Subchapter of ‘Hasidic Tradition’ in Blumenthal, David R. (ed.) Understanding Jewish mysticism: a source reader, ii: The Philosophic-Mystical Tradition and the Hasidic Tradition (Ktav, 1982) Originally published in Louis Jacobs, Hasidic Prayer (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972), 82-91.   Introduction (Blumenthal) Hasidism did not develop in a vacuum. It had at its disposal what…...

Originally published in New from Channel 4 (Autumn 1988). Dorothy Sayers once remarked that she had been brought up on the Bible and the Classics, but had gained the impression that while the characters in Greek and Roman history were real, those in the Bible seemed somehow to belong in a different world from our…...

Originally published by Judaica Press, New York, N.Y., 1967   Nowadays the thought of men like Tillich and Bonhoeffer, the bestselling paperback Honest to God by the Bishop of Woolwich, the ‘death of God’ debate in Protestant theological circles, the demand by linguistic analysis for a more precise definition of religious statements, all these are…...

Originally published in Arthur Green, ed., Jewish Spirituality from the Sixteenth-Century Revival to the Present (New York: Crossroad, 1987), 99-126.   Although for convenience’s sake we shall refer, in this essay, to light as a kabbalistic symbol for the divine, it should be noted that, for the kabbalists themselves, light and the other symbols they…...

Subchapter of ‘Hasidic Tradition’ in Blumenthal, David R. (ed.) Understanding Jewish mysticism: a source reader, ii: The Philosophic-Mystical Tradition and the Hasidic Tradition (Ktav, 1982) Originally published in L. Jacobs, Hasidic Prayer (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972), pp. 75-8.   Introduction (Blumenthal) Another element in the ‘accumulated tradition’ of Jewish mystical thought which Hasidism…...

Originally published as “The talmudic sugya as a literary unit: an analysis of Baba Kamma 2a-3b”, JJS 24.2 (Autumn 1973), 119-126.   The first mishnah in Bava Kama states that there are four ‘main categories of injury’: the ox, the pit, maveh (on the meaning of which there is considerable discussion in the Talmud) and…...

Originally published in Michael Chernick, ed., Essential Papers on the Talmud (New York; London: New York University Press, 1994), 52-69.   The Babylonian Talmud consists almost entirely of arguments having as their aim the elucidation of the law, ruling, religious teaching or ethical idea. Theories are advanced and then contradicted. They are examined from many…...

Originally published in Judaism, Winter 1980   Professor Gordis’s brilliant analysis has placed heavily in his debt all who are concerned with the problem of how to achieve a viable halakhah. It is a privilege to have been invited to comment on this stimulating essay. The unease I feel about the essay stems from the…...

Originally published in Studies in aggadah, targum and Jewish liturgy in memory of Joseph Heinemann, ed. Jakob J. Petuchowski & Ezra Fleischer. Jerusalem: Magnes Press; Hebrew Union College Press, 1981: 32-44 (Engl. Section). Republ. in L. Jacobs. Rabbinic thought in the Talmud, London; Portland, OR: Vallentine Mitchell, 2005: 68-78.   The Sugya on Sufferings in…...

Originally published in An introduction to Jewish law, ed. Peter Elman (London: Lincolns-Prager, 1958), 11-17. Torah, Mishnah, Gemara The three main sources of Jewish Law are the Torah, the Mishnah and the Gemara. It is proposed briefly to examine each of these terms and to show how later Jewish lawyers have utilised these three sources…...

Originally published in Concilium 10 (1974), pp. 111-118. It is axiomatic that the Law—the Torah—is a key concept in Judaism. No group of people professing the Jewish religion has ever abandoned this concept and remained within the faith, though differing interpretations of the scope and meaning of the Torah are found and stages in the development…...

Originally published in Perspectives on Jews and Judaism: Essays in Honor of Wolfe Kelman. Ed. Arthur A. Chiel. New York: Rabbinical Assembly (1978: 189-214).   Rabbi Joseph Hayyim (1833 or 1835-1909) was the acknowledged spiritual head of the Baghdad Jewish community. The only official rabbinic position he occupied, however, was that of preacher, succeeding his…...

Originally published in Judaism: A People and Its History Ed. Robert M. Seltzer. New York: Macmillan; London: Collier Macmillan, 1989: 235-40.   The Hebrew word hodesh, used in the Bible for ‘month’, means ‘that which is renewed’ and refers to the renewal of the moon. Hence the Jewish calendar is lunar, the first day of…...

Originally published in The Solomon Goldman lectures 2, ed. Nathaniel Stampfer (Chicago: Spertus College of Judaica Press, 1979), 19-27. Republ. in L. Jacobs. Judaism and theology: Essays on the Jewish religion (London; Portland, OR: Vallentine, Mitchell, 2005), 134-143.   The hasidic movement has now been on the Jewish scene for over two hundred years, during…...

Originally published in Religion and Morality, Gene Outka and John P. Reeder (Eds.), 1973, pp. 155-172. Republished in Contemporary Jewish Ethics, ed. Menachem Kellner, Sanhedrin Press, 1978. This essay seeks to explore the relationship between religion and ethics as conceived of in the Jewish tradition. As in every other investigation of a great Jewish theme it must…...

Originally published in Judaism Today 4 (Spring 1996), pp. 4-7. The question religious Jews have had painfully to consider during the past few months since the murder of Yitzhak Rabin is not whether Amir’s monstrous deed finds any support in Jewish teaching-it has been unreservedly condemned by every responsible Jewish teacher-but whether the perpetrator himself…...

Originally published in Beyond the Letter of the Law: Essays on Diversity in the Halakhah in Honor of Moshe Zemer. Ed. Walter Jacob Solomon B. Freehof Institute of Progressive Halakhah, Pittsburgh, 2004 Examined here is a minor, though not insignificant, genre of rabbinic literature, the puzzles or riddles to which the reader is invited to…...

Originally published in Proceedings of the Rabbinical Assembly of America, 23 (1969): 9-24.   Of all the different types of sermon the theological is undoubtedly the most neglected in the synagogue. One of the reasons for this neglect is the unfortunate notion that it is somehow un-Jewish to do theology at all, so that ‘Jewish…...