[Avodah] Do gentiles have more teeth than Jews? Do they have less?

[Prof. Levine]

At 12:10 PM 2/18/2010, Micha wrote:

>On Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 04:49:22PM -0500, Prof. Levine wrote:
>: The end of the post at
>: 
>http://parsha.blogspot.com/2009/06/do-gentiles-have-more-teeth-than-jews.html
>: says,
>:
>: "But how can they [the gedolei Yiaroel] really judge this, when they
>: likely would not recognize all the places that Chazal's statements
>: diverge from science, and quite possibly are not familiar with all
>: the relevant sources, not really caring that much about the
>: intersection until it becomes a hot-button issue? ...
>
>"They don't care that much about the intersection..." Now, assume that's
>beshittah, and perhaps that's the answer to your question. The don't see
>the need for a correspondane between reality and halakhah that you're
>taking for granted.
>
>IOW, it's more relevent that Chazal said they have more (or fewer)
>teeth than whether or not they actually do.
>
>Tir'u baTov!
>-Micha

But many things in halacha depend upon a knowledge of science and 
mathematics. You posted in my name all of the topics that R. 
Yehonasan Eybeshutz listed as being important for Torah 
learning.  There are also the statements of the GRA about secular 
knowledge and its importance for Torah.

How can they ignore this? And, how could one think to ask anyone with 
this attitude a sheila about something that requires scientific 
knowledge for a full understanding of the issues involved?

I have read that Reb Yisroel Salanter spent time in libraries 
researching various topics. I believe that Reb Moshe Feinstein often 
asked experts about facts related to medical and other issues. If 
they are not concerned about reality, then what do they think they 
are doing? Paskening for a "virtual" world!

YL
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