Thursday, December 15, 2011

Doctor, doctor

Here are some typical images of Jewish doctors.

This is Yissachar Baer Teller of Prague:



His teacher, Yashar (Yosef Shalom Rofeh/ Delmedigo) :



Toviyah ben Moshe ha-Kohen (I guess that answers that question):



Abraham ha-Kohen (ditto) of Zante:

10 comments:

  1. Huh? I don't understand your parenthetical comments after "Ha-kohen". Then again, I'm a bit inebriated right now....

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  2. Yum, hard cider. Alcohol! I think I need some food.....

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  3. I assume it is the question of whether a cohen can metameh himself by dissecting cadavers at medical school.

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  4. "Typical images"? I wouldn't say...

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  5. I can't tell when the first cohen (Toviah) lived, but the second picture is from the turn of the 18th Century.(And the first one look earlier to my eye based on the clothing and props). Dissections were not standard, or even common, in medical education even at that time, so no, it doesn't really answer that question.

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  6. I assume it is the question of whether a cohen can metameh himself by dissecting cadavers at medical school.

    Yes, I figured that out when had another look at the post several hours later, sober.

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  7. Why were you drunk, were you coming from a yud tes kislev farbrengen?

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  8. Most certainly not -- I have no connection whatsoever to Chabad. I had simply gotten home, was hungry, found nothing to eat in the fridge, but merely some bottles of hard cider. So I drank that, on an empty stomach, and got a bit inebriated.

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  9. Who stole the cork to my lunch?

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  10. A friend of mine is a kohen and a doctor, but I think the story is that he became a baal teshuva only after choosing his career. My mother's uncle, a kohen, wanted to be an M.D. but settled on psychology instead. Ironically, he later went off the derech.

    When you think about it, if it weren't for those med school dissections, kohanim would be a natural fit for the medical profession -- at least dermatology (see Tazria-Metzorah).

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