Giving a Shit

Illustration from a Hebrew encyclopedia pairs the human interior with the interior of a house, a visual metaphor: the organs, like rooms in a house, have different functions. The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. Exhibited: “Dream Anatomy,” National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Md., October 9, 2002 to July 31, 2003.

The Jewish morning service in some synagogues includes a meditative blessing that “expresses wonder at the simple but necessary functioning of the human body,” wrote Arthur Green in a commentary for the Reconstructionist Sabbath holiday prayer book. “We do not need to stand before any greater wonder of nature than our own bodies,” Green continued, “in order to appreciate the intricacy and beauty with which our world is endowed. A sense of awe at our own creation is a starting point of prayer.”

The blessing for which Green submits his commentary was written by Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, or “the Rambam,” or Maimonides, who also served as the court physician to the Egyptian throne in the 12th Century CE. Following the customary praise to the Almighty for, among other things, “making for us all the openings and vessels of the body,” the Rambam breaks the biology down to its basics. “It is revealed and known before your Throne of Glory,” Maimonides concludes, “that if one of these passageways be open when it should be closed, or blocked up when it should be free, one could not stay alive or stand before you.”

A student of Aristotelian logic, the Rambam applied his learning to the study of Torah and Talmudic commentary while embarking on a medical career in Cairo. He was made a physician to Qadi al Fadil, the ruler of Egypt appointed by Emperor Saladin, in 1185. Legend has it that Richard the…