From my city’s Jewish Week newspaper, I learn that Orthodox men have a statistically significant lower rate of heart attacks than Orthodox women or other Jews, both in Israel and the USA. It turns out that they benefit from phylacteries, with which they wrap their right arms with leather straps and a copy of the Shema, the Jewish declaration of faith, in a little leather box. This practice, which doesn’t apply to women and is not much observed by non-Orthodox, apparently stresses the blood vessels during the half hour or so during which it is worn, and lowers heart failure risks. The Biblical statement of the Shema calls for its words to be “bound upon thy hands and between thine eyes” but no one ever thought it would help their health. Only the hand version works, not the one around their forehead.
When we lived in Paris, when we went to the Pletzel (rue des Rosiers) with our kids, our son was always asked if he had “laid tefillim” that day, and when he admitted he hadn’t, the Lubovitcher team helped him do it, but didn’t hold us up for a half hour by requiring him to say all the prayers.
I expect some Israeli high-tech healthcare firm will soon cash in on this discovery with secular straps of course.
I wrote yesterday about how well my US startup Eyepoint Pharma was doing, as it tripled YTD, which topped my portfolio gains. The company has won FDA approval for a device to deliver a drug against uveitis that is implanted in the patient’s eye in a doctor’s office. I would rather wear phylacteries myself. But one of my pre-subscribers turned out to also be an EYPT owner.
Another non-Global holding I write about sometimes, Earthstone Energy, a bonus share, is up 1.75% on its planned buy of Sabalo‘s Midland Basin assets for $950 mn. Most stocks are falling as a selloff which began in Hong Kong moved westward
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