Organs & Limbs

Put your hand on the back of your head. In Hebrew, this area is called the oref, it is where our reptilian brain resides...

The Talmud tells us that when we pray, we should resemble the angels, about whom it is said, “Their legs were a straight leg . . .”

There is nothing in Jewish law that would preclude a person from benefiting from a blood transfusion (or donating blood, for that matter). Furthermore, according to Jewish belief, saving a life is one of the most important mitzvot (commandments), overridi...

Dreams have meanings, but interestingly, those meanings are fluid.

Question: Why do some people open their hands during the Ashrei prayer? Answer: According to the Talmud Berachot 4b., this prayer is recited three times every day partly because it contains the verse “You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every liv...

There is indeed an ancient custom of not cutting nails sequentially. The earliest mention seems to be in a version of Masechet Kallah quoted by the Machzor Vitry, written by Rabbi Simchah ben Shmuel of Vitry (who passed away in 1105, the same year as his ...

Question: I have been told that one must never let his nail clipping lying around as they pose danger to fetuses. How does that work? Response: The Talmud Moed Katan 18a; Niddah 17a. tells us that "the righteous bury their nails, the pious burn them, and ...

The basic reason is that one should be close enough to the flame's light to benefit from it.

What's the difference between No-thingness with a capital N and vanilla nothing with a lower case n? What makes one Nothing G-d and the other just nothing?