[Avodah] torah u-madda

[Eli Turkel]

I attended yesterdat the annual torah u-madda conference
some partial notes

First talk was from Rabbi Vitman rav hamachshir of Tnuva. He discussed
how todays food business is heavily dependent on using bacteria for
many processes.
These bacteria are isolated and then grown on various cultures and
their status is not clear.

mekil - R. Wosner says the bacteria are halachically neutral. In
personal conversation of
R. Vitman with R. Elyashiv he concurred. The main argument is that the
culture is just a food
and it is not fit to be eaten and so is prohibited only when the
culture is issur hanaah

RHS (and OU) are machmir that the bacteria has the halacha of the
culture be in milk/meat, treif or chametz.
He gave an example where cheese was processed by an enzyme fed on
glucose  - no problem.
However, the glucose came from another procedure that use something
that was a safek wheat
before Pesach. So it was doubly removed and a safek all before Pesach
and RHS prohibited it

The third talk was from R. Rabinowitz RY of Maale Adumim. He strated
with the machloket where
Magen Avraham states that a melacha is prohibited from the Torah only
if done the same was
as in the Mishkan. Even HaOzer is more expansive. Thus, if wheat was
grinded by a water mill
rather by hand as was done in the Mishkan then according to MA it is
not a Torah prohibition
while Even HaOzer says it is.

He then discussed modern devices - examples a bionic hand - is it
considered part of the body
or a external device. There are now devices driven by electric
currents in the brain. There is even
a game from Mattel where one can make a ball go up in the air by concentrating.
Thus, one cac cause a computer to turn on or cause a robot to move by thinking.
A practical application to to moving a prosthesis by thought waves.
Is this a melacha or not? There was another talk in the afternoon Dr.
Orah Grepstein in
which discussed CBI (computer-brain interface) and showed demonstrations on
both monkeys and humans how thoughts could be translated into actions.
She stressed that
no one is capable of reading the thoughts it is the electrical
impulses that are measured through
either MEG, PET or f MRI. She also discussed various halachot where
machshava has a part.

A similar problem arises where one moves a magnet which then turns on
a current without
any direct connection and is invisible

Rabbi Rabinowitz's personal conclusion was that anything attached to
the body is considered part of
the body even though it is artificial and so would be allowed on shabbat.

One talk in the afternoon discussed the shafan and arnevet and came up
with new animals
chevrotain Porte muse and the mouse deer from
the far east and Africa who are maale gerah but dont have split hooves
while the rabbit and hare
are not maale gerah in the usual sense (He even waved Slifkin's book on
the camel, hare and hyrax)

other talks were on elevators on shabbat, bowing down to dust, the
tzavua changing species after 7 years,
reading megilla on the 14th or 15th based on archaeology etc.

The symposium at the end was on intelligent design with all the
speakers coming out against it
as not being scientific


-- 
Eli Turkel