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 scholarship (so far as the classics of Judaism are concerned) with commitment. The scholar endeavours to investigate his sources…...
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 the different theological approaches of Judaism and Christianity. His main contention is that in modern times there is to be…...
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 ‘nearness of God’ rather than fusion with Him; the meaning of the berith,…...
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. Eissfeldt. 8s. 6d. Three advance fascicles from the revised edition of the Cambridge Ancient History. Cambridge…...
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 master of the scientific investigation into this much neglected but highly significant branch of Jewish thought. This volume consists of…...
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 condemned, one has to admit that he did not give in easily. A lesser creature would…...
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 policy of looking on the bright side is inadequate for the sorely troubled twentieth century. It is no accident…...
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, that you cannot fly from Him in space. What then was the purpose…...
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 years ago, is here reprinted together with photographs and documents from the ancient Near East in parallel columns to the text and…...
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, provides a fascinating account and analysis of the Guru-shishya relationship. For all his successful attempt to be objective and…...
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 the author’s children (some children!) and is a remarkable testimony to Jewish spirituality at its highest. Horowitz quotes at length…...
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 in this lively book various idealist theories of ethics, which he rejects as illusory, while advancing what he considers to be…...
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 self-scrutiny is unimportant, but it is by its very nature a private matter between a man and his Maker…....
Ki Tetse – Swords Into Ploughshares
Originally published in The Jewish Gazette, 11 August 1972. We read in this week’s sidra of a special functionary called by the rabbis mashuach milchamah, ‘the one anointed for battle’. The duty of this high dignitary was to address the soldiers before they went out to do battle against their foes, reminding them of their religious…...
Hermann Cohen, ‘Religion of Reason Out of the Sources of Judaism’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle. Religion of Reason Out of the Sources of Judaism. By Hermann Cohen, translated by Simon Kaplan. Introduction by Leo Strauss. Frederick Ungar. New York. 1972. $15. The Jacket blurb of this book correctly describes Hermann Cohen (1842-1918) as the greatest Jewish philosopher since the Enlightenment: A real philosopher of international…...
Anthony Gibbs, ‘Oh My God, Is That You?’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 21 July 1972. Oh My God, Is That You? By Anthony Gibbs. Allan Wingate. London, 1972. £1.75. This book, expensive for its size (102 pages together with a few photographs) defines faith as “an irrational belief” but comes down eventually on the side of the angel to maintain that the…...
Clifford Rhodes, ‘The Necessity for Love: The History of Interpersonal Relations’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle. The Necessity for Love: The History of Interpersonal Relations. By Clifford Rhodes, Constable, London. £3.25. Somebody once said that most of the words in English for the really important things are of one syllable. “Love” is such a word, but, as Clifford Rhodes demonstrates in this book, the word can…...
Korach – A Man of Straw
Originally published in The Jewish Gazette, 16 June 1972. The dramatic story of Korah’s rebellion against Moses begins with the words ‘And Korah took’. But the verb ‘took’ has no object. What did he take? Some English versions supply ‘men’ as the object of the verb, translating: ‘And Korah took men’. This is not, however, in…...
‘Sing a New Song: The Psalms in Today’s English Version’, Fontana Books
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 16 June 1972. Sing a New Song: The Psalms in Today’s English Version, Fontana Books, Collins, 1972, 20p. To have the Psalms in modern English is not to everyone’s taste but those who are attracted by the idea can do worse than use this fine rendition. The Hebrew titles are…...
Jacques Monod, ‘Chance and Necessity’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 16 June 1972, p. 16. Chance and Necessity. By Jacques Monod. Collins. £1.75. This book, published in French in 1970 and now in an English translation, is the work of a Nobel Prizewinner whose field is genetics. In this essay he steps outside the domain of his special expertise to…...