Category: Science and Health

Keto, intermittent fasting, eating only potatoes and eggs, not eating any potatoes and eggs, no carbohydrates or the points method – weight loss diets are part of life for more than half of the population in the Western world. Most of us want to look shapely and are willing to make an effort for it. […]

On today’s daf, we read about the burial of the biblical patriarch Jacob in the Cave of Machpelah. As with the funerals of prominent people to this day, Jacob’s burial was attended by leaders who would have been the equivalent in stature to modern heads of state.   The Gemara describes the scene: They all came […]

For millennia, people have suspected a full Moon in the sky to cause mysterious changes in people. Popular culture and medical lore have long postulated a connection between a full Moon and exacerbations of psychiatric disorders. The word “lunatic” comes from the Latin luna – which means “moon.” Aristotle and the Roman philosopher Pliny the […]

Rachel Kafri, 102, received a new lease on life at the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya after becoming the patient thought to be the oldest person to ever receive a cardiac pacemaker. This medical device sends electrical pulses to help the heart beat at a normal rate and rhythm. Kafri, who was a neighbor of […]

Acne is a really annoying skin condition yet most people try to deal with it alone, or at most with a visit to an aesthetician.  But the truth is that the world of medicine has a variety of solutions. Dr. Gila Isman Nelkenbaum, senior physician at the Integrated Center for Aesthetic Dermatology and the clinic […]

The nature of habits is that we often start them without thinking at all. What begins in a one-time fashion continues to unfold from day to day and suddenly – without our choosing, we have adopted a habit that doesn’t benefit us. It could be something sweet after dinner, one too many cups of coffee […]

When the Israelites had successfully crossed the Red Sea, Moses led the (apparently all-male) crowds in a long song praising God’s greatness. Then, the Torah tells us: Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, picked up a drum, and all the women went out after her in dance with drums. And Miriam chanted for them: Sing to the […]

Having explained a passage from the mishnah on Sotah 8 showing how the biblical Miriam was proportionately rewarded for her good deeds, the Talmud on today’s daf launches into a midrashic exploration of the opening narrative of the Exodus story. The connection may be in Miriam herself, a key figure in the Exodus story, though the Gemara does not limit itself to […]

The Israel Medical Association (IMA) has written to Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai warning against health damage caused by the use of acoustic weapons of the sound cannon type “The Scream” (Long Range Acoustic Device or LRAD) used at demonstrations.  Copies of the letter, prepared by Prof. Hagai Levine (chairman of the Israel Public Health […]

First, your kids refuse to shower, then refuse to get out. Afterward, they don’t know what they want to eat: Parenting never goes as planned. Kids always want just one more story, and one more, and one more. Just when they finally go to bed and you think you will be able to rest a […]