Category: Science and Health

A riddle: Q: If God and the Israelites were to play Tic Tac Toe, who would be X and who would be O? A: God would be X and the Israelites would be O. From where do we derive this? From Psalms 29:11, which says: “God gives strength (oz) to God’s people.” This “midrash” is […]

The coronavirus cabinet is scheduled to meet on Sunday to vote on the details of a plan for opening the school year on September 1, as Israel lowered the age for receiving a COVID booster shot, enabling the prime minister to get the jab on Friday. Representatives from the education sector are expected to attend […]

Tinned fish is having a total moment. A relatively recent darling of Instagram foodies — and longtime love of food writers, the tightly packed maritime morsels are finally enjoying their day in the sun after years of being called “gross” and “fishy” by the uninitiated. In her “A Love Letter to Canned Food,” The New […]

COVID-19 infections are spiking among the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) sector, according to coronavirus commissioner Prof. Salman Zarka. During a closed briefing on Wednesday, he shared a chart that demonstrated that the number of daily cases has been progressively rising over the past week and now accounts for 10% of daily cases.  “The infection rate in the […]

Poor Shemini Atzeret. The last of the biblical holidays to take place in the month of Tishrei, it’s the hardest both to pronounce and to explain.  The Torah simply states that after seven days of Sukkot, we are to observe an eighth (shemini) day of atzeret, a word which means either stopping (work) or a […]

We live in a world that seems obsessed with efficiency. Read any business magazine and you’ll encounter discussions of boosting, scaling, streamlining, diving deep, doing more with less, magic bullets, silver bullets, taking things to the next level, trimming fat and fighting that most terrifying of all enemies: friction. Today’s daf offers an important counterpoint […]

This egg and honey challah is epitome of what we’ve come to know as “traditional challah,” light and fragrant with a familiar, satisfying “taffy pull” upon breaking. Note: You can swap active dry yeast for instant yeast in the pre-ferment. If you are using active dry yeast, first dissolve in warm water with a pinch […]

Eggless or “water challah” originated from certain parts of Eastern Europe and is particularly popular in Israel and Brooklyn, New York. It is typically glazed with an egg wash before baking, but a vegan version can be made by substituting the egg with oil or a natural syrup sweetener. I particularly like maple syrup diluted […]

 Ivory Coast begin vaccinating health workers in the commercial capital Abidjan against Ebola on Monday after a case of the deadly virus was confirmed over the weekend. An 18-year-old woman tested positive on Saturday after traveling by bus to Abidjan from neighboring Guinea. It is Ivory Coast’s first confirmed case of Ebola in 25 years. […]

In Neil Gaiman’s 1991 comic The Sandman, the character Death tells the soul of Joshua Norton that “the world rests on the backs of 36 living saints — 36 unselfish men and women. Because of them the world continues to exist.” Thirty-six living saints who sustain the world? Where did Neil Gaiman get that idea? […]