Articles

Torah min haShamayim: Conflicts Between Religious Belief and Scientific Thinking

Posted March 9, 2010 - 12:31pm

Dr. Daniel Jackson is a professor of computer science at MIT, and a founder of Yedid Nefesh, a minyan in Newton, Massachusetts. This article appears in issue 6 of Conversations, the journal of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals.

Just over sixty years ago, the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists was founded to resolve "the apparent points of conflict between scientific theory and Orthodox Judaism."[1] The claims of paleontology, cosmology, and especially evolutionary biology exposed contradictions with traditional beliefs that were hard to overcome-so hard, indeed, that Alvin Radkowsky (an eminent nuclear physicist and leading member of the association) described the challenge as "a test of faith comparable to that faced by the biblical Abraham."[2]

Judaism Confronts Psychology

By Reuven P. Bulka

Posted March 2, 2010 - 8:47pm

Dr. Bulka is Rabbi of Congregation Machzikei Hadas in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. A prolific author, he has written extensively in the field of Judaism and Psychology. This article appears in issue 6 of Conversations, the journal of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals.

Psychology is the modern-day philosophy. If something is psychologically sound, it almost automatically becomes a desired reality that we should embrace. If it is not psychologically sound, it deserves to be dismissed, even if such dismissal contravenes religious norms.
Consider the matter of guilt. Psychology has just about convinced the general population that guilt is psychologically unhealthful; it raises our anxiety level, interferes with our blood pressure, and compromises our ability to function happily. The remedy-drop the guilt by dropping the values that instill the guilt.

Rabbi Mordechai Elon and the Challenge of Teshuva

By Nathan Lopes Cardozo

Posted March 2, 2010 - 10:08am

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo is Dean of the David Cardozo Academy in Jerusalem (www.cardozoschool.org), and author of highly regarded books and articles. This essay is reprinted on our website with his permission.

I will teach transgressors Your ways
that sinners may return to You
[Tehilim 51: 15]

Despite everything, I have great hopes for Rabbi Elon and believe he will deliver. I do not know what really happened, what is true and what is not. Surely something awful seems to have taken place. Nevertheless, though he may have seriously erred, caused people suffering, and damaged the honor of Judaism, and though he deserves to take responsibility and pay for his actions, I believe that it is in his power to teach us an important lesson.

I am neither a member of Rabbi Elon's camp nor a follower of his. I do not believe in the idolization of people, even great rabbis. And I am not going to defend him.

O Tempora O Mores

By Jeremy Rosen

Posted February 25, 2010 - 11:50am

Rabbi Jeremy Rosen is a graduate of Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem and Cambridge University. He has been the rabbi of Orthodox communities in Glasgow and London, Principal of Carmel College in Oxfordshire, and Professor and Chairman of the Faculty for Comparative Religion in Wilrijk, Belgium. He currently lives in Manhattan where he lectures, writes, and serves the Persian community on the Upper East Side. This article appears in issue 6 of Conversations, the journal of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals.

Do not say that earlier days were better than these!

-Kohelet 7:10

My late father, Rabbi Kopul Rosen died in 1962, at the age of 49. He was a remarkably charismatic personality, tall and elegant, an orator and public speaker of a type and style no longer to be found. He was arguably the most influential and certainly the most popular rabbi in the Britain of his day. But he was also the symbol of a kind of rabbi and a style of Orthodoxy that has all but disappeared.

The Fertility Dilemma

By Richard V. Grazi

Posted February 22, 2010 - 12:01pm

Richard V. Grazi, M.D. is the Director of Reproductive Endocrinology at Maimonides Medical Center in New York, and the founder of GENESIS Fertility & Reproductive Medicine. This article appears in issue 6 of Conversations, the journal of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals.

When the first baby was born after conception in vitro, the news was extraordinary in ways that bear recalling some 30 years later. Few before then had imagined that human conception had been so distilled to its scientific essence that it could be captured in a test tube. When Steptoe and Edwards announced their stunning accomplishment to a captivated global audience, those listening could only wonder where the new science of in vitro fertilization would take humanity.

Rabbi Efraim Navon, A 17th Century Turkish Rabbinic Leader

By Naftali Haleva

Posted February 18, 2010 - 9:48am

Rabbi Naftali Haleva, who received his rabbinic ordination at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University and graduated from the David J. Azrieli Graduate İnstitute of Jewish Education, serves as rabbi in Turkish Rabbinate and Ortakoy Ets Ahayim Synagogue and teacher in Jewish school in İstanbul .

SOME STARS HAVE LIMITED OR TEMPORARY LIGHT; SOME STARS ENLIGTHEN AND INFLUENCE THE WORLD ALL THE TIME. IN THE JEWISH WORLD, THE GREAT SAGES ENLIGHTENED THEIR ENVIRONMENT BY THEIR ENORMOUS RICH TORAH KNOWLEDGE DURING THEIR LIFETIMES. HOWEVER SOME RABBIS ALSO GAVE DIRECTION TO THE JEWISH WORLD BY THEIR TORAH WISDOM AND HAD A HUGE IMPACT THROUGHOUT HISTORY BY CREATING NEW APPROACHES.

RAV EFRAIM NAVON BORN IN ISTANBUL WROTE THE MAGNIFICIENT BOOK "MAHANE EFRAIM" DEALING WITH THE LAWS IN TALMUD AND HALAKHIC LITERATURE. THIS OUTSTANDING BOOK CONTINUES TO BE STUDIED IN THE EAST AND WEST, AND IN THE YESHIVOT IN ISRAEL.

The Music of Chance: On the Origin of Species from a Jewish Perspective

By David G. DiSegni

Posted February 11, 2010 - 2:46pm

Rabbi Dr. David G. Di Segni graduated in Microbiology and Medical Genetics from Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School of Jerusalem and from La Sapienza University of Rome. He is Senior Scientist at the Institute of Cell Biology, National Council of Research, Rome. He also graduated from the Collegio Rabbinico Italiano, where he is currently the Coordinator and Talmud teacher. This article appears in issue 6 of Conversations, the journal of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals.

The title of this article, “The Music of Chance,” comes from a novel by Paul Auster, although that is the article’s only link to the novel. I chose this title because I would like to convey the message that even though life developed on Earth as a result of chance (as well as of necessity), which is one of the major tenets of the modern evolutionary theory, this fact should not scare us, as observant and devoted Jewish people. Randomness is entirely consistent with biblical and rabbinic sources. However, we should rethink our views on creation of life and humankind.

Environmental Issues in Israel

By Sarah Nadav

Posted February 3, 2010 - 2:00pm

Sarah Nadav holds a Master's degree in Non Profit Management from Hebrew University. She has been active in numerous Israeli environmental organizations and was instrumental in organizing plastic bottle recycling in Jerusalem. In recognition of her efforts founding and running a grassroots organization called Atid Yarok (Green Future), she was given an award from the Israeli Ministry of the Environment for outstanding volunteer achievement.

Located on a landbridge between Africa and the Middle East, Israel is a small country with a wide range of climates, ecosystems and a unique environmental landscape. Within the span of just a few hours, it is possible to drive from the lowest point on earth and swim in the Dead Sea to the top of Mt. Hermon where you can go skiing all in the same day.

Before the creation of the State of Israel, the land was mostly empty and barren. The population density was low. In the last 60 years it has transformed into one of the most densely populated countries on earth.

A New Hearing for Kol Ishah

By Michael Makovi

Posted February 1, 2010 - 2:15pm

Michael Makovi is a member of the University Network of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals. He studied at Machon Meir in Jerusalem for three years and in Yeshivat Hesder Petah Tikva during this academic year. He will be attending Bar-Ilan University this coming school year.

The topic of kol ishah, the halakhic prohibition on men from listening to a woman's singing voice, is obviously a matter of concern for religiously observant Jews. Yet, there are various interpretations as to what exactly constitutes the prohibition. The present essay aims to clarify the prohibition, demonstrating that it is far less restrictive than is commonly believed.

Faith, Science and Orthodoxy

By Menachem Kellner

Posted January 29, 2010 - 10:03am

Dr. Kellner is a professor of Jewish Thought at the University of Haifa and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Philosophy, Political Theory, and Religion of the Shalem Center, Jerusalem. He is the author of numerous books and articles in the field of Jewish philosophy.This article appears in issue 6 of Conversations, the journal of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals.

How can an Orthodox Jew in today's world maintain faith in Torah in the face of the apparent challenges of natural science to that faith? I will here examine Maimonides' approach to the issue and then propose my own position, which relies upon reverting to what I understand to be classic Jewish definitions of faith.

IJII