by Daniel Eisenberg, M.D.
Do we own our bodies, or are they only on loan?
Question: How does Judaism approach the relationship of the individual to his/her body? How much control does one have and what are one's obligations?
Answer: While the culture in the United States has swung toward patient autonomy over the past few decades, Judaism retains a markedly paternalistic view of medicine. The Torah states that the human body was created Bi'tzelem Elokim, in the image of God, and is the property of the Creator. Man is given custodial rights to his body, and has no more right to harm or destroy his body than the superintendent has to ransack the building he is hired to maintain.
This simple concept has applications in all facets of medicine. The Torah forbids tattooing because it permanently mars the body, akin to graffiti on a magnificent building (Leviticus, 19:28). Piercing of earlobes is permitted because it is not a permanent change and will heal if the posts are not continuously kept in place. Aesthetics aside, presumably any other body part may be pierced if the effects are not permanent. We see in the Torah that Rivka wore a nose-ring!
Suicide ...   more »

By Mark Drajem
Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Chinese exporters, facing a U.S. backlash over tainted food products, are turning to an unlikely group of inspectors to help clean up their act: Jewish rabbis.
Kosher certifications by rabbis have doubled to more than 300 in China in the past two years, according to the Orthodox Union, a New York-based organization that does inspections. The group expects thousands more plants to get certified in the next few years, covering everything from spices and chemical additives to frozen berries, sliced garlic and beef.
Chinese exporters, eager to gain access to the $11.5 billion U.S. kosher market, had already begun seeking the certifications before the uproar over contaminated seafood, toothpaste and pet food began last year. Now, after a rush of recalls, the rabbis say the companies are paying for the inspections to ease growing concern among U.S. consumers about imports from China.
``When we certify a product, consumers know there is another pair of eyes'' on it, said Mordechai Grunberg, an American rabbi whose seven-member team examines Chinese factories, scans company books, and even drops in for surprise inspections to ensure the biblical dietary laws are followed.
The surge of kosher certifications hasn't ...   more »

When it comes to politics, pastors and churches should just shut up.
That's the message many liberal watchdog groups hope will resonate with churches during this election season.
In fact, in Iowa a few weeks ago, pastors who were supporting former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's presidential bid received two ominous warning letters asserting that their involvement in the state primary could jeopardize the tax-exempt status of their churches.
One of the letters actually stated that pastors could be prosecuted and thrown in the "slammer" for supporting Huckabee, while the other letter alleged that the IRS was searching for churches that were illegally backing candidates.
These letters were completely groundless and simply designed to intimidate pastors into unnecessary silence.
And while such threats are "baseless," says Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and dean of the Liberty University School of Law, "they do illustrate the increasing role that pastors play in politics and the attempts by some to silence them."
Liberty Counsel has, for years, been working to instruct pastors of their rights in terms of political action and outreach.
Mr. Staver says that history does not support the baseless threats often hurled against pastors and churches.
Since 1934, he notes ...   more »

The headlines are kind of alarming these days.
Old forgotten diseases are suddenly making a comeback. And new strains of old plagues are deadlier than anything previously seen.
You've heard of AIDS – Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Is America's immune system under attack?
The latest news out of San Francisco is not good.
A drug-resistant strain of potentially deadly bacteria has moved beyond the borders of U.S. hospitals and is being transmitted among homosexual men during sex.
Does this sound familiar? Shades of the 1980s?
Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus, or MRSA, is beginning to appear outside hospitals in San Francisco, Boston, New York and Los Angeles.
According to a study done at the University of California, San Francisco, homosexual men are 13 times more likely to contract the disease, which is documented to spread in skin-to-skin contact.
(Column continues below)
That means it could easily spread to the general population. When it does, the results could be cataclysmic.
"Once this reaches the general population, it will be truly unstoppable," explains Binh Diep, the researcher who led the study.
While AIDS disproportionately affected intravenous drug users, hemophiliacs and, of course, homosexual men practicing their own special brand of risky and unnatural acts, it ...   more »

"Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." – Matthew 26:41 KJV
If God is everywhere, why do so few people seem to be able to find Him?
By "find Him," I don't mean just clinging to a vague notion that God exists, but rather, experiencing an intimate, moment-to-moment flow of understanding, guidance, and the special energy called "grace," coming directly from Him to us.
After all, not only is God omnipresent, but we're told His greatest desire is to have a personal relationship with each of us, whom He created in His image – to direct our paths and become our ultimate destiny. In other words, to be our God.
Why then are so many of us so lost?
Jesus made this mysterious imbalance painfully clear when he stated, "Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." (Matthew 7:13-14)
That's pretty tough talk for a soft generation like ours, where comfort is king and instant gratification – including "drive-through salvation" – is everywhere. It grates on our psyches to ...   more »

by Sharon Hughes
"Darwin Day", a celebration of "the life of Charles Darwin as the symbol for a global celebration of science and humanity" is coming to a school near you on February 12, 2008.
Sponsored by the Institute for Humanist Studies, their website encourages that Darwin Day be celebrated in many different ways: "civic ceremonies with official proclamations, educational symposia, birthday parties, art shows, book discussions, lobby days, games, protests, and dinner parties. Organizers may include: academic societies, science organizations, free thought groups, religious congregations, libraries, museums, galleries, teachers and students, families and friends."
Since Charles Darwin was both the 'father' of evolution and an atheist, a brief look at a few of the views of today's atheist evolutionists reveals some of the 'fruit' of his theory:
Richard Dawkins, a devotee of Charles Darwin, said that everyone believed in evolution except "the ignorant, stupid or wicked."
There are some atheists who believe in 'intelligent design,' but not by a Creator. They believe an alien life force is a possible option for explaining creation, and they are serious.
Many may be surprised to know that Francis Crick, Nobel Prize winner and one of the discoverers of the structure of DNA, ...   more »

Claim they were threatened by his protest tying organization to Hamas
A counter-terrorism activist has been sued for protesting an amusement park event sponsored by a Muslim group accused of helping finance the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
Joe Kaufman of Florida-based Americans Against Hate says he was at the Six Flags Over Texas park in Arlington Oct. 14 to demonstrate against the Islamic Circle of North America, or ICNA.
Kaufman, writing in FrontPageMagazine, said his purpose was to expose ICNA's alleged ties to the financing of Hamas.
ICNA was the top donor to the Pakistan-based charity Al-Khidmat Foundation, Kaufman pointed out, which gave $99,000 to the head of Hamas, Khaled Mashaal.
"I believed that the public had a right to know about it," he explained.  
Kaufman has been sued by the Dallas chapter of the Muslim American Society, three Islamic institutions owned by the North American Islamic Trust, the Dallas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Legal Fund of America.
Kaufman argues the Muslim American Society "uses the Internet to spread violent hatred against Jews and Christians" and notes the North American Islamic Trust was named an "unindicted co-conspirator" by the U.S. government for a ...   more »