SHULA JACOBS,
NEW and BRILLIANT Upload!Originally published in Zionist Record and South Africa Jewish Chronicle, 9 October 1964. According to Rabbinic ruling the Jewish farmer in ancient times had to give a portion of his produce to the priest. The average donor, we are told, gave a ... Continue Reading ➨
The stars in their courses
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 18 December 1964. The rabbis of the Midrash give a number of reasons why it is fitting to compare the righteous to the stars. Urban dwellers though many of the rabbis were, their night sky was not ... Continue Reading ➨
Alexander Altmann (ed.), ‘Studies in Nineteenth Century Jewish Intellectual History’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 9 April 1965. Studies in Nineteenth Century Jewish Intellectual History. Edited by Alexander Altmann. Harvard University Press. 46s. Readers, and they must be many, who found the first volume of ... Continue Reading ➨
Growth in Judaism
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 26 February 1965. One of the reasons the Torah is called a Torah of life is that it is capable of catering to our spiritual needs at every one of life’s stages. From infancy, childhood and adolescence, ... Continue Reading ➨
Man’s true nature
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 7 May 1965. Mankind has never been without its givers, men and women who have contributed generously and without stint of their wealth, talents, skills, time and effort in the service of others. The ... Continue Reading ➨
Jacob Neusner, ‘History and Torah: Essays on Jewish Learning’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 21 May 1965. History and Torah: Essays on Jewish Learning. By Jacob Neusner. Vallentine, Mitchell. 15s. The problem Dr. Neusner considers in this book is that of the compatibility of objective ... Continue Reading ➨
Hans Joachim Schoeps, ‘The Jewish-Christian Argument’
Originally published in The Month, July [year unknown], pp. 60-1. The Jewish-Christian Argument, by Hans Joachim Schoeps (Faber 30s). Professor Schoeps traces in this book the history of the polemics between Jews and Christians centring around ... Continue Reading ➨
Leo Baeck, ‘This People Israel’
Originally published in June 1965 in a Reform Synagogues publication. Many of the insights Leo Baeck gave to the world in his ‘The Essence of Judaism’, published in 1905, are repeated in this, his last volume. The Jewish ideal of desiring the ... Continue Reading ➨
In Bible Times – 3 reviews on biblical history
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 25 June 1965. Syria and Palestine. By G. Posener, J. Bottero and Kathleen M. Kenyon. 8s. 6d. Palestine in the Time of the Nineteenth Dynasty. By O. Eissfeldt. 6s. The Hebrew Kingdom. By O. ... Continue Reading ➨
Gershom G. Scholem, ‘On the Kabbalah and its Symbolism’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle. On the Kabbalah and its Symbolism. By Gershom G. Scholem. Translated by Ralph Manheim. Routledge & Kegan Paul. 30s. Professor Scholem is the Zunz of Jewish mystical studies, the acknowledged ... Continue Reading ➨
In Praise of Non-Conformity
Originally published in The Jewish Gazette, 5 January 1973. The Hasidic master Rabbi Menahem Mendel, of Kotzk, is reported to have said that he could not help admiring Pharaoh. Bloody tyrant though Pharaoh was, and for that reason to be ... Continue Reading ➨
Is Judaism an Optimistic Religion?
Originally published in The New Londoner: The Magazine of the New London Synagogue, 1:3 (January 1966). The declaration that Judaism is an optimistic faith, it is nowadays widely acknowledged, requires some qualification. For one thing a religious ... Continue Reading ➨
Yom Kippur – Fleeing from God
Originally published in The Jewish Gazette, September (year unknown). But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord . . . (Jonah I, 3) Jonah, the prophet of the Lord, knew, remarks the Midrash, that God is everywhere, ... Continue Reading ➨
Harry M. Orlinsky, ‘Understanding the Bible Through History and Archaeology’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 29 September 1972. Understanding the Bible Through History and Archaeology. By Harry M. Orlinsky. Ktav. New York, 1972. Harry M. Orlinsky’s brilliant first essay, “Ancient Israel,” first published ... Continue Reading ➨
Peter Brent, ‘Godmen of India’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 15 September 1972. Godmen of India. By Peter Brent. Allen Lane, the Penguin Press, London. 1972. £3.50. Peter Brent, having travelled widely in India to meet Hindu Gurus and their disciples, ... Continue Reading ➨
Eugene Newman, ‘Life and Teachings of Isaiah Horowitz’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 22 September 1972. The gigantic compendium of the Jewish religion known as Shene Luchot Ha-Berit (abbreviated to Shelah) by Isaiah Horowitz (c. 1570-1626) was originally compiled for the edification of ... Continue Reading ➨
The 1972 Election: A View from England
Originally published in Sh'ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility, 2/38 (29 September 1972), pp. 137-9. It would be a gross impertinence for one who is not an American citizen and ignorant of the American political scene to offer opinions on the ... Continue Reading ➨
David Tribe, ‘Nucleoethics: Ethics in Modern Society’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle. Nucleoethics: Ethics in Modern Society. By David Tribe MacGibbon & Kee. £2.95. The former editor of the humanist weekly, Freethinker, and former president of the National Secular Society surveys ... Continue Reading ➨
The Undying Flame
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 8 September 1972. The spiritual stocktaking traditionally encouraged at this period of the year stresses the social aspect. It is the plural we who have “sinned before Thee.” Not that individual ... Continue Reading ➨
‘An Introduction of Words’, akdamut milin
Dear Friends, What a month it has been since my last blog post! The deliverance from the bondage of Egypt is only the beginning of a much deeper transformation in the Jewish spirit leading up to the encounter with the divine at Mount Sinai… Or is ... Continue Reading ➨