Shemos 20:22 [1] introduces the building of the altar with אם (“If you make an altar…”), implying that it’s an optional mitzvah. However, Rashi [2] cites R’ Ishmael who says that while אם in the Torah usually refers to an optional action, this is one of three exceptions where אם really means כאשר (“when”) and the mitzvah is obligatory. Why then does the Torah describe building the altar with אם rather than כאשר?

is documentation for the Idealogs project.

is a free content reference work and collaborative annotation tool for making sense of complex topics. It is written collaboratively by volunteers using custom wiki software. The principal goal of the project is to establish and describe writings, claims, and questions which underlie subjects of interest to humanity.

is an article about the recent decision by a California judge to strike down the state’s 32-year old ban on assault weapons [Tx7]. It was written by Eliga Gould, Professor of History at the University of New Hampshire, and published by the The Conversation.

is a question related to the recent decision by the FDA to grant approval to an experimental Alzheimer’s drug, Aducanumab, despite significant opposition from the scientific community [Ix4]. When confronted with an intractable, widespread disease, when–if ever–is it acceptable to prematurely grant approval for a questionably effective treatment?

is a claim about the FDA’s recent decision to approve an experimental Alzheimer’s drug for use despite a substantial rejection by its own scientific panel of experts on the subject.

is a claim which correlates an individuals desire to be vaccinated with their trust in their government. It is sourced from a 2020 study [TxA] on public perceptions of government responses to COVID-19.

is a model of understanding. Idealogs is a synesiary, a reference work that implements this model.

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is an investigative report into the Department of Health and Human Services under President Trump. The report was published by the New York Times on October 29th, 2020. It revealed that the department attempted to use a $265-million dollar public relations campaign centered around COVID-19 in September 2020 to support the president’s reelection bid.

is a report that estimates the amount of firearms held by civilians worldwide. The report was created for “small arms survey” and published on their website on june 2018.

is an investigative report by ProPublica into taxation of the ultraweathy in the United States, based on Internal Revenue Service data on the tax returns of thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people.

is a retrospective on the past and current challenges facing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It analyzes various factors that led to the CDC’s abysmal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and considers ways that the agency can be improved as well as roadblocks preventing those improvements. It was written by Jeneen Interlandi and published by the The New York Times Magazine on June 16th, 2021.

Introduction

This is the first part.

is a biographical writeup of Heidi Larson, an American anthropologist and the founding director of the Vaccine Confidence Project.

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This posuk uses חדוה for the first time, when Moshe tells Yisro that Hashem took the Jews out of Egypt and performed plagues against the Egyptians.

It is clearly in the interests of children and families to reduce gun violence in the United States. Each day, on an average, 13 children under the age of 19 are killed by gunfire and more are injured. Homicide is the second leading cause of death for youths 10–19 years old. For black males of this age, it’s the No.1 cause of death. Most youth homicides are committed with firearms, especially handguns.

is an investigative report by ProPublica into taxation of the ultraweathy in the United States, based on Internal Revenue Service data on the tax returns of thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people. It focuses on how ultraweathy individuals can use a loophole in the laws regarding Roth Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA) to amass massive amounts of wealth without paying taxes. It was written by Justin Elliott, Patricia Callahan and James Bandler, and was published on June 24th, 2021.

is a paper which describes an algorithm for ranking the relative importance of Web pages. It was written by Lawrence Page, Sergey Brin, Rajeev Motwani, and Terry WInograd, and published on January 29th, 1998 by the Stanford InfoLab.

is an investigative report by ProPublica and The New York Times into how the Chinese government is currently using traditional forms of propaganda to counter reports of human rights violations in Xinjiang. It was written by Jeff Kao, and published on June 23rd, 2021.