Originally published in Perspectives on Jews and Judaism: Essays in Honor of Wolfe Kelman. Ed. Arthur A. Chiel. New York: Rabbinical Assembly (1978: 189-214).   Rabbi Joseph Hayyim (1833 or 1835-1909) was the acknowledged spiritual head of ... Continue Reading ➨

Originally published in Judaism: A People and Its History Ed. Robert M. Seltzer. New York: Macmillan; London: Collier Macmillan, 1989: 235-40.   The Hebrew word hodesh, used in the Bible for ‘month’, means ‘that which is renewed’ and ... Continue Reading ➨

Originally published in The Solomon Goldman lectures 2, ed. Nathaniel Stampfer (Chicago: Spertus College of Judaica Press, 1979), 19-27. Republ. in L. Jacobs. Judaism and theology: Essays on the Jewish religion (London; Portland, OR: ... Continue Reading ➨

Originally published in Religion and Morality, Gene Outka and John P. Reeder (Eds.), 1973, pp. 155-172. Republished in Contemporary Jewish Ethics, ed. Menachem Kellner, Sanhedrin Press, 1978. This essay seeks to explore the relationship between ... Continue Reading ➨

Originally published in Judaism Today 4 (Spring 1996), pp. 4-7. The question religious Jews have had painfully to consider during the past few months since the murder of Yitzhak Rabin is not whether Amir's monstrous deed finds any support in ... Continue Reading ➨

Originally published in Beyond the Letter of the Law: Essays on Diversity in the Halakhah in Honor of Moshe Zemer. Ed. Walter Jacob Solomon B. Freehof Institute of Progressive Halakhah, Pittsburgh, 2004 Examined here is a minor, though not ... Continue Reading ➨

Originally published in Proceedings of the Rabbinical Assembly of America, 23 (1969): 9-24.   Of all the different types of sermon the theological is undoubtedly the most neglected in the synagogue. One of the reasons for this neglect is ... Continue Reading ➨

In Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling: Critical Appraisals, ed. Robert L. Perkins (Alabama: University of Alabama Press), 1981, 1-9. The narrative in the twenty-second chapter of the book of Genesis, in which Abraham is instructed by God to offer up ... Continue Reading ➨

Originally published in Masorti Forum, 1. We are all familiar with the well-nigh universal practice by which donors to the synagogue are afforded the honour of having their names displayed prominently as evidence of their generosity for everyone ... Continue Reading ➨

Originally published as 'Current Theological Literature: The Problem of Evil in Our Time', in Judaism, 17.3 (Summer 1968), 347-51. It is generally acknowledged in contemporary theological discussion that while the terrible problem of how God, the ... Continue Reading ➨

Originally published in European Judaism 2: 1 (1967). The distinguished theologian, Rabbi Dr. I. Maybaum, for whom this volume is a tribute, can hardly be said to be well disposed towards Jewish mysticism. In his ‘The Face of God after Auschwitz’ ... Continue Reading ➨

THE MASORTI ASSOCIATION LECTURE 9th January 1983 at the London Business School First published by: The Masorti Association 33 Abbey Road London N.W.8. Copyright Louis Jacobs 1983   I consider it a privilege and an honour to have been ... Continue Reading ➨

Originally published in Reuben Ahroni, ed., Hebrew Annual Review 7: Biblical and other studies in honor of Robert Gordis (Columbus, OH: Ohio State University, 1983), 137-49. Republished in L. Jacobs, Rabbinic thought in the Talmud (London; ... Continue Reading ➨

A continuation of Rabbi Jacobs' article THE NATURE OF HASIDIC PRAYER Excerpt from Hasidic Prayer (1972) Reprinted by permission of Schocken Books. Published by Pantheon Books, a Division of Random House, Inc. In a book published in Altona as ... Continue Reading ➨

Excerpt from Hasidic Prayer by Louis Jacobs (1972) Reprinted by permission of Schocken Books. Published by Pantheon Books, a Division of Random House, Inc. An early hasidic text, speaking of the dialogue of the Baal Shem Tov (d. 1760), the ... Continue Reading ➨

Originally published: Paris, Community (late 1950s - early 1960s)   If one of our ancestors were to come back to earth today the thing that would strike him most about modern living would be its comprehensiveness. Distances have been ... Continue Reading ➨

Originally published in Venture, 1, 4 (April 1957). A week or two ago I received a letter from a friend, describing Synagogal life in Toronto, where he resides. 'Last Friday night (he writes) commenced the first in a series of 'Week-ends with ... Continue Reading ➨

1979, New School for Social Research As the reader may recall, I had occasion during this past semester to be in London, England. While there, I visited The Leo Baeck College for Rabbinical Studies, and at my request Rabbi Albert Friedlander, Dean ... Continue Reading ➨

Originally published in Religion in Today’s World: The Religious Situation of the World from 1945 to the Present Day, ed. Frank Whaling, T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1987   The two events which transformed Jewish thought and life in the ... Continue Reading ➨

Originally published in Journal of Sex Education, 2: 4 (1950), 177. The sources in the earlier halakhah from which a ruling on the question of artificial insemination can be extracted are by their very nature few. There are some references in the ... Continue Reading ➨