SHULA JACOBS,
NEW and BRILLIANT Upload!Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle. Who was a Jew? Rabbinic and Halachic Perspectives on the Jewish-Christian Schism. By Lawrence H. Schiffman. Ktav. $8.95 (paperback), $14.95 (cloth). In this small but very erudite book (78 pages of ... Continue Reading ➨
Robert Gordis, ‘A Faith for Moderns’
Original source unknown. Reason in Quest of God A Faith for Moderns. By Robert Gordis. New York: Bloch Publishing Co. $5. Rabbi Gordis is a distinguished Bible scholar and teacher of Judaism and is one of the foremost religious thinkers in ... Continue Reading ➨
Viscount Samuel and Prof. Herbert Dingle, ‘A Threefold Cord: Philosophy, Science, Religion’
Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle, 5th January 1962. A Threefold Cord. By Viscount Samuel and Professor Herbert Dingle. Allen & Unwin. 25s. This is an absorbing dialogue in which Lord Samuel adopts the role of the Platonist, ... Continue Reading ➨
Bible Commentary – 2 reviews of Umberto Cassuto
Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle, 16th February 1962. A Commentary on the Book of Genesis: Part 1. From Adam to Noah, Genesis i-vi, 8. By U. Cassuto. 40s. The Documentary Hypothesis and the Composition of the Pentateuch. By U. Cassuto. ... Continue Reading ➨
This is the law
Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle, 23rd July 1954. A special Bible Supplement was published recently by The Times, dealing with the historical, social, and literary aspects of the Book of Books, and prefaced with the words still fresh ... Continue Reading ➨
The Quest never rests
Dear Friends, It has been two months since my last blog post! This is because the organization of the Memorial Events over the months of June and July took so much time that Ivor and I could not dedicate ourselves to the content of the website. ... Continue Reading ➨
Intellectual honesty
Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle, 7th May 1954. An empty-headed man cannot be a sin-fearing man nor can an ignorant man be pious. (Ethics ii, 6) A famous Jewish moralist was fond of saying that yirat shamayim, the fear of heaven, is ... Continue Reading ➨
The dietary laws
Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle, 27th August 1954. THE DIETARY LAWS Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself; thou mayest give it unto the stranger that is within thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto ... Continue Reading ➨
Beha’alotecha
Originally published in Judaism Today, 4th June 1993. According to the talmudic sources, in Temple times the priests on Rosh Hashanah would position themselves so that the trumpet-blowers stood on either side, with the shofar in the middle. On all ... Continue Reading ➨
Vayikra
Originally published in Judaism Today, 26th March 1993. Traditionally, the word vayikra, “And He called,” is written in the Sefer Torah and printed in the Chumash with a small alef [as here], giving rise to a host of ingenious ... Continue Reading ➨
Vayishlach – Real Angels
Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle, 11 December 1993. On the opening verse of the sidrah—“And Jacob sent malachim before him to Esau, his brother”—Rashi comments, in the name of the Midrash, “real malachim.” That is to say, although ... Continue Reading ➨
Lech Lecha
Originally published in Judaism Today, 6th November 1992. THE SECOND Gerer Rebbe gave a novel, and surprisingly modern, interpretation of the words lech lecha, used in the divine instruction to Abram to leave his homeland and his father’s ... Continue Reading ➨
Ha’azinu
Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle, 17th September 1993. In the song of Ha’azinu, Moses compares his teaching to both rain and dew. In an agricultural society, the farmer prays for the rains to come “in their due season,” as expressed ... Continue Reading ➨
Shemot
Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle, 15th January 1993. A midrashic comment has it that the “hard labour” to which the Egyptians subjected the Israelites involved, among other onerous tasks, making weak men carry loads suitable for strong ... Continue Reading ➨
Pinchas
Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle, 9th July 1993. The ambiguities in the Pinchas narrative were all too evident to the ancient rabbis. If the act of Pinchas in killing Zimri, the prince of Israel, and Kozbi, the Moabite princess, was ... Continue Reading ➨
Happy New Year
Originally published in Jewish Youth, September 1954. We greet each other, in this country, on Rosh Hashanah eve, with “A Happy New Year”, a very free translation of the traditional Hebrew greeting Shanah Tovah, meaning a good year. The fact is ... Continue Reading ➨
Attitudes to the Questioner
Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle, January 1954, as part of the series “The Persistent Questioner”. There are three distinct attitudes to religious questioning. The first is to react to such questionings with impatient irritation. This ... Continue Reading ➨
Passover – Freedom and Law
Originally published in Western Wall, March 1954. There is an intimate relationship in Jewish tradition between Passover, the festival of freedom and Shabuoth, the festival commemorating the giving of the Law. This relationship is a favourite ... Continue Reading ➨
Noah – Man’s Limitations
Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle, 22nd October 1954. And he died. (Gen. v, 5). The striking resemblances between the early narratives of the Book of Genesis and those in Babylonian and Assyrian sources makes it appear most probable ... Continue Reading ➨
Remembering Jerusalem
Originally published in the Jewish Review, 24th September 1954. The Psalmist’s oath: “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning” was kept by the Jewish people. After the destruction of the second Temple, some extremists ... Continue Reading ➨