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B’OR HA’TORAH JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, LIFE AND ART IN THE LIGHT OF THE TORAH
A peer-reviewed journal on the interrelationship of Judaism, science and technology, psychology, the arts, and social issues, B’Or Ha’Torah illuminates a range of topics from the cosmology and ecology of Genesis; the creation ex nihilo vs. evolution and faith vs. reason debates; the views of halakhah (Jewish law) on stem cell research and genetic engineering; and the soul-mind-brain-memory-body connection. Rabbis and religious Jews with no science background as well as professionals in all fields with no Torah background can enjoy this inspiring publication in hardcopy and digital formats.
To receive a free PDF file of an individual article, send the author, title, and volume number to:
bht@jct.ac.il
This offer is limited to three articles.
Robert Appleson
The Zohar and Midrash Rabbah say God used the Torah as a blueprint in creating the world. Based on the Torah itself, the Talmud states this creation involved the Hebrew letter ה (hei), as illustrated by its shape presaging tshuvah (repentance) in our environment. Beyond that spiritual contribution are signs of a material aspect involving the iterative structure of the Torah, based on the five shared principles of the Ten Commandments taught in Midrash Mekhilta. In particular, this structure appears in the mathematical constant phi (roughly 1.618) embodied in a regular pentagon, which geometrically represents the number five. Research has shown that our sense of beauty is neurologically sensitive to phi. This confirms God’s blessing of the gift of aesthetics to Yefet, progenitor of the early Greeks, who discovered this constant. We have long recognized the role of phi in a host of growth phenomena in ways worthy of a blueprint. Thus, we can read the Zohar and Midrash Rabbah as saying God used the Torah’s fivefold iterative structure to model phi in creating the world.
Professor Joseph S. Bodenheimer
The first chapter of Genesis describes the creation ex nihilo of the entire universe and Man. The second chapter is usually understood to give a different account of creation. This paper suggests that, rather than presenting an alternative version of Creation, the second chapter and those thereafter are actually a continuation of the first chapter, describing how the latent potential of humanity was activated and expressed. Essential steps in the making of Adam and Eve into self-aware human beings were their empowerment to communicate with God and with one another, and realization of their responsibility for their deeds. Following this analysis, it is possible to distinguish between two elusive terms, tselem and dmut.
Professor John D. Loike
Based on a presentation at the Tenth Miami International Conference on Torah and Science, December 13–16, 2013
abstract
Cloning technology has been used successfully in the past fifteen years for over twenty different species to produce embryonic stem cells or for reproductive purposes. The application of this technology for human cloning, however, has been a scientific challenge until very recently. In May of 2013, a seminal paper was published in the journal Cell that described innovative cloning technology used to create human embryonic stem cell lines from healthy individuals and from patients with genetic diseases (Tachibana et al. 2013). These scientists were not interested in using this technology for human reproduction to clone people. Nonetheless, this technology is transforming theoretical human reproductive cloning into a potential reality. The possibilities enabled by this recent breakthrough in cloning technology raises significant and challenging halakhic issues. I shall discuss the scientific basis of this technology and raise halakhic questions that emerge from this technology that our rabbinic authorities will have to adjudicate.
Rabbi Professor Avraham Steinberg, MD
Presented at the Tenth Miami International Conference on Torah and Science, December 13–16, 2013
Rabbi Professor Avraham Steinberg, MD
abstract
Fatherhood is one of the most basic concepts; yet, we do not find a direct definition of this term in Talmudic and Rishonim sources.
Deduced from various halakhot (rulings of Jewish law), a father is defined as the man from whose sperm a woman became pregnant and delivered a child. In ancient times and until recently, this happened primarily after a direct relationship between a man and a woman.
Modern fertility technologies enable the introduction of sperm into the womb of a woman by artificial insemination without physical contact between them. Moreover, it is possible to obtain sperm from a man, save it frozen, and inseminate it into a woman after the death of the man. Even more striking is the option to obtain sperm after the man died and inseminate it into a woman. Are the men in the above examples defined halakhically as fathers of the offspring?
In the future, it might be possible to clone a child not only without direct contact between a man and a woman, but even without using sperm. How would fatherhood be defined in various situations of cloning? If stem cell research will come to fruition, it will be possible to create both a sperm and an egg from the same person. Who will be the father if the source of the stem cell will be a woman?
Rabbi Professor Moshe D. Tendler
Presented at the Tenth Miami International Conference on Torah and Science, December 13–16, 2013
Rabbi Professor Moshe Dovid Tendler
abstract
This paper will focus on several halakhic (legal/ethical/moral) dilemmas resulting from widely used ART (Assisted Reproduction Technology). A basic underlying question is whether a Jewish woman is required to fulfill the command to procreate. Is a woman allowed to risk self-injury in order to produce a child? In order for one woman to donate an egg to another woman, the donor must be prepared with physiologically unsafe dosages of reproductive hormones to force multiple ovulations, and the ovum must be removed surgically. In surrogacy, the surrogate assumes the health stresses of pregnancy and birth. Are both procedures in violation of the Torah law forbidding self-injury even for monetary compensation? Who is the true mother of a child born this way—the genetic mother or the gestational mother?
Does the use of donor sperm raise a concern for accidental incest? The risk is increased by sperm from one donor being inseminated into many recipients. How is the “Jewishness” of such offspring determined?
Rabbi Gideon Weitzman
abstract
Rabbinic authorities are debating who is the halakhic (Jewish legal) mother of a child born by gestational surrogacy, wherein one woman donated the ovum and another woman carried the pregnancy and gave birth. For instance, the author of this article differs in approach from two other authors in this volume. Torah-observant couples are availing themselves of the new technologies, and it is essential that they seek appropriate halakhic guidance and supervision before embarking on such assisted reproduction technologies.
Barry M. Kinzbrunner
abstract
While Judaism teaches that life is of infinite value, Ecclesiastes tells us “…there is a time to live and a time to die…” Based on both Talmudic and Midrashic sources, we also learn that our patriarch Jacob asked G-d to create terminal illness in order allow us to have time to settle our affairs before death. Hence, there is a detailed account of his death in the last four chapters of Genesis. In spite of this, many rabbis are reluctant to allow patients under their consultation to access hospice services during the last phases of life. This is due to a number of barriers and misconceptions regarding how care is provided in a hospice program. Key barriers, including overall decision-making near the end of life, the management of pain, do-not-resuscitate orders versus cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and artificial nutrition and hydration, will be discussed from a medical perspective in order to show how they can be managed in ways consistent with medical halakhah, the extensive corpus of Jewish law dealing with health and the preservation of life.
Yosef ben Avraham Isaac (1941–2014)
A tribute by his wife, Professor Vera Schwarcz
Jason Wolfe studied cell death out of a keen appreciation for life in all its forms. When he delivered this paper at the B’Or Ha’Torah conference in December 2013, only a few people there were aware of his serious illness (myelofibrosis, which is a cancer of the stem cells in the bone marrow). The audience did not know how much it had cost him to rush to the podium after days of delayed travel and exhaustion. Jason took his place among the distinguished physicians and rabbis on the podium and within minutes delivered this lucid, informed, and at times even humorous paper about the marvelously effective mechanisms for programmed cell death which keep us alive, and which were at that very moment also hastening his own demise. Jason did not speak about his cancer. He chose, instead, to focus on what makes each of us deeply alive. In this conscious appreciation of human existence lay his nobility of spirit.
A highly trained scientist, Jason also studied Torah with passion. His remarks for the conference were framed by two quotes from Jewish texts. The opening epigraph comes from Rabbi Shlomo Ha’Levi Alkabets’s Shabbat evening song “Lekhah Dodi”:
Arise and depart from amid the upheaval.
The closing reference is from Psalms 116:9:
I will walk before the L-rd in the lands of the living.
Professor Jason Wolfe
Professor Jason Wolfe
Based on a presentation at the Tenth Miami International Conference on Torah and Science, December 13–16, 2013
Abstract
Whether an organism dies by accident, murder, disease, or old age, ultimately that death results from the death or malfunction of a sufficient number of cells that make up the organism, often cells in critical organs such as the brain or heart. For example, if an artery bringing blood to the heart becomes constricted or is torn, those heart cells that depend on the artery’s supply of oxygen and nutrients may die, possibly leading to the failure of the heart and death of the organism. Similarly, but for different reasons, cumulative cell death in the brain can lead to Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and other forms of dementia.
Surprisingly, most cells die by a mechanism that could almost be described as “voluntary.” Deprivation of nutrients triggers a molecular pathway that causes the cell to self-destruct by a mechanism that involves precise snipping of DNA into small pieces, the degradation of the cell’s internal skeletal system, outpouching of cell fragments, and the uptake and digestion of those fragments by neighboring cells.
All multicellular organisms demonstrate this type of cell death; it is a well-conserved mechanism, involving the same genes and proteins. Moreover, the proteins involved in cell death are premanufactured in all cells. That means that the system, the pathway that leads to cell death, is already in place even in healthy cells and can be triggered instantaneously by the right signals. These facts suggest that regulation is essential for the life of an organism.
That seems like a paradox; how could a mechanism that leads to cell death be essential for the life of the organism? Regulated cell death is Janus-like, contributing to the viability of an organism or to its death, depending on the circumstances. I shall describe the characteristics of regulated cell death, discuss the ways in which it is essential for the life of the organism, how it can save an organism from cancer, and how it can be triggered by faults in a cell and contribute to the death of an organism.
Harvey Babich, PhD
Harvey Babich, PhD
This article originally appeared in slightly different form in Derech HaTeva: A Journal of Torah and Science, volume 19 (2014–2015), published by Stern College for Women of Yeshiva University.
abstract
Determination of the entire sequences of nitrogenous bases on DNA of nuclear chromosomes and on mitochondrial DNA was shown to be approximately 99.9 percent equivalent in cells from all human beings. The small variations that differ greatly among individuals serve as genetic markers to distinguish one person from another. Such variations arose from single-point mutations, accounting for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and from errors in DNA replications, accounting for copy number variants (CNVs). SNPs and CNVs arose in history, were transmitted to descendants, and serve as genetic markers. In the technique termed DNA fingerprinting, DNA is isolated from cells, purified, cut with restriction enzymes, separated according to size by DNA gel electrophoresis, and identified with probes. Forensic scientists use different probes to identify distinct DNA fragments, whose frequencies of occurrence are known within a population. The DNA fingerprint pattern that develops is unique and the chance of it matching two persons is about one in a trillion. DNA fingerprinting is used to identify cadavers and human remains resulting from natural catastrophes, military actions, and terrorist attacks, and has legal applications for certifying death certificates and wills, in the distribution of benefits to survivors, and in cases of an agunah who is unsure of her marital status. DNA fingerprinting is not unique to humans, and has been used in the kashrut (kosher food) industry and to ascertain the purity of etrogim (citrons).
Professor Cary Nelson
Abstract
Over the last few years, the long history of attempts to boycott or delegitimate the State of Israel have intensified with the rise of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Campuses in both North America and Europe have become centers of efforts to win students and faculty over to a view that demonizes the Jewish state. This has made rational and evidence-based conversations about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict difficult or impossible to sustain. Over the last year the campus atmosphere has become still more hostile as the accusations against Israel have been newly racialized. Too often anti-Israel faculty now feel justified in using the classroom to recruit students to their cause. All these developments make it difficult to promote the mutual respect and empathy required to understand the conflict and promote ways to resolve it. In response, people who support justice for both Israelis and Palestinians should use reasoned argument and rely on factual evidence, even if their opponents fail to do so. While a strong majority of Americans overall still offer Israel their support, campuses are increasingly graduating future professionals who do not. That represents a long-term threat to Israel’s special relationship with the US and its European trading partners.
Wendy Dickstein
Now which gemara, which tractate of the Talmud, was it that discussed this matter? Kiddushin? Ketubos? He couldn't quite recall. He did remember, though, that it was a mahlokes, one of those famous disputes among the Talmud Sages, about a woman who was three times a widow. She was known as a katlanis, a “killer.” He shuddered at the thought, and his hand rose instinctively to his throat. The dispute, as he recalled, was over whether she was to be considered a killer after the second husband died or only after the third. There were two opinions, but the upshot of the argument was, for all practical purposes, that a man should not take the chance of marrying such a woman.
When he spoke about it the next evening during their nightly Talmud learning session to his dear friend and learning partner, Reb Haim Shlesinger, Reb Haim leapt out of his chair, knocking it over in his haste, and almost danced over to the bookshelf. He pulled out not one but two different volumes of the Talmud and opened the first one to the argument which Isaac had groped for in his memory the night before.
Here it was, Tractate Yevamos. It was not exactly what Isaac had thought, at least not this particular discussion. But it answered his question perfectly.
This story hinges upon the halakhic legality of marrying a woman whose two previous husbands have died. In practice, when interested in clarifying any such specific and applied law, one should go straight to the Shulhan Arukh, rather than merely looking up Maimonides’ opinion. The two scholars in the story would have better gone to a rabbinic authority conversant with the pertinent halakhic literature, who would have set their minds at rest. As they were evidently not equipped to clarify the law on their own, they should not have tried to resolve the issue by themselves.
Rabbi Tzvi Freeman
This invitation to researchers and scholars to explore the ideas in this article is based on a presentation at the Tenth Miami International Conference on Torah and Science, December 13–16, 2013.
Sefer Yetsirah, the basis of Kabbalah, identifies nefesh (consciousness) as a building block of the universe, along with time and space. The Talmud Sages astutely determined puberty as the coming of age for social responsibility: age twelve for girls (bat mitsvah) and thirteen for boys (bar mitsvah). I propose that this is the stage of life when consciousness blossoms because this is when the internal dialogues of the mind begin to be heard. Language is necessary for the degree of reflective consciousness requisite for responsible action. The modality of daat corresponds to the brain stem. It is suggested that the changes in the brain stem that trigger puberty also allow for the internal dialogue to become the heightened, almost visceral, experience that the Talmud recognizes as true human consciousness.
I am not an expert in either cosmology or brain science. Therefore, this is not an academic paper but rather an invitation to experts in these fields to explore the ideas raised here.
Robert Appleson recently retired as a vice president at the Higher Learning Commission, which is based in Chicago and accredits colleges and universities in nineteen states. His doctorate in mathematics from Vanderbilt University in 1975 led him to study structural patterns in the Torah, and his book on this subject is scheduled to be published by Mosaica Press in 2016. He and his wife learn at the Illinois Center for Jewish Studies. They are blessed with three children and their families.
appleson@sbcglobal.net
Editor-in-chief of B’Or Ha’Torah, Joseph S. Bodenheimer is a full professor of electro-optics at the Jerusalem College of Technology (Machon Lev) and president emeritus of this unique college. He received his PhD from the Hebrew University in physics. He did postdoctoral studies in laser spectrometry at Kings College, London University, and discovered two previously unknown phase transitions and also developed a new spectrometric technique.
In 1982, Professor Bodenheimer was appointed head of the electro-optics department of the Jerusalem College of Technology. In 1989 he was elected rector and subsequently, up until 2009, was president of JCT. Under his leadership, JCT expanded dynamically to become a world-class institute, supporting Israel’s position as a global hi-tech superpower while combining Torah and academic studies.
Professor Bodenheimer has endeavored to make Israel a world leader in the field of optical engineering through his students and applied research. Awarded substantial research grants from institutes and foundations throughout the world, he has published over eighty papers and holds eleven patents in a broad range of electro-optical devices and systems. He has served as consultant for numerous high-technology companies in Israel and the United States and as a member of several national scientific committees.
Professor Bodenheimer sets aside time for daily Talmud study, and gives regular shiurim. A founding member of the California chapter of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, he is a member of the Zomet Institute for Halacha and Technology, a member of the board of Nishmat Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women, and the president of Ramban Synagogue in Katamon, Jerusalem.
Fascinated by the combination of science and technology with Jewish studies and ethics, Joseph Bodenheimer is a life-long Zionist leader who loves working with young people, especially his own extensive family. He and his wife, Rachel, have eight children and many, many grandchildren.
Dr. John D. Loike serves as Director of Special Programs in Columbia University's Center for Bioethics and facultyin the Department of Physiology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. His research focuses on the role of immune cells in cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. He serves as the course director of Crossroads in Bioethics, Bioethics for Biomedical Engineers at Columbia College. He is the codirector for a graduate-level course called Atherosclerosis and the Mechanisms of Disease. Dr. Loike also is the creator and managing editor of Columbia University’s Journal of Bioethics and directs a summer internship program called Biomedical Cross-Cultural Education Programs (BioCEP). He has over 100 publications in major scientific and bioethical journals, has coauthored several books, and is a frequent speaker at many professional events in Jewish communities in the US and around the world. Currently, he is coauthoring a book with Rabbi Professor Moshe Tendler on the halakhic perspectives of bioethics, to be published by Yeshiva University Press in 2016.
jdl5@cumc. columbia.edu
Rabbi Professor Avraham Steinberg, MD, is an associate clinical professor of medical ethics at the Hebrew University–Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem. He is the author of The Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics, published in seven volumes in Hebrew (two editions) and three volumes in English (translated by Dr. Fred Rosner), for which he was awarded the Israel Prize in 1999. Professor Steinberg is a senior pediatric neurologist at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. He directs the Medical Ethics Unit at Shaare Zedek. Head of the editorial board of the Talmudic Encyclopedia, and Editor-in-Chief of the Talmudic Micropedia, he is also director of Yad Harav Herzog, and a member of national and international societies of child neurology, medical ethics, and Jewish medical ethics.
In Israel, Professor Steinberg is the co-chairman of the National Bioethics Council, chairman of the Dying Patient Committee, chairman of the Organ Transplantation Committee, chairman of the Altruistic Live-Organ Donations Committee, member of the Brain-Death Criteria Committee, member of the Status of the Fetus and Pre-Embryo Committee, and chairman of the Pathological Specimens Committee.
He is the author and editor of 40 books and public reports in 59 volumes, and over 280 articles and chapters in scientific journals and books on Jewish medical ethics, general medical ethics, the history of medicine, medicine and law, and pediatric neurology. He has given over 4,000 expert witness opinions in court cases on pediatric neurology and medical ethics.
steinberg@szmc.org.il
Rabbi Professor Moshe D. Tendler, noted authority on medical ethics and the relationship of medicine and science to Jewish law, is rosh yeshivah at the Yeshiva University–affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) and professor of biology at Yeshiva College, and holds the Rabbi Isaac and Bella Tendler Chair in Jewish Medical Ethics at Yeshiva University.
Rabbi Tendler was ordained at RIETS in 1949 and received Yoreh Yoreh in 1953 from Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, of righteous memory. He earned a PhD in biology from Columbia University in 1957. He has served on the Medical Ethics Task Force of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, for which he edited the Compendium of Medical Ethics. For nine years he served as its chairman. For decades he chaired the Bioethical Commission of the Rabbinical Council of America. A former president of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and current member of its board, Rabbi Tendler is author of Pardes Rimonim (a text on Jewish family life); co-author with Professor Fred Rosner, MD, of Practical Medical Halachah, a primer for physicians; and author of Care of the Critically Ill—Responsa of Rav Moshe Feinstein; as well as many articles on science and religion in leading publications. He is frequently consulted by the media and public officials on ethical issues.
Tendler@YU.edu
Rabbi Gideon Weitzman, Director of the Puah Institute, heads the organization’s English-Speaking Section for Fertility and Medicine in Accordance with Halakhah (Jewish law).
Born in Britain, Rabbi Weitzman studied at the Beit El Rabbinic Seminary and earned his rabbinic ordination from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. Upon completion of his studies, he founded and chaired the Kansas City Community Kollel (Center of Adult Learning). Subsequently, he returned to Israel and was invited to join the staff of the Puah Institute.
Rabbi Weitzman has developed and taught online courses pertaining to fertility treatments and their interface with halakhah. These courses were sponsored by the Center for the Jewish Future of Yeshiva University and by Habad rabbis. While currently teaching in the Gruss Kollel and the Midrasha College for Women in Jerusalem, he also serves as rabbi of the Merkaz Modiin Synagogue. Rabbi Weitzman has published three books on the philosophy of former Chief Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. His latest book, His Words, Their Voices — Essays on the Haftarot, was recently published by Urim Publications.
questions@puah.org.il
Barry M. Kinzbrunner, MD, FACP, FAAHPM, is Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Vitas Healthcare Corporation of Miami, Florida. Board certified in internal medicine, medical oncology, and hospice and palliative medicine, he has voluntary faculty appointments at the University of Miami School of Medicine and the Florida International University School of Medicine. He received rabbinic ordination from Pirchei Shoshanim in Jerusalem, Israel, in 2002.
Dr. Kinzbrunner’s extensive experience in the field of hospice and palliative medicine includes numerous speaking engagements and publications on the care of patients at the end of life, including a textbook entitled 20 Common Problems in End-of-life Care. A second edition, under the title End-of-Life Care: A Practical Guide, was published in January, 2011. Under Dr. Kinzbrunner’s leadership, Vitas has partnered with the American Medical Student Association to offer a yearly six-week summer internship in end-of-life care for medical students. Dr. Kinzbrunner has worked since 1998 as a voluntary consultant in Israel for JDC-Eshel to assist in the development of hospice and palliative care services, as well as spiritual care services. Currently serving on the advisory board of the National Institute for Jewish Hospice, he served on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine from 1999 to 2006 and was its treasurer from 2005 to 2006.
Barry.Kinzbrunner@vitas.com
Professor Emeritus of Cell Biology at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, Jason Wolfe was born and raised in Newark, NJ, studied at Yeshiva University High School, and received a BA from Rutgers University and a PhD from the University of California Berkeley. He did postdoctoral research at the Biophysical Unit of the Medical Research Council, the University of London’s Kings College in England, and the Biophysics Department at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
His research concentrated on the mechanism by which cells, while remaining alive, destroy their own nuclei. He investigated how this is related to the process of programmed cell death, a necessary part of development. He taught courses on the biology of aging and the cell biology of cancer.
Professor Wolfe spent three sabbatical years in Israel at the Hebrew University, the Technion, and Hadassah Medical School. He lived for a year in the religious kibbuts, Ma’alei Gilboa. He was a past president of Young Israel of West Hartford and former chairman of the Judaic Studies Board of the
Dr. Harvey Babich received a BA in biology from Yeshiva College of Yeshiva University (YU), an MS in microbiology from Long Island University, and a PhD in biology from New York University (NYU). Subsequent appointments included Senior Research Scientist in the Biology Department at NYU, Senior Staff Scientist at the Environmental Law Institute, and Senior Research Scientist at the Rockefeller University. He served as a committee member for the National Academy of Sciences. Research interests have included the effects of pollutants on microbes, the development of short-term toxicity assays with fish and mammalian cell lines, and, currently, the comparative responses of human oral fibroblasts and carcinoma cells to nutraceuticals. His research has appeared in over 130 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Babich joined the Biology Department of Stern College for Women (SCW) of YU in 1987 and is a professor and the chair of that department. He is the originator of the SCW publication, Derech HaTeva: A Journal of Torah and Science, published since 1997 and available online at YUTorah.org. His communal activities have included involvement with the Young Israel of Ocean Parkway and the Young Israel of Homecrest, and currently with Agudath Yisroel of Madison (all in Brooklyn), in which his favorite activity is “shul candy man.”
Rabbi Tzvi Freeman is a senior editor at Chabad.org, the world's busiest faith-based website, with 47 million unique visitors per year. He is the author of two volumes of Bringing Heaven Down To Earth—365 Meditations, along with several other titles on Kabbalah and hasidic thought. His multimedia productions on Jewish meditation can be found at JewishMeditation.com.
TFreeman@chabad.org
