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When Judaism Meets Science

 

“a rare masterpiece”
– Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman, HUC

“careful research, passionate analysis, and good sense”
– Rabbi David Teutsch, RRC

“clear, engaging”
– Rabbi Geoffrey Mitelman, Sinai and Synapses

“a tremendous tome”
– Rabbi Wayne Dosick, SpiritTalk Live!

“an absolutely fascinating book”
– Rabbi Richard Address, Jewish Sacred Aging

“scholarly, judicious, and fair–minded . . . and very ‘readable’”
– Ronald W. Pies, MD

“a fresh way to explore Jewish topics . . . useful in teaching adults”
– Rabbi Gail Shuster–Bouskila

“A must read! . . . careful thought and such literary excellence”
– Rabbi Jack Riemer

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Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Lessons from Wall Fragments and a Scroll

Monday, July 29, 2024 @ 03:07 PM
posted by Roger Price
Deir Alla Inscription Excerpt

Wall Fragments in the Jordan Valley

Most of us have no idea of what treasures might rest under our feet. And then, perhaps, the wind blows, some rain falls, a shovel turns, and you see what no human has seen in years, maybe thousands of years.

So it was just fifty-seven years ago at a site known as Deir Alla, 13 miles east of the Jordan River and 27 miles northwest of the current Jordanian capital of Amman. There and then, an Arab foreman working with a group of archaeologists led by Prof. Henk J. Franken of the University of Leiden discovered fragments of a story that had been written many centuries earlier in red and black paint on a plaster wall. Recovery, preservation, restoration, and reassembly of the plaster fragments was a multi-year effort which led first to framed reconstructions being sent to the Amman Archaeological Museum and, subsequently, the publication of a book.  

What could have caused the wall to collapse and shatter? And could that cause help us understand when the wall might have fallen? The answers came from a convergence of investigations at different sites in modern Israel and Jordan, sometimes utilizing different approaches. The sites ranged from Hazor in the north of Israel to Ein Hatseva in the south.  The Jordanian site of Deir Alla lies midway between the two. What these sites have in common, and in common with other sites like Gezer, Lachish, and Tell ej-Judeidah (Tel Goded), is that they all sustained damage consistent with earthquake debris in areas stratigraphically contained to the middle of the Eighth Century BCE. In 2021, the Israel Antiquities Authority (“IAA”) announced evidence in Jerusalem, as well, of a powerful ancient earthquake around that time.  

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Future Tents: If Only Balaam Could See Me Now

Monday, July 10, 2023 @ 04:07 PM
posted by Roger Price

Terra, from Luna.
Credit:NASA

Lunar Base Armstrong: Material Science Log

Terran Date: July 11, 2041. Lunar Time Zone 18.


It never gets old. It just never gets old.

As I sit here looking at the VisScreen, I see my home planet. On average, it’s about 384,400 kilometers(238,835 miles) away, and from here, without a high-powered telescope, I cannot make out any human-made objects. What I can see though is what Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean called a “beautiful sphere,” white from clouds, blue from the massive seas, some yellow, tan, and green.  When the first settlers arrive on Mars, they will barely be able to see Terra (what we used to call Earth) at all. I am blessed.

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What the Torah and Talmud Teach about Cancel Culture

Monday, May 8, 2023 @ 01:05 PM
posted by Roger Price


In August, 2022, Rabbi David Wolpe, then senior rabbi of one at the largest congregations in the United States, wrote an essay in Sapir Journal titled “To Err Is Human; to Disagree Jewish.” His point of departure is a story related in the Talmud which tells of how Rabbi Gamliel, at one point the leader of the rabbinic community, publicly shamed another rabbi, Yehoshua, who dared to challenge him on the issue of whether evening prayer was obligatory or optional. The sages were so offended by Rabbi Gamliel’s behavior that they deposed him as Nasi (presiding leader) and elevated another, Rabbi Elazar, who instituted changes that allowed more and fresher perspectives to presented. (See BT Berakhot 27b.) This alone might have been a dayenu moment, but chastened, Rabbi Gamliel apologized for his behavior and was awarded an opportunity to lead the academy again. 

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The Last Civil Conversation on Abortion?

Monday, June 27, 2022 @ 03:06 PM
posted by Roger Price

On Thursday, June 23, 2022, one day before the Supreme Court’s momentous decision in the Mississippi abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., three Jews got together to talk about Jews, Judaism, and Abortion. Rabbi Andrea London, rabbi at Beth Emet – The Free Synagogue, in Evanston, Illinois hosted the event. The other participants were Dr. Elisheva D. Shanes, Director of Autopsy in the Department of Pathology and Assistant Professor of Pathology (Perinatal and Gynecologic) at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, and Roger Price, author of When Judaism Meets Science, and the Blogmaster of this blog. 

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Exploring Einstein and Kaplan, God and Science

Tuesday, January 18, 2022 @ 04:01 PM
posted by Roger Price

Influenced by the writings of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, the Mordecai M. Kaplan Center for Jewish Peoplehood is a trans-denominational organization which seeks to strengthen “each of the existing denominational movements” and have a positive effect “on the lives of individual Jews regardless of their levels of observance, or even, within limits, their theologies.” Towards that end, it hosts webinars which explore many aspects of the Jewish civilization, including the relationship of Judaism and science.

In January, 2022, the Mordecai M. Kaplan Center for Jewish Peoplehood invited Rabbi Michael M. Cohen and Roger L. Price, authors respectively of Einstein’s Rabbi and When Judaism Meets Science to discuss their books, the thoughts of Albert Einstein and Mordecai Kaplan, and other current issues involving science and Judaism. The entire program, which runs almost two hours, as well as biographical information about the authors and the chatroom log, can be found under Webinars on the main page of the Kaplan Center.

Enjoy!

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When Jews Argue in the Supreme Court About Abortion

Monday, November 29, 2021 @ 02:11 PM
posted by Roger Price
United States Supreme Court
(Credit: supremecourt.gov)

That Jews have disparate viewpoints on abortion is not news, but the argument has mostly been maintained and contained within the tribe. Every once in a while, though, it erupts into the public square, and the current consideration by the Supreme Court of the United States of the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Health, known as the Mississippi abortion case, is one of those times. What are Jews saying, and why?

The Context.

The extent to which abortion – the termination of the life of an embryo or fetus – occurs is not documented precisely in the United States. Since 1969, however, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) has collected data on legally induced abortions from most, but not all, states. Its findings for 2018 disclose that 619,591 legally induced abortions were reported to it. Of these, 92.2% were performed during or before the 13th week of gestation. Another 6.9% were reported between weeks 14 and 20. Less than 1% were reported in or after week 21.

The Case.

The case before the United States Supreme Court arises from the enactment by the State of Mississippi in 2018 of the state’s Gestational Age Act (the “Act”) which prohibits abortion after 15 weeks of gestation, with exceptions for, and only for, medical emergency or severe fetal abnormality. Because the ban prohibits abortions prior to the normal time for fetal viability (at about 22-24 weeks of pregnancy), the Act runs afoul of the Supreme Court’s previous holdings in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 505 U.S. 883 (1992). As Mississippi acknowledges, the very purpose of the Act is to challenge Roe, Casey, and their progeny. To understand the legal issues in the case, then, we need to look first at the primary precedents.

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When Judaism Meets Global Warming (Part 4/4)

Thursday, July 22, 2021 @ 08:07 PM
posted by Roger Price
Earth, from Space
Image Credit: NASA

PART IV ––WHAT JUDAISM CAN AND CANNOT SAY CREDIBLY AND PRODUCTIVELY ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING.

     Global warming, which could lead to climate change, is a complex phenomenon, as we discovered in the first three parts of this essay, previously published here. It is also a ubiquitous subject today, so it is easy to forget that it did not emerge into public consciousness as a matter to be treated seriously until the 1970s. The Jewish community was quick to understand the potential gravity of the issue, and, over the last forty years or so, through familiar denominational outlets and more recently by way of independent entities, the community has not hesitated to speak out. It has met global warming with concern and conferences. Whether the resultant rhetoric has accomplished anything or even addressed sufficiently the difficult challenge global warming presents to Judaism is another matter.

     The classic approach.

     The classic Jewish approach to seeking wisdom is to look first to Judaism’s foundational text, the Torah, understood literally as a book (or as books) of instruction. Long ago, and speaking of the Torah, Ben Bag Bag, an early rabbinic sage, described the premise: Turn it and turn it again, he reportedly said, for all is in it. (See Sayings of the Fathers 5:22.) But neither the Torah nor Judaism’s other foundational text, the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, is a science book, much less a technology book, and its authors lacked the knowledge, the tools, and the perspective to understand something as complex as global warming.

To be sure, by the time the ancient Israelites and Judahites began to record their legends and laws, they, like others, were well aware of the seasonal patterns that then prevailed. But there is no evidence that they knew, for example, that the Earth orbited the Sun in an elliptical path, nor did they likely know that the Earth tilted in its axis. And, surely, they did not know about how the Earth’s atmosphere allowed solar energy to hit the planet’s surface or to trap some of that energy that might otherwise radiate away. Had they any inkling that adding carbon to the atmosphere could potentially and adversely alter temperatures on land, in the seas, and in the sky, would they have insisted on three national pilgrimage festivals and more conventional rituals that called for the sacrificial burning of animals? (See, e.g., Ex. 23:14–17, 34:18-23.) We can speculate, but the truth seems to be that at least early on they conceived of an anthropomorphic god who took pleasure in the aroma of the animal sacrifice (Num. 15:3), and mitigating carbon infusion into the atmosphere was not an issue. 

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When Judaism Meets Global Warming (Parts 1-3/4)

Monday, July 12, 2021 @ 11:07 AM
posted by Roger Price
Image Credit: NASA Glenn Research Center

PART I — CLIMATE SCIENCE IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. IT IS MUCH HARDER.

Science is a process. At its best, it observes, inquires, hypothesizes, predicts, tests, measures, evaluates, and explains the reality in which we appear to live. But science is uneven. It deals with some phenomena better than others.

For instance, with exceptional accuracy, physics can determine the daily rotation of our home planet, the Earth, and its yearly orbit around our host star, the Sun. It can tell us when constellations will appear in the sky each year and when and where less frequent eclipses, both solar and lunar, will become visible and then fade from view.

Through chemistry we understand the natural elements that make up our world and the reaction of one element with one or more other elements under defined pressures and temperatures. Through chemistry we can make the steel and concrete that help us build structures for housing, education, and entertainment, and for manufacturing, distribution, and acquisition, that is, the structures that enable and define modern life.  

The world of biology is more challenging in that life forms do not operate with the regularity of planetary rotations or orbits or the interaction of chemicals under specified conditions. We can trace the past evolution of species, but we cannot predict with any certainty how they will develop in the future. We can test newly developed drugs in controlled double blind experiments involving humans in order to determine the general safety and efficacy of those drugs, but we cannot predict with certitude what, if any, adverse reactions will affect a particular individual or when.  

Compared to physics, chemistry, and biology, climate science is a relatively new science. Even at its most basic level, it deals with complex phenomena such as temperatures on Earth, both on land and in the oceans, but also in the various gaseous layers above the planetary surface to outer space itself. In contrast to a focus on short terms weather activities, climate scientists define their subject matter –– the climate –– as the average of weather over time, typically a period of thirty years. (Steven Koonin, Unsettled, 27.)

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Cong. Agudat Achim Explores “When Judaism Meets Science”

Monday, April 5, 2021 @ 02:04 PM
posted by Roger Price
Cong. Agudat Achim

Cong. Agudat Achim (“CAA”) is a full service, egalitarian, and participatory congregation based in Schenectady, New York. For over 120 years, it has identified with the Conservative movement.

In late March, 2021, as part of CAA’s series on Judaism and science, three members of the congregations, each of whom also happens to be a scientist, interviewed your blogmaster, Roger Price, about various aspects of the interplay of Judaism and science. The interviewers were Andrew Gavens, a materials engineer, Advisor at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, and past president of CAA, Jay Yablon, a theoretical physicist at Einstein Centre for Local–Realistic Physics, patent lawyer, and also a past president of CAA, and Susan Sharfstein, a biochemical engineer and professor of nanobioscience at SUNY Polytechnic Institute. Steven Jarrett, a retired physician and former Medical Director for the Capital District Regional Office of the NYS-DOH, also submitted questions.

The principal topics covered over the course of about one hour and twenty–five minutes include the motivation for and the process regarding writing “When Judaism Meets Science,” ethical issues associated with CRISPR technology and gene and germline editing, Moses as an author or, alternatively, a scientist, what, if anything, science says about God and the writing of the Torah, the historical accuracy of the Passover and Exodus stories,  how, if at all, the Torah and science agree on the creation of the universe and humankind, and, finally, how Judaism and science inform each other regarding artificial intelligence, possible life on exoplanets, and exotheology.  The full discussion can be accessed on YouTube by clicking here. Introductions begin at the 2:28 mark. Enjoy.

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Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz Explores “When Judaism Meets Science”

Wednesday, January 27, 2021 @ 05:01 PM
posted by Roger Price
Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is a rabbi, educator, activist, and author. Not yet forty years old, Rabbi Yanklowitz has twice been named one of America’s Top Rabbis by Newsweek and has also been named by The Forward as one of the 50 most influential Jews and one of The Most Inspiring Rabbis in America. Rabbi Yanklowitz is the author of nineteen books on Jewish ethics and his writings have appeared in outlets as diverse as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Guardian, and the Atlantic among many other secular and religious publications.

In July 2013, Rabbi Yanklowitz became Executive Director, then later President and Dean, of Valley Beit Midrash, a center for Jewish learning, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. In January, 2021, as part of Valley Beit Midrash’s interest in the interface of Judaism and science, Rabbi Yanklowitz interviewed author Roger Price about his book When Judaism Meets Science. The interview, which runs about ten minutes, covers the unique nature of the book’s contents, the differences between the challenges modern science presents today to Judaism, and by extension the Jewish People, and previous challenges, one of the more serious consequences of the current challenge of modern science, and the topic that has elicited the most engaged conversation when the author meets with congregants around the country. That interview can now be seen and heard here:

Enjoy.

Rabbi Yanklowitz was ordained as a rabbi at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, received a second rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, the chief rabbi of Efrat, and a third rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo of Jerusalem. He studied at the University of Texas as an undergraduate, received a master’s degree at Harvard University in Leadership and Psychology, and earned a Doctorate from Columbia University in Epistemology and Moral Development.

Rabbi Yanklowitz is also the Founder & President of Uri L’Tzedek (the Orthodox Social Justice movement), the Founder and CEO of Shamayim (Jewish animal advocacy), and the Founder and President of YATOM, (Jewish foster and adoption network). Rabbi Yanklowitz, his wife Shoshana, and their four children live in Scottsdale, Arizona. They are also foster parents.

When Judaism Meets Science can be purchased from various etailers, including Amazon, and also from the publisher, Wipf and Stock.

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