Part two – Death | 532 However, kissing the foot seems to have early antecedents . thus in Bt Ketubot 49 b we read of one who bent down and kissed r . Yonatan’s foot . 2 and in Bt Baba Batra 16 a we hear of the Satan kissing a foot ; and so too in BTKetubot 63 a we find the same phenomenon . Rashi to Bt avodah Zara 17 a writes : It is the practice of people when exiting the synagogue to kiss their father and mother, and the older of them ] to kiss [ the leg ( arcuba, from the hip to the ankle, probably in this context the knee ) . 3 I also found a reference to this practice in M . Grunwald’s article on “childbirth”, in the Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol . 4, New York 1903, p . 31 : “a child should not be kissed on the feet, since this is the custom at the “mehillah” prayer, that is, on asking the dead for forgiveness” . this partially parallels the Palestinian arab custom that one should “Never kiss a baby on its soles or it will stop growing…” 4 But what I found most fascinating was the fac...
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