They did bring it up before the pig valve. I don’t remember the specifics, but they said she couldn’t support a mechanical valve for some reason. Couldn’t tell you whether the reason was BS or not.
Consider Fox’s ‘Moon Hoax’ show. I doubt that an astronomer, or anyone from NASA was consulted…
Zev, recall that the young patient called herself an orthodox jew, but her parents were reform jews. They never instructed her in the finer points of the law, and she’s probably relying a lot more on her own deficient knowledge and judgement than the child of orthodox jews would. That said, I only watched the first half of that episode, and I assumed that either they would introduce a rabbi who would correct the girl’s misunderstanding, or introduce an alternative that wouldn’t offend her. When dealing with teenage zealots, what the law allows is often not a solution.
I didn’t know about the kosher error, but I was annoyed by the “psychic” plot thread. The whole episode really seemed to be about how wrong skeptics are to not have faith. Even the part about the spinal cord thingie that didn’t show up on the MRI. Now, I can accept that a doctor with plenty of experience and familiarity with a condition might be ready to trust his experience over a test that could miss something. I mean, maybe the position of the clot caused it to be missed in the scan. Fine. But, when a guy claiming psychic visions was shown to have a brain tumor that caused him seizures why did the show have to go all X-files and suggest that the visions were real, when it could have been very well written if the guy had simply had to cope with learning that his “gift” was a hallucination?
Buhhht…everybody knows The Jews control the media (even Marlon Brando said so). How, how could this have happened?
I have a question, Zev. Sorry if it seems horribly ignorant, but I’m rather uninformed about the rules within the various denominations of Judaism.
The young girl said she was Orthodox, and asked for a rabbi before her surgery. When they showed the rabbi praying with her right before the surgery, it was a female rabbi. Does the Orthodox faith allow for female rabbis? I know Reform does, but do the more tradition forms of Judaism women to ebcome rabbis?
That was a whoosh. Right?
The Reform and Conservative Movements have female rabbis. The Orthodox movement(s) do not.
Not to get crazy defensive here, but Reform =! unobservant, you know. We have rabbis and shuls and Hebrew school, too.
However, the hospital may have been only able to procure her a Reform or Conservative Rabbi, especially on short notice. (I know it’s bloody difficult to get a Wiccan Priestess at our local hospital, and we’re in a large urban area with a huge Wiccan community. When I asked for one (actually I asked for any neopagan, and suggested Wicca might be easiest to find) I got a lot of stalling and stammering. My name is now on file with the hospital as clergy to call for Wiccan and neopagan patients who request it.)
So would it be appropriate for the patient to pray with a Reform Rabbi, or does that fall under the procription against following another religion?
The actress playing the Rabbi is herself a Rabbi in real life (cite). She would know the answer is to save the life. How bloody annoying.
The girl had Von Willebrand’s disease, a bleeding disorder, they felt the artifical valve would be contraindicated.
I don’t know much about Jewish law but it looked to me like it was more about a snotty teenager than religion.
Yes, I noticed that it was a female Rabbi too. As others have pointed out, Orthodox Judaism does not recognize female Rabbis. However, in reality, there is no need to have a Rabbi “bless” one in such situations - anyone can say a prayer for the sick (which is what the Rabbi recited in the operating room).
Zev Steinhardt
Well, of course, but my impression of these particular parents was that they were minimally observant – based, as I said, on just the first half of the show. After all, Christians have ministers, Sunday school, and more, but there’s some shocking ignorance of dogma, history, and other denominations.
Question-can an Orthodox Jew have a DNR order, or a living will? (I’m thinking of the Schiavo case, naturally). Can a person never refuse medical treatment then, if they’re old and in a lot of pain and just don’t feel up to aggressive treatment?
I thought that she had at least one blue-eyed as well as at least one green-eyed child, which would not be possible with two brown-eyed parents.
Yes it would. The major gene is for “brown” or “not-brown”. Whether the “not-brown” shows up green, blue, yellow or purple (I’ve seen all of them) depends on other genes, which can be passed by any eye colored parent.
The only time you can strongly suspect hanky-panky based on eye color is if two blue-eyed people have a brown-eyed child. With any other combination, any result is possible.
To be perfectly honest, I’m not certain of the answer. Your best bet would be to contact your Local Orthodox Rabbi.
Zev Steinhardt
Hang on. I seem to remember learning about the Marranos (Jews in Spain who converted under the pressure of the Inquisition but secretly practiced Judaism anyhow) in Hebrew School back in the day. I don’t remember them being mentioned in a negative light, as I might expect if they broke one of the three biggies. Is Christianity/Islam different from idolatry in this case, or do more Orthodox histories see them as awful people?
Thanks, Kyla. And Zev.
But not impossible to imagine from the male. Joseph and the wife of Potiphar. Granted he only ended up in prison, but if she could’ve got him killed, what doubt that she would?