B'OR HA'TORAH Volume 10 (1997-1998)

Aryeh Gotfryd was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, where he still lives. His parents came there from Poland, after surviving the Holocaust. After graduating high school with honors, he earned an HonBSc in Zoology and a PhD in Ecology at the University of Toronto. In the course of his graduate research on the ecology of birds in urban woodlots, he was awarded Ontario Graduate and Canadian Wildlife Scholarships. Interested in the effects of observer bias on empirical data, scientific conclusions and environmental management decisions, he has written or co-authored three books and nine journal articles on topics ranging from urban ecology, songbird habitat selection, reliability analyses of statistical inferences, and environmental management. He currently directs the Gotfryd Group of landscape architects and environmental scientists in North York.

Calling himself a "late starter in Judaism," Dr. Gotfryd, with his wife and children, is active in the Habad community of Toronto. Believing that an awareness of the Creator should permeate all of one's activities, he doubles as a troubadour, singing Jewish "soul music" at schools, hospitals, and other places.

"On Acknowledging the Creator in Scientific Literature" by Dr. Gotfryd appeared in BHT 6E.

Herman Branover was born in Riga, Latvia, earned his PhD from the Moscow Institute of Aviation in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), and completed a DSc degree in physics and mathematics at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. While a leading scientist at the Latvian Academy of Science, Professor Branover discovered G-d and the Torah, became a Lubavitcher Hasid, and then struggled for the right for Jews to immigrate to Israel. During this difficult period and up until the present, he has led the cultural and spiritual revival of Russian Jewry.

After settling in Beersheba with his wife and son, in 1977 Professor Branover created the Center for Magnetohydrodynamics Studies at Ben-Gurion University. The Center engages in teaching, research, and the development of a novel MHD electricity generator. He has authored over twenty scientific books and textbooks, thirty technological patents, hundreds of professional articles, and an autobiography, Return (published by Jason Aronson).

As honorary president of SHAMIR, the Israel Association of Religious Professionals from the Former USSR, Professor Branover continues encouraging Russian Jews to observe the Torah and live in Israel. He is the initiator and editor-in-chief of B’Or Ha’Torah, published by SHAMIR. A recipient of the S.D. Bergman Prize for the development of new technology in Israel, he also received the Knesset Speaker’s Award in 1991 for his work with Russian immigrant absorption. He chairs the prime minister’s committee for solving immigrants’ professional employment problems. He is a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences in Moscow and the Latvian Academy of Sciences, a member of the Moscow International Energy Club, and has received honorary doctorates from the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Technical University of St. Petersburg, and Yeshiva University. In 2001 he won the Award of Honor of the Menachem Begin Prize for his outstanding contribution to the State of Israel and the Jewish People.

Papers by Professor Branover have been published in B’Or Ha’Torah volumes 7E, 9E, 10E, 11E, and 12E.

Aryeh Strikovsky was born in Tel Aviv in 1942 and educated at Yeshivat Ha'Darom in Rehovot, the Hebron Yeshiva in Jerusalem, and the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Yeshiva of Yeshiva University. After completing a BA in economics and an MA and PhD in Bible at Yeshiva University, he taught Jewish Studies at the University of Manitoba and the University of Detroit. He lives with his wife and children in Jerusalem where he teaches at Mahanayim and the Pardes Institute. For twenty years he has edited the Daf L'Tarbut Yehudit (a Jewish Reader's Digest) for the Israel Ministry of Education, Department of Torah Education.

Rabbi Dr. Strikovsky participated in compiling the Encyclopedia Judaica and has published various articles and books, among them two anthologies, The State in Jewish Thought and Jerusalem in the Thought of Past Generations. He has published two original works: The Ari and Am Ve'Arets — Yeud Ve'Etgar. A chapter from this book, "Suffering for the Land of Israel," appeared in Hebrew in BHT 5H and in English in BHT 7E.

The Torah entrusts us to manage the world. Its command "do not destroy" applies to all of God's property, including the human body. The Commandments regulate city planning and the urban and rural populations. Talmudic injunctions prevent urban residents from causing physical or psychological damage to their neighbors and from polluting their cities. Only Torah observance can reshape human nature and limit the selfishness which is the major cause of environmental destruction today.

Eyal Goldberger was born in Jerusalem in 1960 to a secular family whose roots go back to Mea Shearim. After graduating from the High School of the Hebrew University, he served in the IDF as a medic to a combat unit. He also trained medic units and was named the outstanding soldier of the Medical Corps in 1981. After receiving his MD from the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, Dr. Goldberger, with friends from his army unit, founded Tmurot, the Israeli Integrated Team for Advancing Alternative Medicine. After working for half a year at the Tel Hashomer Hospice for cancer patients and after completing a course for medical officers, Dr. Goldberger went to London for seven months to study at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital. Since then, he has been working as a MF Hom (homeopathic doctor) at the Tmurot combined clinic and at the complementary medicine department of Asaf Ha'Rofeh Hospital, while also lecturing widely on alternative medicine.

Together with his wife, Dr. Goldberger has been returning to his Jewish roots. The Goldbergers are close to the Habad movement and to Rabbi Moti Gal, director of the Habad House of Ramat Gan. Recently they moved to Moshav Livnim in the Galilee, where Dr. Goldberger is now specializing in family medicine, trying to combine conventional and complementary medicine with Judaism.

Aryeh Strikovsky was born in Tel Aviv in 1942 and educated at Yeshivat Ha'Darom in Rehovot, the Hebron Yeshiva in Jerusalem, and the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Yeshiva of Yeshiva University. After completing a BA in economics and an MA and PhD in Bible at Yeshiva University, he taught Jewish Studies at the University of Manitoba and the University of Detroit. He lives with his wife and children in Jerusalem where he teaches at Mahanayim and the Pardes Institute. For twenty years he has edited the Daf L'Tarbut Yehudit (a Jewish Reader's Digest) for the Israel Ministry of Education, Department of Torah Education.

Rabbi Dr. Strikovsky participated in compiling the Encyclopedia Judaica and has published various articles and books, among them two anthologies, The State in Jewish Thought and Jerusalem in the Thought of Past Generations. He has published two original works: The Ari and Am Ve'Arets — Yeud Ve'Etgar. A chapter from this book, "Suffering for the Land of Israel," appeared in Hebrew in BHT 5H and in English in BHT 7E.

Yanki Tauber was born in 1965 in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York, and was raised in this community of Lubavitcher Hasidim. His education in the Habad school system included three years as lecturer and outreach worker in remote Jewish communities in Seattle, Washington; several towns in Montana; Berlin, Germany; and many places in the Soviet Union.

Ordained by Yeshivat Tomkhey Temimim in 1987, Rabbi Tauber has been editing Week in Review since 1989. This is a digest of hasidic thought based on the works of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menahem Mendel Schneerson.

The author of Once upon a Hasid (a collection of hasidic stories and sayings), Beyond the Letter of the Law (a hasidic companion to Mishna Avot—The Ethics of the Fathers), and The Inside Story (a hasidic perspective on biblical events, encounters, and personalities), Yanki Tauber lives in Rishon L’Tsion, Israel, with his wife and two daughters.

yanki@actcom.co.il.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Yaakov Levinson completed a BA in biology at Hamilton College and an MS in clinical nutrition at Case Western Reserve University. Before immigrating to Israel, he worked as a nutritionist at Memorial Hospital in Albany, New York, and was a registered member of the American Dietetic Association.

In Israel Levinson directed the nutrition department of Rebecca Sieff Hospital in Tsfat, where he also taught. Since moving to Jerusalem with his wife and children, Levinson has served as a nutritionist at Hadassah Hospital and at Neve Simcha Geriatric Hospital.

Levinson founded and directs Yaakov Levinson, Nutritionist, Ltd., an institute which provides treatment, education, and research. His first book, Ekhol B'Simha Lahmekha, was published in Hebrew. A more expanded book, The Jewish Guide to Natural Nutrition, was published by Feldheim. An article, "The Spirituality of Eating" appeared in BHT 8E.

Levinson has studied at both hasidic and Lithuanian yeshivot (Torah academies) in Brooklyn, Tsfat, and Jerusalem. The deep influence of his hasidic way of life is seen in his writing and treatment approach. He recently presented his innovative research findings in geriatric nutrition and a newly developed nutritional formula at the Twelfth International Congress of Dietetics in Manila, Philippines.

Born and raised in the USA, Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh received an MA in mathematics from the Belfer Graduate School of Science in New York City in 1965.

After making aliya to Israel and studying for several years in yeshivot in Jerusalem, he married and moved to Kfar Habad, where he lives with his family.

Rabbi Ginsburgh is Rosh Yeshiva of Od Yosef Hai, near Joseph's tomb in Shkhem. He also teaches Hasidism in Israel and the diaspora and is the Rosh Kollel of Kollel Menuha Rahel in Hebron.

Rabbi Ginsburgh's teachings on Hasidism are published in English and Hebrew by Gal Einai in Jerusalem. His system is based on the interrelation and flow among the five fundamental Torah-oriented topics of art and music, mathematics/natural sciences, psychology of mind ("light shining to oneself" — the service of meditation), psychology of heart ("light shining to others" — the rectification of character), and sociology/government.

Professor Eliezer (Eduardo) Zeiger is a professor emeritus of plant biology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of more than one hundred scientific articles and the coauthor of three editions of the textbook Plant Physiology, published by Sinauer. His research studies the use of light by plant cells as an environmental signal, and the control of gas exchange in leaves. Brought up in an observant Jewish home in Argentina, he lived as a secular Jew in his youth and early adulthood, until he returned to Jewish observance after completing his professional education.
Professor Zeiger is a founder and the CEO of the Torah Science Foundation, an organization devoted to the unification of Divine and secular wisdom. He has written several articles on the relationship between Torah and science and has lectured on the subject throughout the world.

zeiger@biology.ucla.edu

Russell Jay Hendel holds a PhD in theoretical mathematics from MIT and is an associate of the Society of Actuaries. He has been a full-time faculty member at half a dozen universities and is currently adjunct professor at Towson University. He currently works for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services of the United States government in the Department of Health and Human Services. He has written about two dozen articles on number theory, mathematical pedagogy, and the use of technology to enhance education. For seven years he attended the lectures of Rabbi Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchick whose analytical-logical approach to both Rashi and Talmudic problems has enabled Dr. Hendel, in his half-dozen Judaica articles, to defend the plausibility of original Talmudic positions on a wide variety of issues. His “Jewish Bankruptcy Law as a Vehicle for Societal Kindness” appeared in B’Or Ha’Torah 10E. He runs the web-based Rashi Database Project that aims to grammatically defend all 8000 of Rashi’s commentaries on the Torah.

http://www.RashiYomi.Com

RJHendel@Juno.com

Alexander Poltorak was born in Krasnodar, Russia, in 1957. Devoting his studies at the Kuban State University in Krasnodar to Einstein’s theory of relativity and gravitation, Poltorak published several papers in this field and wrote his doctoral thesis on a solution to a long-standing ‘energy problem’ in the Theory of General Relativity.

Accused of Jewish nationalist dissident activity, Poltorak was stripped of his academic degrees. In 1982 he immigrated to the USA. He served as an assistant professor of biomathematics at Cornell University Medical College, where he conducted research on mathematical modeling of blood-flow circulation in the brain and on Positron Emission Tomography. He also served as an assistant professor of physics at Touro College and adjunct professor of law at the Globe Institute of Technology.

Poltorak is chairman and CEO of General Patent Corporation. He has coauthored two books and authored numerous papers on intellectual property law and economics.

While still in Russia, Alex and his wife Leah became interested in religion as an outgrowth of their inquiry into science, and they became Torah-observant. Later, in Italy, on their way to America, Rabbi Hirsh Rabisky introduced them to Habad Hasidism. Dr. Poltorak has been active in Jewish education. He wrote many articles on Judaism for the Russian-Jewish press, cofounded and edited Yevreyski Mir, the first Russian Jewish weekly newspaper in the US, and hosted weekly radio programs on two Russian radio stations. He taught Jewish studies at Touro College and lectures frequently throughout North America on Jewish mysticism, religion, and science. His articles and a book, A Light unto My Path, are published on Chabad.org.

apoltorak@gpci.com

Rabbi Dr. Reuven P. Bulka received ordination from Rabbi Jacob Joseph Rabbinical Seminary in 1965 and a PhD in logotherapy from the University of Ottawa in 1971. He has been the rabbi of Congregation Machzikei Hadas in Ottawa since 1967 and founding editor of the Journal of Psychology and Judaism since 1976. He hosts the weekly TV series "In Our Hands" and two weekly radio call-in programs, "Religion on the Air" in Ottawa and "The Torah Therapy Hour" on WLIR in New York. Chairman of the Rabbinic Cabinet for State of Israel Bonds in Canada, president of the International Rabbinic Forum of Keren HaYesod, national co-chairman of the World Jewry Committee of the Canadian Jewish Congress, and chaplain of the Dominion Command of the Royal Canadian Legion, Rabbi Bulka has authored and/or edited 25 books. These include: The Wit and Wisdom of the Talmud; Loneliness; The Jewish Pleasure Principle; Jewish Divorce Ethics, What You Thought You Knew about Judaism, and Jewish Marriage.

Miriam Schwarz was born in Jerusalem, where she studied Hebrew and English literature at the Hebrew University and where she lives with her husband and family. As an outgrowth of her many years of teaching informal adult Jewish education, mainly at the Emet V'Emuna Synagogue, in 1987 she published Va'Taan Miriam, a book of commentary in prose and poetry on some of the weekly Torah portions.

The following paper was translated and abridged from the chapter in this book on Leviticus chapter 12.

Marilyn Tokayer was born in New York and raised in Rockaway Beach. In 1977 she received an AAS in interior design from the Fashion Institute of Technology and in 1980, a BA in art history from Brooklyn College. Until her first child was born, she worked at the Brooklyn Museum and the Jewish Museum in New York, and the Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv. Then she started a freelance graphics and calligraphy business at home.

In 1985 the Tokayers made aliya and settled in Emanuel in Samaria, where they live with their six children. Mrs. Tokayer is a LaLeche League counselor to breastfeeding mothers. Her book, Created in Wisdom, The Symbiotic Relationship between Mother and Child: A Jewish Perspective, is distributed by Feldheim.

Marilyn Tokayer was born in New York and raised in Rockaway Beach. In 1977 she received an AAS in interior design from the Fashion Institute of Technology and in 1980, a BA in art history from Brooklyn College. Until her first child was born, she worked at the Brooklyn Museum and the Jewish Museum in New York, and the Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv. Then she started a freelance graphics and calligraphy business at home.

In 1985 the Tokayers made aliya and settled in Emanuel in Samaria, where they live with their six children. Mrs. Tokayer is a LaLeche League counselor to breastfeeding mothers. Her book, Created in Wisdom, The Symbiotic Relationship between Mother and Child: A Jewish Perspective, is distributed by Feldheim.

A native of Brooklyn, NY, Pesach (Paul) Goldstein received his religious training from the Conservative movement. After his bar mitsva all his religious activities ceased except for attendance at High Holiday services until 1984, when he met Rabbi Yosef Groner in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Studying Hasidism, Torah, and Talmud influenced him and his family to commit themselves to furthering Jewish education for themselves and other Jews. He is one of the founders of the Habad House of El Paso, Texas.

Professor Goldstein teaches genetics at the University of Texas at El Paso. He has published over 60 papers in the areas of genetics and reproductive toxicology. He has also published under his Hebrew name Pesach ben Yitzchak. An international lecturer and recipient of many grants, he received the 1995 Distinguished Achievement Award in Research from the University of Texas.

Professor Goldstein's article "Living Water: Concept of Mida-k'neged-Mida and Cellular Homeostasis" appeared in BHT 5E.