Program Particulars
*Times indicated refer to web version of audio

(01:42–03:57) Music:
"The Multiples of One" from Awakening, performed by Joseph Curiale

(01:41) Audio Clips
Audio Clip of Ian Wilmut

Dolly, the world's first cloned mammal, with her naturally conceived first-born, Bonnie. Courtesy: Roslin Institute, Edinburgh

(04:25) Reference to Karen Ann Quinlan Case
Zoloth refers to the case of Karen Ann Quinlan, a precedent-setting case in the right-to-die debate. In 1975, at the age of 21, Quinlan ingested alcohol and tranquilizers in 1975 and was taken to the hospital. There doctors saved her life, but she suffered brain damage and slipped into a coma, what was deemed a "persistent vegetative state."

After a series of highly publicized court battles, the family's attorney, Paul W. Armstrong, argued in front of the New Jersey Supreme Court and won the right to wean her from life support mechanisms. She then remained in a coma for nine years until her death in 1985.

The stages of nuclear transfer. Courtesy: Roslin Institute, Edinburgh

(05:22–06:26) Music:
"Shaker Loops. I. Shaking and Trembling" from John Adams: Violin Concerto/Shaker Loops, performed by Orchestra of St. Luke's with John Adams conducting

Lighting candles for Yom HaShoah.

(09:53) Reading from Ezekiel 37
Zoloth says that the concept of cloning becomes intertwined when considers people's struggle over life and death. She refers to the Shabbat Hagadol, the sabbath before the Passover celebration, when Jews read the following passage from the book of Ezekiel, chapter 37:

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley. It was full of bones. And he led me round among them and, behold, there were very many upon the valley and, lo, they were very dry. And he said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered, "O Lord, thou knowest." Again, he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, `O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.' Thus says the Lord God to these bones, `Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews upon you and will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.'"

So I prophesied as I was commanded, and as I prophesied there was a noise and, behold, a rattling. The bones came together, bone to its bone. And as I looked there was sinews upon them, and the flesh had come upon them and the skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, "Thus sayeth the Lord God, `Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live.'" So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them and they lived and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great host.

(09:54–11:57) Music:
"Shaker Loops. IV. A Final Shaking" from John Adams: Violin Concerto/Shaker Loops, performed by Orchestra of St. Luke's with John Adams conducting

(11:43) Mystical Story of Golem Building
In Hebrew, golem means "shapeless man." Zoloth says that although rabbinic texts don't directly address cloning they do focus on making and creating things in many stories about rabbinic magic in the Talmud, such as the Jewish concept of golem-building. Golem-building is commonly associated with Eastern European mystics from the 14-16th centuries but date back to as early as the 5th century, in which building artificial humans from clay was thought of as an act of prayer.

In one version of the legend of a famous 16th-century rabbi, Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the rabbi created a monster from the mud of the Vltava river in Prague. The golem, named Yossel, came to life when the Rabbi placed a shem — a tablet with a Hebrew inscription — in its mouth. Yossel is said to have aided Rabbi Loew in his struggle with the anti-Semites in the court of Rudolf II, the Hapsburg Emperor who was then the ruler over what is now the Czech Republic.

Elie Wiesel writes that Rabbi Loew and Rudolf II met on the Charles Bridge in 1583 and the emperor invited him to his court in Prague. They quickly became friends and Rabbi Loew became a Hofbefreiter Jude or "Court Jew" who was frequently able to intercede on behalf of the Jews who were being routinely persecuted at that time.

Legend has it that the golem finally ran amok and Rabbi Loew had to interrupt his Sabbath service in the synagogue to deal with the problem. The end of the golem came when the Rabbi removed the shem, the charm, from its mouth, and the remains of the golem were transported to the attic of the synagogue in Prague. In the Speaking of Faith program "Science and Being," computer scientist Anne Foerst discusses how she has used the Golem story in her work with robots.

In the 1997 The Puttermesser Papers, Cythia Ozick wrote about a female Jewish mayor of New York who creates a girl golem to cleanse the city. Marge Piercy writes about golem myths in He, She, and It.

(14:09–15:27) Music:
"Doyne/Freylekhs" from Dancing in the Aisles, performed by The Klezmer Conservatory Band

(14:09) Reading from The Golem
The reading during the program was excerpted from The Golem, written by Isaac Bashevis Singer:

In the attic Rabbi Leib found the sacks with the clay and began to sculpt the figure of a man. Rabbi Leib did not use a chisel but his fingers to carve the figure of the golem. He kneaded the clay like dough. He was working with great speed. At the same time he prayed for success in what he was doing.

All day Rabbi Leib was busy in the attic, and when it was time for the evening prayer, a large shape of a man with a huge head, broad shoulders and enormous hands and feet was lying on the floor, a clay giant. The rabbi looked at him in astonishment. He could never have mastered this without the help of almighty and special providence. The rabbi had taken with him the prayer book in which a saintly visitor had written down the name of God. Rabbi Leib engraved it on the forehead of the golem in such small letters that only he himself could distinguish the Hebrew characters. Immediately the clay figure started to show signs of life.

(16:55) Mention of Midrashic Accounts
Zoloth uses the term "midrashic" — a Jewish term meaning to examine, to investigate. Although a specific definition can be difficult to pin down, the term "Midrash" is a common part of Jewish life and rabbinic practice, an intellectually lively and creative approach to searching for new and deeper meanings in biblical texts. Most formally, "midrash" refers to a category of literature of classical rabbinical commentary on each of the five volumes of the Torah.

(17:05–17:40) Music:
"Miserlou" from Dancing in the Aisles, performed by The Klezmer Conservatory Band

(19:57) Krista Quotes Zoloth
Krista quotes from Laurie Zoloth's essay "Born Again: Faith and Yearning in the Cloning Controversy," which can be read in its entirety on the next page:

Justice as equalness is not fully possible, not in the realm of death, not in the country of this debate. And it is in the arena of the family that we are intended to learn this. We need to make tangible that which is not seen in the cloning debate. What is transparent, in fact, what disappears from the discourse nearly entirely is the actuality of the embodied relationship to the specified Other with a cause and concern, and with creaturely imperfections just like our own. And this is the deepest ethical danger — that in our progressively creative and procreative forward push, we will lope too easily into commodified, desiccated possession rather than love as the organizing principle of family formation.

(22:46–23:10) Music:
"Eclogue in F major for piano & string orchestra, Op. 10" from Meditations at Sunset, performed by the English String Orchestra

(23:34–25:55) Music:
"Shaker Loops. III. Loops and Verses" from John Adams: Violin Concerto/Shaker Loops, performed by Orchestra of St. Luke's with John Adams conducting

(23:45) Poem by Fred Dings
Read the complete text of Fred Dings' poem, "Letter to genetically engineered superhumans."

(25:56–26:54) Music:
"Meron Nign (Tune From Meron)" from Dancing in the Aisles, performed by The Klezmer Conservatory Band

(26:55–27:38) Music:
"Shaker Loops. IV. A Final Shaking" from John Adams: Violin Concerto/Shaker Loops, performed by Orchestra of St. Luke's with John Adams conducting

(27:32) History of the Birth Control Pill
In her prefatory remarks, Krista says that reproductive cloning may become another generally accepted technology in our culture, much like the birth control pill has in the last 40 years. The American Experience produced a film "The Pill" tracing the path of the many forms of birth control and the affect the birth control pill has had physically and psychologically on our society over the last 40 years.

(32:40)Reading from Samuel 1
Zoloth says that other technological forms of conception — such as artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization — were not as deeply reflected upon as reproductive cloning is currently because religion has favored procreation.

As such, accounts of infertility permeate the scriptures: the story of Sarai — later changed to Sarah at the behest of God — and her slave-girl Hagar in chapters 16 and 17 of Genesis; the account of Rachel and her sister Leah in chapters 29 and 30 of Genesis; and Hannah and Peninnah in the first chapter of 1 Samuel:

And it came to pass upon a day when Elkanah sacrificed that he gave to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and her daughters portions. But unto Hannah he gave a double portion for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut up her womb.

And Elkanah, her husband, said unto her, "Hannah, why weepest thou, and why eatest thou not, and why is thy heart grieved? Am I not better to thee than ten sons?" So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh and after they had drunk, and she was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore.

And she vowed a vow and said, "O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thy handmaid and remember me and not forget thy handmaid but will give unto thy handmaid a manchild, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head." And it came to pass when the time was come about that Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, "Because I have asked him of the Lord."

(32:47–34:23) Music:
"Lament I" from Trojan Women, performed by Eleni Karaindrou

(36:02) Krista Quotes Zoloth
Krista quotes from Laurie Zoloth's essay "Born Again: Faith and Yearning in the Cloning Controversy," which can be read in its entirety on the next page:

All reproduction is a kind of hunger, the other hunger that compels the creaturely self to work and struggle in the world. The hunger of the infertile is ravenous, desperate, and frankly fed by the complexities of research, finances, and the special passion for creation that is difficult to turn from.

(40:44–41:40) Music:
"Shaker Loops. I. Shaking and Trembling" from John Adams: Violin Concerto/Shaker Loops, performed by Orchestra of St. Luke's with John Adams conducting

(42:11) Definition of Nepheshness
Nephesh is the Hebrew term for soul that Zoloth defines as "beingness." The Greek word is psyche.

(45:33–45:59) Music:
"Miserlou" from Dancing in the Aisles, performed by The Klezmer Conservatory Band

(46:04) Reference to a Jewish Burial Society
The volunteer Jewish burial society to which Zoloth belonged is known as a chevra kadisha.

"Washing the Body" (oil on canvas, 1780s) Artist anonymous. From the cycle of Prague Burial Society paintings. Courtesy: Jewish Museum of Prague

(49:38–52:54) Music:
"Eclogue in F major for piano & string orchestra, Op. 10" from Meditations at Sunset, performed by the English String Orchestra

(50:05) Reading from Zoloth's Essay
The complete story that Zoloth tells about the death of a small child and her encounter with the young woman can be read in its entirety in the essay "Born Again: Faith and Yearning in the Cloning Controversy" on the next page:

We all had to leave and make Passover, the story that begins with the death of the babies of the Jews and ends with a free people. I understand the urge for second chances, the love of the particular little face. But it is at this very moment, like her mother, that we need to look death in its terrible, beautiful white face and think of justice. As the resolute, obligated, doubtful bearers of the stories of grace and loss, we need to worry not about playing God or the towers we can make, nor of how we can outwit the nakedness we were born into, but about the slow work of repair that falls to us, bewildered, freed slaves holding the law in our hands, meaning not in the narrow place but on the vast plain of the possible, set free with much to do.