LONG LIFE CONTINUED
Dear Family,
Hope you are all well.
Mazal Tov to Shmueli Bassin on his upcoming birthday next week. Wishing you lots of Hatzlocha Shmueli! You are far away but we are thinking about you.
Mazal Tov to Shmuly and Devorah Leah and Family on their move to a new Home! It is hard to believe that you have been with us for 5 years! The time has just flown by and it has been a pleasure having you all with us.
We wish you lots on new Mazal with your move, and it is sure nice for us that you will still be nearby in Stamford Hill BH.
Did I hear that Dani wants to go to Law School? Wishing you much success Dani!
Last week we spoke about an 80 year Research Project into long life, and funnily, 2 more Research Projects came past me this week, one in my Dental Journal
I find it so interesting how Science, especially now that there are is so much new technologic progress, keeps proving things that Torah has been teaching us already for centuries!
1. Good Deeds
I had to look twice when I saw this heading in the BDJ - Good Deeds ?!
And this is also precisely what Tanya was talking about this week - TZEDAKA
So the BDJ says as follows:
While it has long been recognised that the enactment of a good deed can correlate with happiness and self worth, research now suggests that people who give money to charity actually exhibit heightened brain activity.
Noted particularly in the ventral striatum and tegmental parts of our brain, these areas are closely linked to positive feelings, our physiological reward system and the processing of emotional output from the amygdala (Moll J et al)
WHAT THIS MEANS IS THAT THE ACT OF DONATION TRIGGERS A CHEMICAL REACTION IN OUR BRAINS THAT PRODUCE A SENSE OF REWARD AND POSITIVE EMOTION.
NOT ONLY THIS BUT IT IS WELL DOCUMENTED THAT THOSE WHO GIVE REGULARLY, FEEL HEALTHIER BOTH PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY (Mental Health Foundation - Altruism Page, July 2016)
They then continue and say - If giving blindly encourages positivity, imagine how good it would feel helping someone you know!
2. Harvard University
4 Harvard Researchers, over a 16 year period, (1996 - 2012) collected data from 75,534 women over 16 years of age.
The majority of these women were Christian and 1700 were Jewish
They found that those who attended more than 1 Religious Service per week had a 33% lower risk of premature death.
The Project's senior author Professor Tyler Vander Weele, also pointed to another similar Research focused solely on Jews which echoes his findings.
This study was on 1811 Jewish Israeli men and women over the age of 70, and its conclusion was 'SYNAGOGUE ATTENDANCE IS SEEN TO PROMOTE SURVIVAL.'
THE Harvard study statistically ruled out such factors as reverse causation ie such as 'healthy people go to Church more than unhealthy people' etc
He therefore concludes ' THIS SUGGESTS THAT THERE IS SOMETHING POWERFUL ABOUT THE COMMUNAL RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE.'
Wishin everyone A Gut Shabbos and not to forget RAMBAM 5 minutes per week. (Sefer Tahara - Book 10 - Hilchos Para Aduma Chaps 8-14)