SHULA JACOBS,
NEW and BRILLIANT Upload!Lecture delivered at the Herbert Samuel Hall, New West End Synagogue, on Thursday, 11th July 1963 under the auspices of the Society for the Study of Jewish Theology. The Problem During the Middle Ages, Jewish thinkers devoted a good deal of ... Continue Reading ➨
Henry A. Fischel (ed.), Essays in Greco-Roman and Related Talmudic Literature
Originally published in Journal of Jewish Sociology 19:2 Henry A. Fischel (ed.), Essays in Greco-Roman and Related Talmudic Literature, with a Prolegomenon by the editor, lxxvi + 533 pp., The Library of Biblical Studies (Harry M. Orfinsky, ed.), ... Continue Reading ➨
Harry M. Orlinsky, ‘Essays in Biblical Culture and Bible Translation’
Originally published in Religious Studies 11: 3 (Sept. 1975), pp. 377-378. Orlinsky, Harry M., Essays in Biblical Culture and Bible Translation Pp. xv 462. (Ktav Publishing House, New York, 1974.) $15.00. The Bible, in addition to being a great ... Continue Reading ➨
The Halakhic Process and The Rabbinical Assembly of Israel Law Committee Responsa 5746
By Joel Roth, A Centennial Publication of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. New York, 1986. The Rabbinical Assembly of Israel Law Committee Responsa 5746 (Heb.), Committee Members: Rabbi David Golinkin, Rabbi Reuven Hammer, Rabbi Theodore ... Continue Reading ➨
Hans Jonas: Philosophical Essays
From Ancient Creed to Technological Man Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1974. pp. xviii, 349. Reviewed by Rabbi Louis Jacobs in the International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 7: 3 (Fall 1976), 454. Hans Jonas has gathered together ... Continue Reading ➨
Simon Greenberg: The Ethical in the Jewish and American Heritage
Simon Greenberg, The Ethical in the Jewish and American Heritage, vol. 4 in the Moreshet Series, Studies in Jewish History, Literature and Thought xvi+327 pp., Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York, 1977, $15 The first and longest ... Continue Reading ➨
Emil L. Fackenheim, ‘To Mend the World: foundations of future Jewish thought’
Originally published in JJSO 25: 1 (June 1983), p. 63. Emil L. Fackenheim, To Mend the World: Foundations of Future Jewish Thought (Schocken Books, New York, 1982) Reviewed by Rabbi Louis Jacobs In addition to his general place in contemporary ... Continue Reading ➨
Max Kadushin, ‘The Rabbinic Mind’
Max Kadushin, The Rabbinic Mind, 2nd edition, with an appendix by Simon Greenberg, New York: Blaisdell, 1965, 414 pp.; $8.50. In Conservative Judaism, Volume XX, Number 1, Fall 1965 Rabbi Naftali Ropshitzer is said to have declared that, before he ... Continue Reading ➨
Neusner, Jacob, ‘A History of the Mishnaic Law of Purities – Parts 12-14’
Orginally published in BSOAS 40: 2, pp. 64-68. Jacob Neusner, A History of the Mishnaic Law of Purities. Parts 12-14 (Studies in Judaism in Late Antiquity, Vol. 6.) xvi, 230 ; xvi, 226 ; xviii, 235 pp. Leiden : E. J. Brill, 1976. Guilders ... Continue Reading ➨
Byron L. Sherwin: Living in the Image of God
Jewish Ethics for the Twenty-First Century - Syracuse University Press To my esteemed. colleague Rabbi Doctor Louis Jacobs of London, I am profoundly indebted for his thoughtful and thought-provoking foreword to this volume. For over thirty years, I ... Continue Reading ➨
James E. Priest, ‘Governmental and Judicial Ethics in the Bible and Rabbinic Literature’
Originally published in Expository Times 92:5 (1981), p. 151. LAW AND JUSTICE An interesting feature of contemporary religious thought is the acknowledgement of the important role law and justice play in Judaism and through Judaism has been ... Continue Reading ➨
Current Theological Literature: Jewish Perspectives
Originally published in Judaism, 18:1 (Winter 1969), pp. 78-83. It is the unhappy experience of the writer of a column such as this to suffer the embarrassment of a lack of riches, so few are the books devoted to Jewish theology in the Jewish world ... Continue Reading ➨
Bernard S. Jackson, Theft in Early Jewish Law
Clarendon Press: Oxford University Press, 1972, pp. xviii, 316, £5.50 Dr. Jackson traces with great erudition the development of the laws of theft in all their ramifications from the earliest pentateuchal code, the Book of the Covenant, down to ... Continue Reading ➨
Richard Barnett (ed.), ‘The Sephardi Heritage’
Essays on the history and cultural contribution of the Jews of Spain and Portugal, vol. i: The Jews in Spain and Portugal Before and After the Expulsion of 1492 (Vallentine Mitchell, London, 1971), 639pp, £4.75 The World Sephardi Federation, ... Continue Reading ➨
Zionism After 100 Years
Proceedings of the Rabbinical Assembly 81. (S.l.: The Assembly, 1982), pp. 56-63. Rabbi Spectre, our Chairman, has told you that a book of mine is about to appear on 'teiku', the unsolved problem in talmudic literature. This is a suitable ... Continue Reading ➨
Zecharias Frankel (1801-1875)
Entry by Rabbi Louis Jacobs in the Blackwell Companion to Jewish Culture: from the Eighteenth Century to the Present (Blackwell Publishing: 1990), 241-2. Repr. in EMJC, vol. 1, 280-1. [Bibliography updated.] Frankel, Zecharias (1801-1875) Rabbi, ... Continue Reading ➨
World Jewish Fundamentalism
Originally published in Survey of Jewish Affairs, ed. William Frankel (Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; London: Associated University Presses, 1988), 221-234. The term 'fundamentalism', much bandied about during the past ... Continue Reading ➨
When Magicians get in a Pickle over Cucumbers
Originally published in the Masorti Journal (1993) The Mishnah (Sanhedrin 7:11; Sanhedrin 67a) states "The sorcerer (hamekhasef)-one who performs an act is culpable but not one who deceives the eyes (oches haenayim) literally "one who takes hold ... Continue Reading ➨
What We Stand For
Sermon preached at the New London Synagogue, first day of Rosh Hashanah, 7 September 1964. My friends, Welcome to our new Synagogue. Who would have dreamed last Rosh Ha-Shanah that we would be here worshipping together as a newly formed ... Continue Reading ➨
What is Judaism for?
Originally published in Manna 1977. [The following is a text, prepared by the editor and corrected by the author, of a recent talk in Cambridge.] I want to discuss how far it is legitimate to engage in what is called reductionism as far as ... Continue Reading ➨