Page 6 - Perspective 2022 - 11.9.22
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FROM THE GROUND (BEEF) UP
BRINGING OUR CULTURE TO CULTURED MEAT.
A think-tank addressing issues at the intersection of Torah concerning electricity in halacha. He wondered about the
and technology - Mada Toratecha, has been launched by halachic implications of this innovative technology and its
the Jerusalem College of Technology (JCT) in partnership practical uses when it came to observing Shabbat.
with the Sulamot Organization. This unprecedented
initiative to explore the near future’s most exciting and With the little information available to the scholars of the
revolutionary challenges to Halacha (Jewish Law) was early 20th century, it was decided that its similarity to fire
inaugurated with an international conference which made its use forbidden on Shabbat.
examined the field of tissue engineering from a halachic-
scientific perspective. As cultured meat moves from concept stage to market
integration, Jewish scientists are forced to ask themselves
“Is a Lab-Grown Burger Fleishig (meaty)?” brought local on a very practical level: What is this, and how does it
and international researchers together with leading apply to us?
rabbis, who discussed fascinating halachic perspectives
of cell culture technology. For a people who have been scattered across the globe
and who have watched the rise and fall of trends and
As lab-grown meat awaits safety and kashrut regulation, innovations, question-asking isn’t only our art form, it’s our
the Jewish world is given the opportunity to ask: Where do survival. In more recent years, JCT’s founder Professor Ze’ev
we see ourselves in this culinary revolution? Lev said that had the scholars understood electricity, they
would have permitted its use on Shabbat. However, had
| THE DRIVING FORCE OF THE JEWISH SCIENTIST they permitted it, we would have lost Shabbat.
In 1935, a young scholar by the name of Rav Shlomo In this hugely powerful statement, Professor Lev
Zalman Auerbach wrote Meorei Eish, a pioneering work recognizes three forces at play when it comes to analyzing
halacha — practical application, underlying intention,
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