Local Organization
Miriam Gitman, The Shul of Bal Harbour
9540 Collins Avenue, Surfside, FL 33154, USA.
Tel: (305) 868-1411 ext. 7319 Fax: (305) 861-2426
MGitman@theshul.org
There is no registration fee.
PRESS RELEASE
on the 2007 conference
ABSTRACTS AND LECTURERS’ BIOGRAPHIES
of the 2007 conferences
The written papers are
published in B’Or Ha’Torah,
subject to peer review.
Order the Proceedings
of the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth conferences in
issues 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 of B’Or Ha’Torah
The Shul of Bal Harbour and The Aleph
Institute of Miami, Florida
Rabbi Sholom D. Lipskar
B’Or Ha’Torah Journal of Science, Art
& Modern Life in the Light of the Torah
Professor Herman Branover, Editor-in-Chief; Ilana Attia, Managing Editor
Center for the Study of Spirituality, Florida International University
Professor Nathan Katz, Director
The Seventh Miami International
Conference on Torah & Science
ABSOLUTE STANDARDS IN AN AGE
OF RELATIVITY
12-14 December 2007, followed by a Shabbaton,
December 14-15, and a Concluding Session on Saturday Night, December 15
The Shul of Bal Harbour, Florida
Through
the Two-Way Looking Glass:
Looking
at Nature through Torah and at Torah through Nature
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12
8:00 PM-10:30 PM
Greetings (15
minutes)
Session
1: Looking at Body and Soul
Chair: Professor Herman Branover
Rabbi Avraham Steinberg, MD
Children’s Neurology, Shaare Zedek Medical
Center, Jerusalem; Medical Ethics, Hebrew University; Israel Prize; Editor
of the Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics
“Stem Cell Research and Jewish Law”
Rabbi Sholom Dovber
Lipskar
The Shul of
Bal
Harbour and the Aleph Institute, Miami
“G-d and Creation: Immanence and Transcendence
The Kabbalistic and Maimonidean Models”
Yakir Kaufman,
MD
Neurology, Herzog Memorial Hospital; Hebrew University
Medical School, Jerusalem
“Practical Applications of Soul-Body Health
and Faith”
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13
9:00 AM-11:00 AM
Session 2: Through
the Prism of Philosophy
Chair: Professor Joseph Seckbach
Professor Zev bar-Lev
Linguistics, San Diego State University,
California
“Defending G-d: A Neo-Traditional Analytic Approach”
Professor Yehuda
(Eric) Palmer
Senior Human Resources Consultant,
City of Fort Worth, Texas
“Does G-d Love the Good because It Is Good?
Divine Command
Theory and the Relationship between G-d and Morality”
Professor Vera
Schwarcz
History and East Asian Studies, Wesleyan University, Middletown,
Connecticut
“Truth
Consciousness: Inner Landscapes of Authenticity in Jewish and Chinese
Traditions”
Mois Navon
Computer design engineer, Mobileye Vision Technologies, Israel
Lecturer, Ptil Tekhelet, Israel
“Rav's Beautiful Ratio: An Excursion into
Aesthetics”
11:00-11:30 AM
Coffee Break
11:30 AM – 1 PM
Sessions 3: Eye to
Eye
Chair: Ilana Attia
Meet the Expert
With Rabbi Professor Avraham Steinberg, MD
1:00 PM-2:15 PM
Lunch in the tent
2:15
PM – 4:00 PM Two parallel sessions
In
the social hall:
Session 4: “Should
Science Be Taught in the Yeshivah?”
Chair and panel moderator: Professor Eliezer Zeiger
Rabbi Professor Moshe
Dovid Tendler
Dean of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), Professor of
Biology at Yeshiva College, and the Rabbi Isaac and Bella Tendler Chair in
Jewish Medical Ethics at Yeshiva University, New York
“The Role of Science in the Torah Curriculum of Our Yeshivot”
Panel
Discussion:“Should Science Be Taught in the
Yeshivah?”
Panelists:
Rabbi Sholom Dovber Lipskar, Rabbi Avraham Steinberg, Rabbi Professor
Moshe Dovid Tendler, and Professor Eliezer Zeiger
In the daily sanctuary:
Session 5: Workshop
Yakir Kaufman, MD and
Rabbi Tzvi Freeman
“Consciousness and Daat”
5:15 PM-6:30PM
Minhah, Shiur, and Maariv
6:30 PM
Dinner in the tent
8 PM – 10:30 PM
Session 6: Beyond the
Range of Vision
Chair: Professor Nathan Aviezer
Yaacov
Hanoka, PhD
Vice-President, Evergreen Solar, Marlboro MA
“Noah’s Flood Brought Up To Date”
David Medved, PhD
Chief Technical Officer of MRV Communications, Jerusalem
“Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation”
Professor Joseph
Seckbach
Biology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Emeritus); Editor-in-Chief of
book series on Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology,
Springer Publisher, Dordrecht, NL
“Genesis, Evolution, and Astrobiology”
Alex Poltorak,
PhD
Physics, CEO of General Patent Corporation, NY
“Randomness as a Mechanism for Divine
Providence”
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14
9:00 AM – 10:30 AM
Session 7: Focus on
Mathematics
Chair: Alex Poltorak, PhD
Professor Isaac Elishakoff
Mechanical Engineering,
Florida
Atlantic University, Boca Raton
“The Mathematics of Fair Division in the Mishnah”
Professor Yossef (Marcio)
Zukin
Director, Globex Utilidades
S.A.,
Rio de Janeiro
“Complex Adaptive Systems in the Light of the Torah”
Uri Zur, PhD
Talmud, Ariel University Center of Samaria
Yehuda Ashkenazi, PhD
Mathematics, Ariel University Center of Samaria
“Rabban
Gamliel’s Land Surveying Tube: The Mathematics of the Sages”
10:30AM – 11:00 AM
Coffee Break
11:00 AM – 1 PM
Session 8:
Interrelationships
Chair: Professor Nathan Katz
Moshe Kuhr, MD, MPH,
FAAP
Private neonatal practice,
Suffern,
NY
“The Holy Act: Spirituality through Intimacy and the
Fulfillment of its Essential Mitsvah–Emulatio Dei”
Leah Poltorak, MS
Biology, General Patent Corporation, NY
“A Curious Genetic Foresight of the Talmud Sages”
Mikhail Agrest, PhD
Computer Science, Physics,
College of Charlestown,
South Carolina
“Principle of Complementarity”
Saturday Night,
December 15
8:30 PM-10:30
PM
Session 9: Are Torah
and Science One Book or Two?
Chair:
Rabbi
Sholom Dovber Lipskar
Professor Eliezer
Zeiger
Biology, UCLA; CEO of the TorahScience Foundation
“How to Teach Torah and Science as One”
Professor Nathan
Aviezer
Physics, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan; Fellow of the Royal Society of
London
“Seeing the Reflection of G-d in Nature”
Close of Conference
