Jewish Medicine

Coronaviruses are a series of viruses that constitutes the subfamily Orthocoronavirinae (scientific name). There are numerous strains of the Coronavirus, some severe and some mild. Such strains consist of  (HCoV-OC43), HKU1, (HCoV-NL63, New Haven coronavirus), HCoV-229E, MERS-CoV(aka HCoV-EMC), SARS-CoV or "SARS-classic, SARS-CoV-2(aka 2019-nCoV or COVID-19 Pandemic). The common cold is also a member of this family. The Coronavirus primarily affects the upper respiratory system & gastrointestinal tract in humans. Western conventional medicine has not found a viable vaccine for the Coronavirus, as western therapies have proven ineffective, however Asian sciences have long stood the test of time in being able to provide scientific backed research and studies on various natural medicines & clinical herbs that have both strong antibacterial & antiviral properties & of which have shown promising efficacy in combating global pandemics such as the Coronavirus when properly compounded.

It is my intent to demonstrate, via documented research of oriental medicinal herbs, the properties of Lo-FluCoron Rx® & its promising effectiveness, in conjunction with other protocols we have developed, as a complementary therapy, to both prevent & provide effective, life-saving support for infections of the upper respiratory & gastrointestinal tract, in order to combat & defeat this dangerous pandemic that has altered life as we know it around the world.

To make use of an ancient traditional medical system we must first be able to comprehend the singular concepts and language it utilizes to understand and describe health and illness. The diagnostic procedure is the method by which a person's medical condition is interpreted into the epistemological categories and language of medical science. This article provides a description of traditional Tibetan medical diagnosis, and explains how a Tibetan physician perceives and analyzes a presenting illness. It discusses the spiritual, psychological and physical aspects of the Tibetan medical approach to diagnosis. By addressing these issues we can understand what is unique about this system of alternative medicine and how it can inform other models of medical practice.

Tracing an early rabbinic approach to the human, this article analyzes how the Tannaim of the Mishnah and Tosefta set the human side by side with other species, and embedded their account within broader considerations of reproduction , zoology and species hybridity. The human here emerges at the intersection of menstrual purity law and Temple sacrificial law in the tractates of Niddah and Bekhorot and is part of a reproductive biology that sought to determine the boundaries and overlaps between species. This rabbinic biology ought to be understood amid ancient conversations about what constitutes a proper member of a species, in terms of reproduction, resemblance and variation. The article shows how, even as it disavows genealogical links between humans and animals (and indeed across other species), rabbinic reproductive biology nonetheless implicates humans among and as animals.

This presentation has been read on June 6 at the Convegno "“Religioni e Medicina. Dall’Antichità all’Età Contemporanea” (Velletri dal 5 al 9 giugno 2018) at the Museo delle Religioni “Raffaele Pettazzoni”.

I have discussed against the background of the history of Medieval medicine the medical items being in Nachmanides' writings (concerning the ginecology, the food, the bites of animals and so on) and the possibility that Nachmnides himself was a physician (part time or full time). I have discussed at lenght how Nachmanides saw the relationship between the medicine, the Jewish faith and the task of the physician.

Joseph Roth’s novel Hiob contains countless references to the cultural universe of Orthodox Judaism. Its protagonist, Mendel Singer, is explicitly described from the very beginning as a pious observant Jew, teacher of Holy Scriptures. Starting from these primary textual data, the present essay aims to analyze a central episode for the narrative-building process, namely the story of the smallpox epidemic, in light of the halakhic sources on the subject.

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo ofrecer una revisión de la historiografía médica que se desarrolló en el contexto de la comunidad sefardí de Ámsterdam a lo largo del siglo xvii. A través de tres manuscritos, que se encuentran albergados en la biblioteca judía Ets Haim, la biblioteca judía más antigua del mundo, muestro el interés que suscitan estas obras -prácticamente desconocidas-, ya no sólo por la cuestión propiamente clínica, sino porque además cubren una laguna importante en cuanto a la herencia y transmisión de saberes, además de la constatación de la existencia de redes culturales en las que los sefardíes occidentales jugaron un papel primordial. Fruto de esta interrelación de doctos y de relaciones basadas en el interés cultural, surgieron, paralelamente, algunos escritos polémicos, centrados puramente en la materia científica, como el que presento junto a esos tres manuscritos. Se trata de un opúsculo -escrito en latín y anexado a otras páginas de una polémica completamente ajena a la materia médica- cuyas pistas abren la hipótesis de su muy probable atribución al físico sefardí Zacuto Lusitano. Es, pues, el interés de este estudio ofrecer nuevas líneas de investigación y de trabajo.

“Through interaction with these and neighboring disciplines, scholars of Jewish, Christian and other (late) ancient traditions will be able to explore comparatively how manifestations of knowledge (concepts, institutions, practices) impacted specific periods, and in turn were shaped by larger socio-historical, cultural and religious formations. It will require a thorough and inter-disciplinary study of many traditions (like rabbinic texts, Christian sermons, ascetic or monastic traditions) that were previously studied upon other terms (i.e. primarily as literature, philosophy, theology or religious law) in order to flesh out shared but also distinct ways of knowing.”

International Conference “Finding, Inheriting or Borrowing? Construction and Transfer of Knowledge about Man and Nature in Antiquity and the Middle Ages”, hosted by the GRK/ Research Training Group 1876 "Early Concepts of Man and Nature: Universal, Local, Borrowed", 14-16 September 2016, Johannes-Gutenberg-University Mainz