Does a drop of milk really just “evaporate” when it falls into a pot of chicken noodle soup (and does it matter that the soup’s yellow color comes from a crustacean’s shell)? Was the world really created in six days and, if not, what’s the point in reading the Hebrew Bible? Do we really need to bury all a person’s “parts” and, if so, what does this mean for organ transplantation? How do we understand the potential for human life represented by a fertilized egg and what does this dictate in terms of the Jewish stance on abortion, assisted fertility and contraception?
These are among the questions that Temple Beth El will be probing in the months ahead as it unfolds a series of programs broadly titled “The ‘Scope and the Scroll: Bringing Science to Sinai and Back.” Through this initiative, sparked by TBE’s grant-writing success in a national competition aimed at increasing the dialogue between science and religion in a Jewish context, Temple Beth El will be hosting approximately monthly panel discussions in which speakers representing an area of disciplinary expertise in the sciences and technology will appear opposite Jewish authorities speaking about the cultural, philosophical, theological or ritual dimensions of that same topic. The programs promise to be both engaging and enlightening – and if all goes well (on a global scale), there may even be a bit of nice nosh at the series’ completion!
We invite you to join us for our inaugural program which will take place on Sunday, Nov 15 at 7 p.m.as TBE member Prof. Joe Regenstein engages with Rabbi Safman on the topic “Kashrut: Science, Pseudo-Science or Supernal Pursuit? A Discussion of the Intersection of Jewish Dietary Laws and Food Science”.
The meeting can be joined from this Zoom link or by navigating to Zoom and entering: Meeting ID: 892 5207 3948, Passcode: Science .
