Category: Science and Health

One common cause of burns is boiling oil, especially during Hanukkah when oil is a staple. Burns are serious injuries that cause pain and suffering, sometimes require prolonged hospitalization, and can lead to dehydration due to loss of fluids and blood.  When they cover large areas of skin, burns are dangerous, especially in toddlers up […]

You might not have heard of the “No Nut November” challenge, whose participants abstain from sex, masturbation and orgasms during the entire month of November.  However, one participant sparked a new discussion as to whether complete abstinence has any health benefits and if it is worth continuing No Nut November into December. Since there is […]

Why don’t some people who suffered from COVID-19 ever get their sense of smell back? According to a new study, it may be due to a declining number of olfactory nerve cells caused by an ongoing immune assault. The findings of this study, published in online in the peer-reviewed academic journal Science Translational Medicine, sheds […]

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen’s biology department and colleagues in Zurich, Switzerland, and elsewhere have found that people who do well on human empathy tests are also measurably better at decoding the emotional sounds of animals. Such individuals are better at knowing when an animal is having a good or bad time than other […]

I’m a collector of old knick knacks, as I suppose many Jews are. We collect stories, memories, and practices, but also family heirlooms: Shabbat candlesticks, old menorahs, seder plates, kippot from bar mitzvah celebrations across our lifetimes.  Prized among my collected memorabilia is a Hanukkah menorah that my great-grandparents brought with them from the old […]

Until fairly recently, the question of Judaism’s attitude toward recreational drug use would have been relatively straightforward. Judaism considers the preservation of human health to be among its highest values, and the prevailing opinion among health authorities has long been that recreational drugs are dangerous and lack any medical value. Judaism also mandates respect for […]

Chickens were found to be infected with the H5N1 strain of avian influenza at a farm next to Mishmar HaSharon, near Netanya, on Wednesday, according to the Agriculture Ministry. The affected farm contains about 128,000 birds. All coops within a 10-kilometer radius have been placed in quarantine and the Veterinary Service is conducting testing at […]

Jewish women of Ashkenazi origin have a 1-in-40 chance of developing a gene mutation that causes breast cancer.  The mutation, which occurs on the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene, increases the breast cancer risk for young women and raises the risk as they age. The chance of getting breast cancer from these gene mutations is significantly […]

Today’s daf has a number of moving meditations on the value and power of Torah. If you haven’t read it yet, I want to encourage you to do so — both because they are beautiful, and because they are not the part of the daf that we’re going to focus on here. The Talmud today […]

Ancient Roman citizens had three names: the praenomen, the nomen and the cognomen. The praenomen was the name their parents gave them. The nomen was the name of their extended family (what today we might call their last name). And the cognomen was an additional name that gave further identifying information about an individual, either […]