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<font size=3>At 02:31 PM 2/16/2010, Micha wrote:<br><br>
On Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 01:15:59PM -0500, Yitzchok Levine wrote:<br>
: From <br>
:
<a href="http://parsha.blogspot.com/2009/06/do-gentiles-have-more-teeth-than-jews.html" eudora="autourl">
http://parsha.blogspot.com/2009/06/do-gentiles-have-more-teeth-than-jews.html<br>
</a>: <br>
: There is a famous position of Aristotle.<br>
: Why have men more teeth than women?<br>
: By reason of the abundance of heat and blood which is more in men <br>
: than in women.<br>
: --
"<<a href="http://www.exclassics.com/arist/arist37.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://www.exclassics.com/arist/arist37.htm</a>>Of the Teeth.",
Aristotle<br><br>
: And the following from Bertrand Russell:<br>
: Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although
<br>
: he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this <br>
: statement by examining his wives' mouths.<br>
:
<<a href="http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Bertrand_Russell/%3EBertrand" eudora="autourl">
http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Bertrand_Russell/>Bertrand</a>
<br>
: Russell, Impact of Science on Society (1952) ch. 1<br>
: British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970)<br><br>
How many people had a full set of teeth. And of those who did, would<br>
Aristotle know they did? And given where money would be spent by
Greeks<br>
of his period, I would bet far more men had more teeth than
women.<br><br>
It is thus unlike the verifiability of:<br>
: As someone noted in a comment recently, Rav Kanievsky similarly <br>
: believes that Jews differ physically from gentiles in the number of
<br>
: teeth, on the basis of a midrash Talpiyot combined with another <br>
: rabbi's testimony. Midrash Talpiyot was authored by Rabbi Eliyahu ben
<br>
: Shlomo Avraham, and was published in 1698<br><br>
But if Medras Talpiot is a true medrash, the 33rd tooth it ascribes
to<br>
nakhriim is not talking about dentition.<br><br>
BTW, we discussed this back in Nov 2001.<br>
<a href="http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/getindex.cgi?section=T#TALMUD%20AND%20SCIENCE" eudora="autourl">
http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/getindex.cgi?section=T#TALMUD%20AND%20SCIENCE<br>
<br>
<br>
</a><blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">There the primary topic was
8th month babies, and I wrote:<br>
: On Thu, Nov 01, 2001 at 01:29:06PM -0500, Gil Student wrote:<br>
...<br>
:: However, this is generally an observable phenomenon. Could Chazal
not<br>
:: have observed whether this was true or not?<br><br>
: Quite possibly not. The experimental method was not invented yet.<br>
: Infant mortality was high, I am sure it was higher for 8th and 7th
month<br>
: babies. But until someone actually sits down and collects
statistics,<br>
: it is quite possible no one noticed that 8th month babies are more<br>
: likely to survive than 7th.</blockquote><br>
All of this may indeed be true. However, what does it say about someone
alive today who is either unaware of or refuses to accept the
experimental method? The end of the post at <br><br>
The end of the post at
<a href="http://parsha.blogspot.com/2009/06/do-gentiles-have-more-teeth-than-jews.html" eudora="autourl">
http://parsha.blogspot.com/2009/06/do-gentiles-have-more-teeth-than-jews.html</a>
says,<br><br>
"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? And should someone who does care
about the issue, and has studied the various shittos deeply, and does
have a better sense of just where Chazal seem to contradict science, be
mevatel his daas to those who don't consider science important and
therefore are not necessarily in a better position to draw an objective
conclusion?<br><br>
Let me add that I would not be putting this forth, which could be seen
ch"v as an attack, and an attack on elu ve'elu, if not for the fact
that others are declaring that it forbidden to differ from the chareidi
gedolim on issues pertaining to the intersection of Torah and
science."<br>
<br><br>
YL </font></body>
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