Category: Science and Health

Feeling a sense of doom and gloom – yet again? Wondering how to prepare for the holidays when you feel zapped of all your energy and with little or no joie de vivre? Having trouble deciding who to even invite because the thought of fighting at the dinner table is not how you want to […]

The world is kind of chaotic at the moment. And yet… it’s Adar, the month of joy! We’re here to offer you lots of ideas, a mix of lighthearted suggestions and deeper reflections for calming your nerves, cheering you up, and helping you cope with the incessant flow of bad news. We truly hope that […]

Bacteria resistant to antibiotics are one of the biggest challenges facing modern medicine.  An estimate published last year by the Lancet found that more than a million deaths could be directly attributed to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in 2019. In addition, another 3.65 million deaths involved people with diseases that showed some form of AMR. When […]

Are our brains sharpest when we are children? What happens to it when we reach 40? What about retirement age? Until recently, the answer to these questions was not clear. Growth charts that track metrics like height and weight give a relatively clear picture of the range of human physical development, but scientists know less […]

Families in which the parents are part of the LGBTQ+ community are as successful or more so than families with heterosexual cis parents, according to a new data analysis. The peer-reviewed analysis, published on Tuesday in the journal BMJ Global Health, demonstrated that parental sexual orientation is not an important determinant of childhood development. “The […]

In the days of the mishnah, there were no rabbinic academies or schools. Instead, students who wanted to learn Torah from the rabbis would become the disciples of a particular rabbi. But what happened when their rabbi died before they were ready to stop studying? They had to find another rabbi to take them on.  When […]

A met mitzvah is one who dies with no one to bury them. Yesterday, we began chapter 7 of this tractate with a surprising mishnah about the met mitzvah: A high priest and a nazirite may not become ritually impure for their relatives. However, they become impure for a met mitzvah. As we now know, […]

Carbohydrates have taken a lot of flak in recent years, but they are not all bad and are not necessarily responsible for causing obesity, according to a new study at Rambam Healthcare Campus in Haifa.  Simple carbs like white bread, pasta and rice, corn syrup and all types of sugar – whose beneficial nutrients have […]

There have been a number of studies and theories about why a growing number of haredi (ultra-Orthodox) boys and teens suffer from shortsightedness (myopia), and nearly all of them have to wear corrective eyeglasses from a young age. A new study conducted in the optometry department at Hadassah College Jerusalem has found that not being […]

We’ve already discussed what to do if a nazirite becomes impure during the period of their nazirite vow. But what happens if a nazirite becomes impure halfway through offering the sacrifices that conclude their vow? The mishnah on today’s daf presents two answers:  Rabbi Eliezer says: It negates them all.  And the rabbis say: Let him bring the rest of his offerings […]