Category: Science and Health

One of the challenges that face those studying the rabbinic mindset is to understand how difficult it is to translate accurately from one language to another and do justice to the concepts.  Nowhere is this more obvious than in discussing issues of tum’ah and taharah, which are usually translated as “impurity” and “purity.” In English, for example, these […]

Jewish doctors warned against conspiracy theories claiming the COVID-19 vaccine causes infertility or contains products derived from pork. Jewish News reported on Friday that the open letter, signed by more than 70 British-Jewish doctors and published on Tuesday, warns against falling for such conspiracy theories and states there is “absolutely no evidence” the Pfizer vaccine […]

Orthodoxy — a word that represents a very wide array of approaches to traditional Jewish life — is characterized by defining different roles for men and women. Men are considered obligated in all of the 613 commandments (mitzvot) or religious life, and women are generally given greater responsibility in managing family life. But in no Orthodox […]

The notion that Orthodox Jews — whether out of an excessive fixation or modesty or simple prudishness — have sex through a hole in a sheet is a widespread misconception, so much so that it was lampooned (and promptly debunked) in a famous scene from “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” It’s also completely false.  Not only that, […]

The flu vaccine can be vital for protection against the effects of COVID-19, according to research presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) reported earlier this week.  Patient data from around the world was analyzed, and the conclusion is that the […]

On today’s daf, we learn from a mishnah that if one spreads a sheet over the s’chach (roofing materials) of a sukkah to provide shade from the sun or to catch falling leaves, then the sukkah is unfit for use. In the Gemara, Rav Hisda comments that if a sheet is used for decorative purposes, it does not […]

According to family legend, we’re descended from Zelig Zeides, the chief mathematician of Slutsk. My great-aunt Essie used to brag, with a lot of pride and a little less credibility, that Grandpa Zelig invented the perpetual calendar and bequeathed to all of us a deep appreciation of and a natural talent for all that is math. Our […]

This week, the Central Bottling Company (CBC) agreed to invest in Israeli food-tech company, BioMilk for the development of products based on cultured milk. In the terms agreed, which are subject to the signing of a final agreement, CBC will invest up to $2 million in BioMilk. BioMilk aims to produce technologically groundbreaking products which […]

If you, like me, are a regular chicken roaster, you’re halfway to one of the best salad dressings out there: schmaltz vinaigrette, a tangy, savory top coat for a simple salad of mixed greens and whatever you’ve picked up at the farmers market.  Using a warm fat, like bacon or duck fat, in a vinaigrette […]

Today’s daf is the main piece of a beautiful and intricate discussion about why the minimum height for a sukkah, as we learned yesterday, is 10 tefahim, or handbreadths. The discussion consists of three main sections in which this height is compared first to the Ark of the Covenant, then to a whole variety of Temple vessels […]