Category: Science and Health

It isn’t parents’ fault for giving their babies unusual names, with an evolutionary biologist saying there is actually an evolutionary reason behind it. The University of Michigan’s Dr. Mitchel Newberry is the biologist in question, turning his focus on naming trends. In particular, he wants to answer the mystery of how some names manage to […]

Today’s daf quotes a mishnah from Nega’im, the tractate that explores the halakhot of tzara’at, a disease described in the Hebrew Bible that is sometimes mistranslated as leprosy. (This mishnaic tractate, like much of Seder Toharot, has no Gemara, so we won’t be learning it together in our Daf Yomi journey). Mishnah Nega’im 14:4 teaches: […]

How do we know things? Philosophers distinguish between two major approaches to this question. One approach turns to tradition, to teachings passed down from sages of the past. The other approach turns to the evidence of the senses, what we see, hear, and experience ourselves — what today we call the empirical method. This distinction […]

Cancer diagnoses are not spread evenly in the country. There are localities where the rate is low and others where the rate is high. In recognition of World Cancer Day held last month, Jerusalem’s Taub Center for Social Policies published a study on “Trends and Gaps in Morbidity and Mortality from Cancer within Towns in […]

This Torah presents the nazirite’s prohibition from eating grapes as follows: Throughout their term as nazirite, they may not eat anything that is obtained from the grapevine, even seeds or skin. (Numbers 6:4) The final phrase of the verse, which could also be translated “from seeds to skin,” appears to be emphasizing the total ban: A nazir can’t […]

As we know, the nazir is forbidden from consuming grape products. The mishnah on which today’s conversation is based first attempts to quantify the minimum amount of grape products that, if consumed by the nazir, would trigger punishment. Next, it considers mixtures, quoting Rabbi Akiva who notes that even if the nazir only ate bread on which a few drops of […]

In recent years, bread has been considered the enemy of nutrition, whether one is dieting or even for people who are trying to be healthy and save calories. But is the attempt to avoid bread of all types necessary or is it just an unsupported nutritional trend? The difficulty of choosing the right bread is […]

Tests for the early detection of colorectal cancer make it possible to prevent its development or to treat it at an early stage, according to the Israel Cancer Association (ICA) that women and men over the age of 50 to perform a simple, free examination at their health fund every year.  Colorectal cancer is the […]

The FBI has assessed that a leak from a laboratory in the central Chinese city of Wuhan likely caused the COVID pandemic, director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday, a claim China said had “no credibility whatsoever.” “The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a […]

Hamantaschen are one of my favorite Jewish foods to bake — and eat. As a child, I remember helping my mother to gently tape wax paper to our wooden kitchen table to prepare for the sticky mess that would ensue when rolling copious amounts of hamantaschen dough. I think this was the only time we […]