B’OR HA’TORAH is a peer-reviewed forum for wondering Jews, scientists, artists, teachers and students—examining personal and intellectual concerns through the microscope and telescope of the scientist; the algorithm of the mathematician; the discourse of the philosopher; the imagery of the artist, poet and photographer; and the tested faith and learning of the Torah-observant Jew.
 New Issue!
The Talmud Sages had extraordinary insights into human genetics. In BHT 19 Rabbi Professor Avraham Steinberg, MD, explains that Jewish law today permits research on embryonic stem cells because the Talmud states that in its first forty days the embryo is not yet a human being. Biologist Leah Poltorak sharpens the focus and shows that new genetic research supports the opinion in the Talmud that the determination of male gender takes forty days; and of female gender, eighty days.
Do you want your son or daughter to be a Jewish doctor? Gilles-Avraham Morali, MD, takes us through the history of and current research on the soul-body connection in medicine and concludes that hypnosis is the most genuinely Jewish form of treatment. Computer chip engineer Mois Navon applies the mathematics of phi to tying beautiful tsitsit strings with tekhelet. Professor of product design Yossef Zukin applies fuzzy logic and complex adaptive systems to the Torah to show us how user-friendly it is. English literature professor Dan Vogel follows the development of Franz Kafka’s Jewish consciousness from writing surrealistic forebodings of the Holocaust to delighting in learning Torah with Rashi.
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Israeli Minister of Science and Technology Keynoting at the Eighth Miami International Conference on Torah and Science
The Eighth Miami International Torah and Science Conference will be held at The Shul of Bal Harbour, 9540 Collins Avenue in Surfside, Florida on December
17-20, 2009.
Guest of honor for the conference this year will be Rabbi Professor Daniel Hershkowitz. A community rabbi, prize-winning professor of mathematics at the Haifa Technion, chairman of the Bayit Ha’Yehudi party, and member of the Knesset, Hershkowitz is the Israeli Minister of Science and Technology. A charismatic speaker, he will deliver two keynote lectures on mathematics and the Talmud. Distinguished returning speakers include neurologist Rabbi Professor Avraham Steinberg, MD (winner of the Israel Prize for authoring the Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics and editor-in-chief of the Talmudic Encyclopedia), Bar-Ilan University physicist and Research Professor of the Royal Society of London Nathan Aviezer, and Yeshiva University biologist and rosh yeshivah Rabbi Professor Moshe Dovid Tendler. Rabbi Tendler is making his presentation together with Professor John Loike, physiologist and bioethicist at Columbia University graduate school and College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Special sessions will be held on genetically “designing” babies and Judeo-Muslim and Judeo-Chinese traditions. Professor Aviezer will speak on the particle accelerator project in Geneva.
Entrance to the lectures is free. There will be a Shabbaton and Sunday brunch.
View the program, abstracts, and lecturers’ biographies for the December 2009 conference.
Register for the December 2009 conference
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B’Or Ha’Torah and the Jerusalem College of Technology
B’OR HA’TORAH congratulates the Jerusalem College Technology on its fortieth anniversary. Articles from B’OR HA’TORAH were selected to be published in The Heart of the Matter: Studies in Torah and Science in Honor of the Jerusalem College of Technology Fortieth Anniversary, a souvenir journal distributed at a festive dinner on September 10, 2009.
The prestigious Jerusalem College of Technology (known as Machon Lev) is seriously considering becoming the publisher of B’OR HA’TORAH—on the condition that BHT becomes economically viable. Bodenheimer’s letter
Therefore, BHT is embarking on a marketing campaign to dramatically increase its subscription base. Please help us reach our goal by buying sets of the available issues for yourself, your friends, and your relatives, and making a standing order to receive the future issues.
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B’OR HA’TORAH Signed Contract with EBSCO
EBSCO Publishing has selected B’OR HA’TORAH to be included in its library database. The most prolific aggregator of full text materials, offering a growing suite of more than 250 bibliographic and full text databases, EBSCO has served the library and research communities for more than 60 years. Articles from B’OR HA’TORAH should start appearing in the EBSCO database by winter 2010. |
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Feedback
"The B'OR HA'TORAH journal makes a valuable contribution by publishing a variety of articles on the relationship between Torah and science. The special quality of these articles is their significant attempt to discuss scientific subjects from the Torah point of view. The importance of B'Or Ha'Torah is its departure from apologetics. Instead, it delves into the sparsely investigated field of how to add the spiritual dimension of the Torah to the dimensions of time and space of scientific research. In doing this, a double illumination is created: not only does science receive the brilliance of the Torah, but the light that reflects back from the illuminated scientific knowledge reveals an additional facet and more complete understanding of the Torah text."
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
"Congratulations on such a high quality publication"
Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi, United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth
"I enjoyed reading B’OR HA’TORAH ... it will have a strong impact"
Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, Former President of Yeshiva University
"B’OR HA’TORAH is beautifully executed… on a high intellectual level."
Prof. Alvin Radkowsky, Former Chief Scientist, US Naval Nuclear Propulsion Project
"I recommend B’OR HA’TORAH for students and academics … Useful and interesting, it is formulated in a clear and attractive manner."
Rabbi Baruch Horowitz, Rosh Yeshiva Dvar Yerushalayim "
"… we are all coming from diverse professional, business, and rabbinic backgrounds interspersed with observant, nonaffiliated, hedonistic, cultist, and missionary experiences — your magazine’s style relates eminently well to all of us. Amazing, but true!"
Rabbi Casriel Brusowankin, Miami
"A Roman Catholic interested in the relation between science and the Bible, I have been enjoying my copies of B’OR HA’TORAH."
Michael R. Hoyt,
Silver Spring, Maryland
"Your articles are not merely enlightening but inspiring. They go a long way towards satisfying both an intellectual and spiritual hunger."
Dr. Ben Ostrov,
Chinese University of Hong Kong
"I often study B’OR HA’TORAH with my father Erev Shabbos. We enjoy this book a lot and have spent many hours on one question, and still have not reached a conclusion. ‘If no one is looking at the moon, does it exist?‘"
From Joshua Elberg’s bar mitsva speech in Dollard Des Ormeaux, Quebec
I write regularly for Mishpacha Magazine, and one of my regular features is the FYI (For Your Information) series in the children's magazine, Mishpacha Junior. FYI's aim is to present information to children about a wide variety of topics in an exciting yet educational way, and most of all, in keeping with Torah hashkafah. Often the article deals with topics in science and nature, and finding kosher sources which present the material in an acceptable manner for frum Jews is extremely difficult. One source on which I rely implicitly and has proved invaluable to me, is B'OR HA'TORAH, which gives me the Torah viewpoint on scientifc matters, clearly and unequivocally, so that I can feel safe knowing that I am imparting only kosher information into the minds of our precious Jewish children.
Shira Yehudit Djlilmand, Mishpacha Magazine |
