Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle. Passover 17 April 1970: Is it permitted to invite non-Jews to the Seder table? Why not? If you are thinking of Exodus 12, 43 (“no stranger shall eat thereof”), this obviously applies only to the Paschal lamb in Temple times. It is the practice nowadays in many Jewish homes…...
The Pioneering Spirit
Originally published in Venture 2:4 (September 1958); transcript of a sermon preached at the New West End Synagogue on the seventh day of Passover, 5718 (11th April 1958). And the Lord said unto Moses: ‘Wherefore criest thou unto Me? Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.’ —(Ex. xiv, 15) The Israelites were trapped in the desert…....
Angry Young Men and Their Parents
Sermon preached at the New West, End Synagogue Rosh Ha-Shanah 5719 (15th September, 1958). So they went both of them together (Gen. xxii, 8) Abraham and his son, Isaac, walking together along the road leading to the mount where the supreme sacrifice was to be made, parents and children united in faith, this is a…...
Joseph B. Soloveitchik, ‘Halakhic Man’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle. Halakhic Man, by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Translated from the Hebrew by Lawrence Kaplan. Jewish Publication Society of America, $12.95. The classic description of halachic man, whose life is completely dominated by Jewish law, by the foremost exponent of Orthodox Judaism, is now translated into English most effectively for the…...
Robert Gordis, ‘Poets, Prophets and Sages’; Jacob B. Angus, ‘Dialogue and Tradition’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle. Of tension and turmoil Poets, Prophets and Sages: Essays in Biblical Interpretation. By Robert Gordis. Indiana University Press, 1971. £7.25. Dialogue and Tradition: The Challenge of Contemporary Judeo-Christian Thought. By Jacob B. Angus. Abelard-Schuman, New York, 1971. £3. One should protest on principle at the practice, favoured by an increasing…...
El-Am ‘Talmud with English Translation and Commentary’, Quiddushin, ed. Rabbi Dr A. Ehrman
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 26th November 1971. People’s Talmud LOUIS JACOB The Talmud with English Translation and Commentary. Quiddushin, edited by Rabbi Dr A. Ehrman, El-Am, Jerusalem-Tel Aviv. Ideally the Talmud should be expounded verbally by a teacher capable of elaborating on the bare text, pointing out its subtleties and bringing the arguments to…...
Abraham Levy, ‘The Sephardim: A Problem of Survival?’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 10th November 1972. Sephardi approach LOUIS JACOBS THE SEPHARDIM: A PROBLEM OF SURVIVAL? By Abraham Levy. London, 1972. Copies available from 4 Biddulph Road, Maida Vale, W9. There is a story about a Lithuanian rabbi who was a dedicated student of Maimonides all his life. When the rabbi died and…...
Gerhard Von Rad, ‘Wisdom in Israel’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 3rd November 1972. PATTERNS OF THOUGHT Louis Jacobs Wisdom in Israel. By Gerhard Von Rad. Translated from the German by James D. Martin. SCM Press. £3.75. This penetrating study is the last book of Professor Von Rad, who died last year. The term “wisdom” in the title is technical and…...
Nehama Leibowitz, ‘Studies in the Book of Genesis’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 19th January 1973. A WORK OF DEVOTION Louis Jacobs Studies in the Book of Genesis. By Nehama Leibowitz, translated and adapted from the Hebrew by Aryeh Newman. Alpha Press, Jerusalem, 1972. No price. Nehama Leibowitz’s studies in the weekly sidra have justifiably become renowned as a key for the unlocking…...
Pamela Vermas, ‘Buber on God and the Perfect Man’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 13th October 1981. THE I-THOU RELATIONSHIP LOUIS JACOBS Buber on God and the Perfect Man. By Pamela Vermes. Brown Judaic Studies No. 13. Scholars Press/Journal of Jewish Studies. £5.25. That Martin Buber is one of the seminal thinkers of mankind will be denied by few but the difficulty of grasping the…...
F. George Kay, ‘The Family in Transition: Its Past, Present and Future Patterns’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 20th October 1972. FAMILY MATTERS Louis Jacobs The Family in Transition: Its Past, Present and Future Patterns. By F. George Kay. David and Charles. £3.25. This interesting book (and expensive, for 184 pages) traces the origins of the family and the forms it has assumed in diverse civilizations. Despite severe attacks…...
Umberto Cassuto, ‘Commentary on the Book of Exodus’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 26th January 1973. COMMENTARY & CRITICISM By LOUIS JACOBS Commentary on the Book of Exodus. By U. Cassuto, translated by Israel Abrahams. The Magnes Press, the Hebrew University. Distributed by the Oxford University Press. 72s. The late Professor Cassuto adopted the unusual method of combining text, comment and notes in…...
Abba Hillel Silver, ‘Where Judaism Differed’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 26th January 1973. Selective Judaism LOUIS JACOBS Where Judaism Differed. By Abba Hillel Silver. Macmillian (NY). Available UK at 70p. This is a paperback edition of the by now famous book, first published in 1956, in which the author endeavours to trace, in the words of the sub-title, the distinctiveness…...
Dagobert D. Runes, ‘Of God, the Devil, and the Jews’
Originally published in Chayenu, 21:9/10 (1952), pp. 10-11. Of God, the Devil and the Jews, by Dagobert D. Runes, the Philosophical Library, New York. $3.0. The publisher’s blurb describes this book as “a powerful and profound indictment of the Western world and the lies and contradictions which corrode and must in time crumble the foundations of…...
Stephen Spender, ‘Learning Laughter’
Originally published in Chayenu, 22:2/3 (1953), p. 13. Learning Laughter, by Stephen Spender, London, 1952. Price 15s. The theme of this book is summed up on the jacket by the delightful picture of a dusky and a fair Jewish child playing together in the sun. It is the record of a sensitive observer’s travels in Israel…...
J. B. Bury, ‘History of Freedom of Thought’
Originally published in Chayenu, 22:2/3 (1953), p. 13. History of freedom of thought, by J. B. Bury with an Epilogue by H. J. Blackham, Oxford University Press, 1952. Price 6s. Prof Burry’s book was first published in 1913. Much water has flowed under the bridge since that time. The promises of liberalism and secularism have not…...
Daniel H. Frank, ‘A People Apart: Choseness and Ritual in Jewish Philosophical Thought’
Originally published in JJSO 36:1 (1994), pp. 61-3. Daniel H. Frank, ed., A People Apart: Chosenness and Ritual in Jewish Philosophical Thought (SUNY Series in Jewish Philosophy), vi + 270 pp., State University of New York Press, Albany, 1993, $16.95. The eleventh annual conference of the Academy for Jewish Philosophy focused on the Chosen People idea; the…...
Chaim Wirszubski, ‘Pico Della Mirandola’s Encounter with Jewish Mysticism’
Originally published in Jewish Quarterly 38:1 (141) (1991), p. 69. A CHRISTIAN KABBALIST Louis Jacobs PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA’S ENCOUNTER WITH JEWISH MYSTICISM by Chaim Wirszubski. Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard University Press, 1989. The Jewish mystical system known as the Kabbalah, precisely because of its esoteric nature and its claim to a gnosis reaching back to the…...
Leo Baeck, ‘God and Man in Judaism’
Originally published in A.J.A. Quarterly, 5:2 (1959), pp. 33-4. Basic Judaism God and Man in Judaism. By Leo Baeck. With a Foreword by Leonard G. Montefiore. Vallentine, Mitchell. 6s. This essay on the basic teachings of Judaism originally appeared as Leo Baeck’s contribution to a volume entitled Religions of the World. It contains one of the…...
Maurice Friedman, ‘Martin Buber: The Life of Dialogue’; Martin Buber, ‘The Legend of the Baal Shem’
Originally published in A.J.A. Quarterly, 3:2 (1957), pp. 38-9. MORE BUBERISM Martin Buber—The Life of Dialogue. By Maurice Friedman. Routledge and Kegan Paul. 25s. The Legend of the Baal Shem. By Martin Buber. East and West Library. 17s. 6d. In this fully documented study, the fruit of many years of research and astonishing industry and erudition,…...