Chukas – Echoes of “The Snakey Thing”
It’s commonly, but erroneously, assumed that the symbol commonly used for the medical profession, a snake, or a pair of them, wrapped upon a pole, is meant as a depiction of the nachash hanechoshes...
Category: Science
Devarim – Starry, Starry Night
It’s rare for city dwellers to truly see the night sky. Only once, many years ago, driving on a moonless night in West Virginia, did I fully perceive the vast number of stars –...
The Myth of Mundanity: A Chanukah Thought
The thought experiment begins by asking us to ponder a world where the dead routinely rise from their graves but in which no grain or vegetation has ever grown. Long departed relatives routinely reappear...
V’zos Habracha – Spacewarps
A Roman emperor, according to a Midrashic account (Sifri, Devarim 357), sent two army units to find Moshe Rabbeinu’s burial site. When they stood above it on a hill, they saw it below. When...
Parshas Tetzaveh – Redolence and Relationship
After the Torah prescribes the details of the various vessels attendant to the mishkan (tabernacle), of the construction of the mishkan itself, of the mizbeach (altar), of the daily lighting of the menorah, of the...
Plumbing the Meaning of the Torah’s First Word
The Torah’s first verse is purposely unclear. As the Ramban, Nachmanides, points out, the deepest truths of how the universe was created are unfathomable and inscrutable, hidden, ultimately, in the realm of mysticism, not...
The Real Story Behind the Vaccine Story
One of the Covid-19 vaccines being studied has yielded encouraging results. That good news should yield us something too: a sense of awe at the accomplishment. Earlier this week, the biotech company Moderna, which...
How Coronavirus Sparked an Open Season on Haredim
A piece I wrote for Haaretz about the vilification of haredim over past weeks with regard to the current coronoavirus crisis can be read here. If you are unable to read it online, feel...
Amino Acids and Us
Like many 60-somethings, I remember being informed in grade school of the imminent solution to the mystery of life. Triumphantly, teachers described an experiment conducted by two researchers, Stanley Miller and Harold Urey, in...
A Column from 2010: Great Expectations
Thoughts of consequence can sometimes arise from the most mundane experiences, even a headache.Opening the medicine cabinet one day, I was struck by a sticker on a prescription container. “Not for use by pregnant...
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