As early as the 6th century, leaders of the Jewish community were already having conversations about the implications of mental health challenges and how they relate to Jewish law. Since then, our understanding of serious mental illnesses has greatly evolved into clearly defined and organized categorizations. Has the Jewish conceptualization of psychosis, and it's halachic applications, kept up with the times? How does Talmudic descriptors of serious mental illness compare with modern psychiatry?

Jonah Loshin is a Clinical Research Assistant at McLean hospital in the Psychotic Disorders Division studying Clinical High Risk for Psychosis. Jonah grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland and attended Yeshivat Orayta before completing college at the University of Maryland College Park.