"One Person's Science is Another's Superstition":

The class will investigate a number of ideas in the Talmud and later literature that are viewed as scientific. In some cases this is accurate, but in others the "science" was the accepted science of the times. Often the Jews accepted the science of surrounding peoples, indicating that science was a cultural bridge between Jews and their non-Jewish environment.  Besides coming to recognize these connections, we will recognize that as the scientific method progressed, the beliefs about phenomenon that were taken as fact slipped into the category of superstition. Despite this, there are Jewish observances, once believed to be based on good scientific theory, still observed today though they are palpably superstitions.