''ʾAggāḏā'' or ''Haggāḏā''; Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: אַגָּדְתָא ''ʾAggāḏəṯāʾ''; "tales, fairytale, lore") is the non-legalistic exegesis which appears in the classical rabbinic literature of Judaism, ...
(legend) in the
Midrash that the Roman Emperor
Hadrian asked how man would be revived in the world to come, and Rabbi Joshua Ben Hananiah replied that it would be "From Luz, in the back-bone." "Prove this to me," said Hadrian. Then the Rabbi took Luz, a small bone of the spine, and immersed it in water, but it was not softened; he put it into the fire, but it was not consumed; he put it into a mill, but it could not be pounded; he placed it upon an anvil and struck it with a hammer, but the anvil split and the hammer was broken.
[ Ecclesiastes Rabbah xii / Genesis Rabbahbr>xviii]
/ref>
References
External links
Jewish Encyclopedia article for Luz
by Solomon Schechter and J. Theodor.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Luz
Talmudic mythology
Bones of the vertebral column
Book of Ezekiel