Originally published in The Month (June 1975)   From rabbinic times and onwards the standard Jewish prayer consisted of the series of praises and supplications known as the Eighteen Benedictions. The Mishnah (Berakhot 4: 4), compiled at ... Continue Reading ➨

Originally published in Judaism, Winter 1967   A new, very promising, twice-yearly journal has appeared called Religious Studies, published by the Cambridge University Press (vol. I, number 1, October 1965; vol, 1, number 2, April 1966), ... Continue Reading ➨

Originally published in Judaism Today 1 (1995), 19-24. It is not generally appreciated that the hasidic movement in the 18th century, the period of its founder, the Ba'al Shem Tov, and his followers, was largely an elitist movement. It catered to ... Continue Reading ➨

Lecture given at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies on 18 June 1991, sponsored by the Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies and the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies When a new situation gives rise to a halakhic problem, the usual ... Continue Reading ➨

Originally published in Judaism, Fall 1967   One of the most striking differences in religious thought between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is the marked contemporary interest in mystical religion. The Jews’ College Library in ... Continue Reading ➨

Entry in Blackwell Companion to Jewish Culture: from the Eighteenth Century to the Present (Blackwell Publishing: 1990), 402-3. Repr. in EMJC. vol. 1: 453. [Bibliography updated.] Rabbi, naturalistic theologian, and founder of the ... Continue Reading ➨

The Claude Montefiore Lecture delivered by Rabbi Louis Jacobs, Jewish Liberal Synagogue, London, 1962 Republ. in L. Jacobs. Rabbinic thought in the Talmud (London; Portland, OR: Vallentine, Mitchell, 2005), 127-142. The subject of my address is ... Continue Reading ➨

Address given at the TENTH CONFERENCE of ANGLO-JEWISH PREACHERS, Golders Green, May 1953 Originally published in Addresses Given at the tenth conference of Anglo-Jewish preachers, [London]: Standing Committee, [1953?], 52-62. Some years ago the ... Continue Reading ➨

Entry "Judaism" in the Dictionary of Medical Ethics, ed. A.S. Duncan et al. (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1977), 191-192. In spite of the Biblical reproach of King Asa who 'sought not to the Lord, but to physicians' (II Chronicles 16:12) ... Continue Reading ➨

Originally published in Jewish Quarterly, 35, 4 (133) (Spring 1989), 48-9. [Extract from autobiography Helping with Inquiries.]   It used to be said that anyone who has studied in a yeshiva may go to heaven but he will never be able to ... Continue Reading ➨

Transcript of lecture given at the Open University Arts Faculty II Level Course AD208/13 Recording Date: Monday, 24 January 1977 Title: THE JEWISH QUEST Tape Number: BLN04/950H060 Speaker: Rabbi Dr. Louis Jacobs Duration: 19 minutes ... Continue Reading ➨

Originally published in Intercommunion and church membership, ed. John Kent & Robert Murray (London: Darton, Longman & Todd; Denville, NJ: Dimension Books, 1973), 141-153. My knowledge of Christianity is admittedly scanty but it seems to ... Continue Reading ➨

Originally published in Man, myth & magic: an illustrated encyclopedia of the supernatural (London: Purnell, 1970-1), Pt. 55: 1529-38.   The progenitor of all subsequent monotheistic religions, Judaism is based on the belief that there ... Continue Reading ➨

Bick, Etta (ed.), Judaic Sources of Human Rights: edited proceedings of an IDI colloquium held in Jerusalem in November 1987. Israel Diaspora Insttute Report, 1. Ramat Aviv: Israel-Diaspora Institute, 1989. I must confess at the outset that I had ... Continue Reading ➨

Entry in The Encyclopedia of Christianity, vol. 3, ed. Erwin Fahlbusch et al. (Cambridge: Eerdmans; Leiden: Brill, 2003), 49-55.   The thinking of the biblical authors and the Talmudic rabbis has rightly been described as organic, that is, ... Continue Reading ➨

This is the digest of a lecture and discussion held on 16 May 1981 at the Study Circle on World Jewry. Under the auspices of the President of Israel edited by Moshe Davis Shazar Library, Institute of Contemporary Jewry The Hebrew University of ... Continue Reading ➨

Originally published as Preface of Byron L. Sherwin, Jewish Ethics for the Twenty-First Century: Living in the Image of God (Syracuse University Press, 2000). In a talmudic legend King Manasseh accuses the prophet Isaiah of contradicting the words ... Continue Reading ➨

in Ancient cosmologies. Ed. Carmen Blacker & Michael Loewe. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1975: 66-86. Lecturer in Talmud, Leo Baeck College, London A study of the Jewish sources demonstrates that the Jews did not develop in any period ... Continue Reading ➨