In the Talmudic myth of conception, Lailah—an angel of the night—touches the fetus on the upper lip immediately prior to birth, causing him to forget everything about the transcendent order of reality whence he originates. This angelic action is supposedly what creates the philtrum, that little groove between the nose and the upper lip that we all have. Every time a Rabbinic Jew looks at someone’s face on the streets, he potentially sees the footprints of transcendence, the touch of Lailah. Through the religious myth, the ‘otherworld’ enters this world. The dam is broken and the river flows.
