Differing from Chazal

 Ohr HaChaim (Bereishis 1:1): You should know that we have permission to explain the implication of the verses after careful study - even though our conclusions differ from the explanation of our Sages. That is because there are 70 faces to Torah (Bamidbar Rabbah 13:16). There is no prohibition against differing from the words of our Sages except if it changes the Halacha. Similarly, we find that even though the Amoraim did not have the right to disagree with Tannaim in halachic matters - but we find that they offered alternative explanations to verses. 

Ohr HaChaim (Bereishis 46:8): Don’t be bothered by the fact that our explanation is the opposite of what our Sages stated. We have already asserted that concerning the understanding of the non halachic verses of the Torah permission is given to the diligent student to innovate.

Ohr HaChaim (Devarim 32:1): Even though I am explaining this differently than our Sages but we know that there are 70 faces to Torah (Bamidbar Rabbah 13:16). Concerning Agada it is permitted to offer explanations even if they contradict those of our Sages as long as they don’t contradict the Halacha….

Ohr HaChaim (Vayikra 26:3): Vayikra Rabbah (22:1) states that Scripture, Mishna, Halacha, Talmud, Tosefta, Agada and even what a faithful student would say in the future - were all taught to Moshe on Sinai. It is clear from this medrash that permission has been granted for Torah scholars to explain and interpret in various ways and for the diligent students to provide new insights in expounding verses - to the degree that it can be justified with the verse. 

Michtav M’Eliyahu (4:355): It is puzzling why many Rishonim strive to follow a different understanding than the true explanation given by our Sages? We find such tendencies in the commentary of the Rashbam, Ibn Ezra and other Rishonim. What is the purpose of offering explanations which differ from the definitive true ones? I think that they offer these alternative explanations for the sake of confused people. In other words, these Rishonim want to show that there are many different aspects even in the simple understanding of the verses and that it is permissible for a person to create new interpretations according to what makes sense to him. (Of course, any alternative explanations which contradict foundation principles of faith are prohibited.) This is consistent with our understanding of R’ Shmuel HaNagid. This advice is very critical in order to save the souls of the confused people. Such an approach is similar to that of the Rambam who wrote so much for the confused. We see this from the fact that many difficulties that exist in what he wrote could have been explained in a much clearer fashion. However, since he was addressing confused people he provided alternative explanations which they could accept - as long as it didn’t contradict the Halacha. Using this approach, I have been able to understand the difficult comments of the Radak who was a very holy person and one of the great members of the period of the Rishonim. In particular, it justifies his comments concerning the disparity of the text of the Torah and how it is to be read in a number of places ….

Science vs Chazal

 Rav Dovid Karliner (Sde Chemed Kuntres Metziza 3:4): …It remains for us to explain how to decide in a matter that doctors based on their knowledge and experiments decide against the Tradition of Chazal. I have already explained in Sheilas Dovid when there is a tradition of Chazal which is undisputed and it is from Sinai in a halachic matter such a treifos. However regarding the condition of an animal which our tradition doesn’t deem a treifah, it can certainly be curable and it doesn’t concern us if the doctors decide based upon their studies that it is incurable. We rely on the Talmudic Sages and their Tradition and we don’t agree with the view of the doctors that nature has changed since this is a matter which is relevant to halacha concerning such things as treifos… we don’t say that nature has changed. Because if it were so then we would have been informed that a time would come that nature changed and these animals would be prohibited by means of this illness or this physical deficit. But from the fact that our Talmudic Sages did not agree in certain cases that indicates that they did not have a clear tradition or they are disagreeing what the majority case is but nevertheless they agree with each other that at least a minority exists. Therefore since there is not a clear tradition and there isn’t a direct halachic consequence but it only has consequences regarding certain fact than we can say that it is possible that nature has changed over time. In contrast where there is a clear tradition and the Sages are in agreement with each other than nature will never change and we don’t listen to the contrary view of the doctors. All this is only relevant regarding halachic issues. However regarding conditions that Chazal consider dangerous to health – the correctness of these statement can change over time…It is also possible that in their times there was no cure for a particular condition but now a cure has been found for something which Chazal don’t claim is a Tradition from Sinai but rather they knew from the medicine of their day. In fact it is possible that they learned many things from the doctors of their time such as scurvy (Yoma 84a) which R’ Yochanon learned how to cure from a non-Jewish woman. Nevertheless he poskened that it was allowed to profane Shabbos for the sake of this cure even though it apparently involved transgressing a Torah prohibition. There were also many cures that Chazal described as being learned from “a certain Arab” and other secular sources. Thus so while it is true that many cures were known to Chazal from Divine Inspiration (Sod HaShem) but it is not possible to say that all of their cures were such. Therefore when Chazal said about certain medical treatments that Shabbos can be violated for them in their times and places it was because they didn’t know any alternatives and they considered the medical conditions to be dangerous and thus it was permitted to profane Shabbos for them. But once it has been determined through medical science that these conditions are not dangerous we cannot profane Shabbos for them…. As long as all doctors are in total agreement then the condition is not considered dangerous anymore. However if there is not universal agreement then it is possible to say there is a possibility of error and the assumption of danger remains…. In my opinion concerning all the dangers and cures that require transgressing Shabbos mentioned in the Talmud, if there is not universal agreement of the doctors then we follow the view in the Talmud even to transgress Shabbos. But when there is universal agreement that in modern times there is no longer danger then we say that nature has changed in this matter…

Rav Sherira Gaon (Otzair HaGaonim - Gittin 68b page 152): Our Sages were not doctors and what they said is merely a reflection of what was known by the medical experts of their times and therefore there is no mitzva to accept their statements concerning medicine…. 

Rav S. R. Hirsch (Educational Value of Judaism Collected Writings #7): Judaism is not frightened even by the hundreds of thousands and millions of years which the geological theory of the earth's deve¬lopment bandies about so freely. Judaism would have nothing to fear from that theory even if it were based on something more than mere hypothesis, on the still unproven presumption that the forces we see at work in our world today are the same as those that were in existence, with the same degree of potency, when the world was first created. Our Rabbis, the Sages of Judaism, discuss (Midrash Rabbah 9; Chagiga 16a) the possibility that earlier worlds were brought into existence and subsequently destroyed by the Creator before He made our own earth in its present form and order. However, the Rabbis have never made the acceptance or rejection of this and similar pos¬sibilities an article of faith binding on all Jews. They were willing to live with any theory that did not reject the basic truth that "every beginning is from God." In fact, they were generally averse to specula¬tions about what was in the past and what will be in the future, because, in their view, such questions transgressed the limits of that which is knowable to man, or, at best, they did not enhance man's understanding of his moral function. In the view of our Rabbis, the Book of Books was intended to be mankind's guide for life on earth as it is at present, to teach man to recognize God, in the here and now, as the everlasting Creator and Master of the universe, and to worship Him by faithfully obeying the laws by which He governs mankind. 

Moreh Nevuchim (03:14):  Don’t expect from me to show that everything that our Sages said regarding astronomy in fact agrees with observation. That is because mathematics was not fully developed in those days and their knowledge was not based on information received from the Prophets. Rather it was based on their own personal knowledge as experts or it was taken from the astronomers of those times. However I am not going to say that what they say that in fact agrees with observation is incorrect or was accidentally true. Rather whenever it is possible to explain a person’s words as being in accord with observation, it is the duty of every educated and just man to so.  

Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (Shemiras HaGuf v’HaNefesh): Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach was asked why the view of Rav Sherira Gaon and the Rambam’s son - that the medical and scientific knowledge of our Sages was that of their times - should be listed as a minority view? He replied: “At the present I don’t remember whether there was anyone who actually disagreed with their views or even whether anyone has the authority to disagree with them. However, rabbinic authorities typically explain disparities in medical and scientific understanding [between the views of our Sages and contemporary science] as the result of change in nature. They do not utilize at all the reason that medical knowledge has advanced from the time of our Sages. That is why I commented that this view should be classed as a minority view. Especially since concerning the laws of Shabbos, there are rabbinic authorities that permit violating the Shabbos in certain circumstances that our Sages say are medically dangerous despite the fact that contemporary doctors assert there is no danger at all.

The Vaccine That Caused 40,000 Cases of Polio In The 1950’s | The Cutter Incident

The Cutter Incident: How America's First Polio Vaccine Led to the Growing Vaccine Crisis

 "We live longer than we used to. During the twentieth century, the lifespan of Americans increased by thirty years. Much of the increase was caused by such advances as antibiotics, purified drinking water, sanitation, safer workplaces, better nutrition, safer foods, seatbelts, and a decline in smoking. But no single medical advance had a greater impact on human health than vaccines. Before vaccines, Americans could expect that every year measles would infect 4 million children and kill three thousand; diphtheria would kill fifteen thousand people, mostly teenagers; rubella (German measles) would cause twenty thousand babies to be born blind, deaf, or mentally retarded; pertussis (whooping cough) would kill eight thousand children, most of whom were less than one year old; and polio would permanently paralyze fifteen thousand children and kill one thousand. Because of vaccines most of these diseases have been completely or virtually eliminated from the United States. Smallpox—a disease estimated to have killed 500 million people—was eradicated by vaccines. Despite their success, vaccines are in trouble; only four companies now make them, and two of the four have severely reduced their vaccine research programs. The result has been an unrelenting series of vaccine shortages and a lack of hope that certain vaccines will ever be made. Recent examples show just how bad things have gotten: In 1998, the tetanus vaccine was in such short supply that its use was restricted to emergency rooms. Since 2000, a vaccine to prevent the most common cause of severe pneumonia, bloodstream infections, and meningitis in children (pneumococcus) has been available only intermittently. During these shortages, when the vaccine has been difficult or impossible to obtain, parents could only hope that their children weren’t among the thousands permanently harmed or killed by pneumococcus every year."

"Why are pharmaceutical companies abandoning vaccines? Part of the answer is rooted in one largely forgotten incident that occurred fifty years ago, when a small pharmaceutical company in northern California made a vaccine that caused an epidemic affecting thousands of people. It was one of the worst biological disasters in American history, exploded the myth of the invulnerability of science and destroyed faith in the vaccine enterprise. As a consequence, juries handed down verdicts to make sure that it never happened again. Ironically, those legal precedents caused pharmaceutical companies to abandon existing vaccines and to reduce their efforts to develop new ones."

Start reading this book for free: https://read.amazon.com/kp/kshare?asin=B0015GUT5E&ref_=kar_wh_ca

Trump Won’t Win the Nobel Peace Prize, Keeps Talking About Iran Bombing LA & More Broken Promises

Therapist Reacts to Trump's OBSESSION with the NOBEL PEACE PRIZE! Why does he think he deserves it??

Trump complains about the Nobel Peace Prize during his New York rally

Trump rages over Nobel Peace Prize loss

 https://www.axios.com/2026/10/10/trump-nobel-peace-prize-reaction

President Trump lashed out late Friday night after he once again did not win the Nobel Peace Prize he has openly coveted.

 "I know nothing about this woman, and neither does anyone else! In fact, to the best of my knowledge, no one ever heard of her other than the fact that she, very obviously, hates Israel. I don't know what the woman has done," Trump said in a Truth Social post of nearly 600 words that went up just before midnight on Friday.

"I settled 8 Wars, with letters being sent from every President and Prime Minister from the countries that I helped to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, and I'm about to settle, or win, two more, Iran and, Russia/Ukraine," Trump wrote.

"They're both happening at breakneck speed but, forget them, it's the 8 that I've already settled, any one of which, in particular, Pakistan and India, would be far more than necessary to win the Nobel Prize. In actuality, I should have won 8 Nobel Peace Prizes, not just 1."

‘Trump is dragging the party down’: GOP scrambles to stop steep midterm losses

 https://edition.cnn.com/2026/10/12/politics/midterms-republican-losses-trump

The Republican Party’s midterm campaign has turned into a triage operation just three weeks out from November, as officials race to avert losses in a string of once-safe seats that they increasingly fear could cost them total control of Congress.

The grim outlook gripping the GOP follows weeks of polling showing Republicans on track to lose the House amid intense voter anger over the Iran war and rising cost of living — and at grave risk of losing their once-solid majority in the Senate as well.

The Cook Political Report dealt the latest blow on Friday, moving 18 House races toward Democrats. Those contests include five toss-up seats across Iowa, Pennsylvania and Washington that the closely watched analysis projects the Democratic candidates are now more likely to win.

When Science Meets Kashrut: How one woman blazed a trail in OU Kosher

 https://jewishaction.com/food/kashrut/when-science-meets-kashrut-how-one-woman-blazed-a-trail-in-ou-kosher/

Dr. Leff’s specialty was educating kashrut professionals and the general public to have an understanding of the increasingly complex relationship between kashrut requirements and the challenges presented by emerging high-tech food production techniques.

“Kashrut questions arise at all stages of a biotechnology product,” she continued. “Our posekim face new challenges, and they are devoting increasing attention to resolving these issues.”

She expanded on this theme in a 1996 Jewish Action essay, “Do Natural + Wholesome = Kosher?”: “Natural ingredients carry a hefty financial premium, so there are strong incentives to cheat,” she wrote.  “In this case, however, replacing a ‘natural’ ingredient with one derived from petrochemicals is good for kashrut. . . . Everything I ever learned in my life was used in my work in kashrut,” Dr. Leff says. “I pride myself on having brought the awareness of the kashrut aspects of the many thousands of ingredients used in food manufacturing, including those produced by means of biotechnology.”

Fill the government with barbarians, you get barbaric government

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/10/11/fill-government-with-barbarians-you-get-barbaric-government/

To understand Pete Hegseth, go beyond superficial judgments about his carefully curated image. Beneath the tattooed and testosterone-obsessed public persona there lurks altruism. He aspires to be America’s tutor. Understand this: The secretary of war wants to improve us.

Hegseth says, earnestly if ungrammatically, that Hasan’s killing should be public “because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.” Who are the people whose understanding Hegseth deems unsatisfactory? Surely not terrorists of Hasan’s ilk, for whom “these types of things” (mass murder) are a religious vocation — a calling. Perhaps Hegseth thinks the other 340 million Americans need to be instructed not to commit massacres.

If Hasan’s live-streamed execution is supposed to be statecraft as soulcraft, perhaps the government should sell the television rights to this spectacle. It could be a Netflix special. Or a pay-per-view moneymaker for the government. Public instruction by death in prime time could also be a deficit-reduction measure, financed voluntarily by Americans snacking on bowls of popcorn while viewing.

Trump says Russia and Ukraine reached ‘energy ceasefire’; Zelensky: ‘News to me’

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-says-russia-and-ukraine-reached-energy-ceasefire-zelensky-news-to-me/

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to what he described as an “energy ceasefire,” prompting surprise from Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, who said the announcement was “news” to him.

In an interview with Axios, Zelensky said Trump’s post was the first he had heard of the deal, though a senior Ukrainian official told Reuters that Ukraine was ready to agree to such a ceasefire, if Russia was.

Trump, whose war in Iran has been blamed for high diesel prices that are weighing on Republicans’ prospects at next month’s midterm elections, had previously announced an energy ceasefire in Ukraine in mid-September, though neither side ever confirmed such an agreement was reached.

Why Orthodox Jewish Families Are Moving Into America's Forgotten Towns

Israel is losing US support - even among Republicans