Category: Science and Health

A parasite that can cause eye infections and even permanently impair vision may have been found in the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), the Health Ministry announced on Tuesday evening. In recent days, the Health Ministry has received reports from ophthalmologists about at least 29 patients requiring hospitalizations due to severe inflammation of the cornea, corneal […]

The most incredible thing about Shabbat stews is how diverse they are, and yet how unified. By the term “Shabbat stew,” I mean a one-pot meal that is prepared on Friday, and then slow-cooks through the night to provide a hot lunch on Saturday. Virtually every Jewish community around the world has one, and their […]

The world of cardiology has been going through a technological revolution in the last few years that will improve and increase the efficiency and precision of one of the most prevalent medical fields in Israel and the world – heart catheterizations. Stents, valves, computer chips implanted in the heart, virtual reality, robotics, and artificial intelligence […]

We learned in the mishnah on yesterday’s daf that: One who says to his wife: “You are hereby to me like my mother,” they encourage him to dissolve the vow on other grounds so that he will not (make such vows) lightly. The man’s vow implies he will not have sex with his wife, just as he does […]

The number of people suffering from lingering, long-haul COVID-19 symptoms is reaching startling proportions. In the US alone, at least 23 million adults – one in five who contracted the virus and recovered – and millions more around the world suffer from persistent health complications four weeks or more after an initial infection. An international […]

Laboratory-grown red blood cells have been transfused into people in the first such clinical trial in the world, the United Kingdoms National Health Service announced on Sunday.  According to the University of Bristol, which worked on the RESTORE research initiative jointly with the NHS and the University of Cambridge, two people have been given the […]

For the first time in the world and only at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, pathologists have found a way to diagnose a cancer mutation and adjust treatment within minutes through a unique Israeli development that combines digital pathology with artificial intelligence.  A complex genetic molecular test must be performed on each tumor to locate […]

In modern English, we often use the terms vows and oaths interchangeably. But as we’ve seen already in this tractate, these are two very different things.  On today’s daf, we find a new distinction between oaths and vows. The Gemara tells us that in some ways, vows are more stringent than oaths and in other ways, oaths are more […]

It may be that the most important biblical passage for our time is found in the book of Joshua: …he looked up and saw a man standing before him, drawn sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and asked him: Are you one of us or of our enemies? He replied: No! I am captain […]

Today, we encounter a teaching of Rabbi Meir about the language one should use when attaching a condition to a legally binding statement. Rabbi Meir says that any condition that is not like the condition of the sons of the tribe of Gad and the sons of the tribe of Reuben is not a valid […]