Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 24 September 1965. RELIGIOUS PARADOX By LOUIS JACOBS The Last Years—Journals, 1853-55. By Soren Kierkegaard. Edited and translated by Ronald Gregor Smith. Collins. 35s. Kierkegaard’s genius cannot be ignored by anyone concerned with the meaning and significance of religious faith. It is largely due to him that we have become…...
New Year’s Message and Notes on the High Festivals at Central Synagogue, Manchester
Originally published in the Rosh Hashanah pamphlet of the Central Synagogue, Manchester, 1952. New Year’s Message from Rabbi Dr. L. Jacobs, B.A. Dear Member, Once again I am writing to you to wish you and your family a very happy and prosperous, new year and to discuss with you our tasks for the future. I…...
J. B. Phillips, ‘Four Prophets: Amos; Hosea; First Isaiah; Micah: A Modern Translation from the Hebrew’
Four Prophets: Amos; Hosea; First Isaiah; Micah: A Modern Translation from the Hebrew. By J. B. Phillips. Bles. 15s. J. B. Phillips, famous for his translations of parts of the New Testament, now turns his hand to the Old. The all-too-familiar and, for Jews, very irritating habit of seeing the one as inferior to, and…...
Maurice Simon & Isaac Levy (eds.), ‘Essays and Addresses’
Essays and Addresses. By Samuel Daiches. Edited by Maurice Simon and Isaac Levy. Samuel Daiches Memorial Volume Committee. Reviewed by Rabbi Dr. LOUIS JACOBS This volume is a fitting tribute to the memory of a beloved scholar and teacher in Israel. In the opening memoir, Dr. George J. Webber, with his usual literary skill, paints…...
Judah Goldin (trans.), ‘The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan’
The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan. Translated from the Hebrew by Judah Goldin. Yale University Press, London: Cumberlege. 38s. Reviewed by Rabbi Dr. LOUIS JACOBS “Aboth de-Rabbi Nathan” is one of the so-called Minor Tractates of the Talmud, generally printed at the end of the fourth division of the Babylonian Talmud. It is a commentary…...
Umberto Cassuto, ‘Commentary on the Book of Genesis’, Part II
Commentary on the Book of Genesis: Part II; From Noah to Abraham. By U. Cassuto, translated by Israel Abrahams. Magnes Press, Hebrew University, Jerusalem 1964. xiv + 386pp. 57s. This Commentary on Gen. 6.9-11.32 is the third volume in the series of the late Professor Cassuto’s work on the Pentateuch translated from the Hebrew by…...
Alexander Altmann, ‘Studies in Religious Philosophy and Mysticism’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 1 August 1969, p. 19. Studies in Religious Philosophy and Mysticism. By A. Altmann. Routledge & Kegan Paul. £3. The many friends and admirers of Dr Altmann in this country will welcome this collection of his profound scholarly articles on religious and philosophical themes with particular reference to their appearance…...
Health law and medical ethics
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle. Date unknown: The members of a certain religious sect refuse to have blood transfusions. As a fundamental tenet of their creed, they maintain that, according to the Bible, blood should not be taken. Where does the Bible imply this prohibition and what is the Jewish position regarding life-saving by blood…...
World religions and interfaith
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle. Date unknown: Is there any objection to the symbol of the cross in artwork? I know of one Jewish school in which a master was advised to cover or remove any crosses which appeared in pictures of an historical nature. It is forbidden to have any use from a crucifix…...
Bemidbar
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle. A non-Jewish author once wrote that, while a good deal of the Bible was an exciting read, of much relevance to him, he failed to see any value in the opening chapters of the Book of Numbers. These were, he said, about as inspiring as a telephone directory. All those…...
Aaron M. Schreiber, ‘Jewish Law and Decision-Making: A Study Through Time’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 9 January 1981. Jewish Law and Decision-Making: A Study through Time. By Aaron M. Schreiber. Temple University Press, Philadelphia. $29.50. The main thesis of this stimulating book (consisting partly of essays by other scholars linked together by comments and further explorations by the editor) is that, throughout the history of…...
Simchah Raz, ‘A Tzaddik in Our Time: The Life of Aryeh Levin’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle. A Tzaddik In Our Time: The Life of Aryeh Levin. By Simchah Raz. Translated from the Hebrew, revised and expanded by Charles Wengrov. Feldheim, Jerusalem-New York. $12.50. Rabbi Aryeh Levin, the hero of this collection of anecdotes, maxims and thoughts on the Torah, was a beloved figure in Jerusalem for…...
Herut, Freedom
Sermon probably delivered in the late 1950s. “And if the Holy One, Blessed be He, had not brought us out of Egypt, then we and our sons and our sons’ sons would still be slaves in Egypt.” The best way of truly describing a thing is to point out in what way it differs from its…...
Theology and religious beliefs
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle. Date unknown: “All Israel have a portion in the world to come.” What does this mean? The saying is found in the Mishna (Sanhedrin 10, 1). It is not, however, as exclusive as it appears to be on the face, and presumably it is that which bothers you. For one…...
‘Fantasies of Cheescake’ – A review of ‘Ask the Rabbi’ by Reuven Ben Dov
Originally published in The Jerusalem Post, 20 May 1999. An ideal book for an easy browse on Shavuot night is Ask The Rabbi. Questions and Answers on Judaism by Louis Jacobs (London, Valentine Mitchell: 237 pp.; price not stated). This collection of answers to questions posed by readers of the Jewish Chronicle would be interesting, if…...
Alexander Altmann (ed.), Jewish Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Jewish Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Edited by Alexander Altmann. Harvard University Press, London: Oxford University Press. 80s. This volume contains essays of outstanding scholarship but with an appeal for the general reader as well as the expert. Only the last study in the book—Israel Adler’s “Art Music in the Italian Ghetto” —deals with the Renaissance…...
Elliot Dorff – Louis Jacobs’s Philosophy of Law
Originally published in Elliot Dorff, The Unfolding Tradition: Philosophies of Jewish Law (New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 2005), pp. 270-307; (second, revised edition, 2011), pp. 254-291. The editor would like to thank Prof. Rabbi Dorff for kindly authorizing the publication of this extract on our website. Rabbi Louis Jacobs is rabbi of the New London Synagogue in London,… Continue Reading ➨
Elliot Dorff – Intellectual Portrait of Louis Jacobs
Originally published in Steven T. Katz (ed.), Interpreters of Judaism in the Late Twentieth Century Washington, D.C., 1993), pp. 167-188. Louis Jacobs [1920- ] Elliot N. Dorff Synthesizing Tradition with Modernity Jews face modernity in a variety of ways. Some embrace it so tightly that they let go of any connection to the Jewish tradition. In… Continue Reading ➨
Menachem Kellner, ‘Must a Jew Believe Anything?’
Originally published in Judaism Today, November 1999, p. 29. Nearing retirement, Rabbi Louis Jacobs considers a book on Judaism and ‘belief’. How Orthodox is Orthodoxy? In his penetrating study on Jewish belief—“Must a Jew Believe Anything?”—published earlier this year and reviewed in these pages, Professor Menachem Kellner demonstrates that the biblical and talmudic term for “faith”—emunah—denotes…...
He Used to Say
Sermon originally delivered at the New London Synagogue, 23 May 1964. That little gem of a book ‘Ethics of the Fathers’ contains, as everyone knows, the sayings of the great teachers of Judaism down to the beginning of the third century. The sayings are generally prefaced by the words ‘He used to say’. These are…...