Originally published as Chapter 5 in Sarah Coakley, ed., Religion and the Body (Cambridge University Press, 1997), 71-89. In this chapter the relationship is examined between body and soul as expressed in three Jewish rituals – the sabbath rituals, the death and burial rites, and the priestly blessing – with a view to uncovering some…...

This article is an edited transcript of the Aryeh Dorfler Memorial Lecture given in 1970 at Leo Baeck College. It was originally published in European Judaism 6.1 (Winter 1971/72), pp. 44-49. The notion of ‘as if ‘ is known in modern philosophy chiefly through the work of Hans Vaihinger (1852-1933), whose theory is based on a…...

A. Time Value of Money Sales of ‘bonds’ are mentioned frequently in talmudic literature. In view of the biblical prohibition of usury, the only forms of debt that were traded were those of discounted bonds. The application of discounting of financial assets stems from loss of production opportunities although the law forbids borrowing and lending…...

Entry by Louis Jacobs in the Blackwell Companion to Jewish Culture: from the Eighteenth Century to the Present (Blackwell Publishing: 1990), 674-5. Schechter, Solomon (1847-1915) Scholar, theologian, and president of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Schechter was born in Fascani, Romania, where his father, a Habad Hasid, was a shohet (hence the family name)…....

Originally published in Fifteen Years of Catholic-Jewish Dialogue (Libreria Editrice Vaticana; Libreria Editrice Lateranense, 1988), 191-6. Republished in L. Jacobs. Judaism and Theology: Essays on the Jewish Religion (London; Portland, OR: Vallentine, Mitchell, 2005), 218-24.   If I understand my brief correctly it is to suggest some guidelines for the future, as these emerge from…...

A Sermon Preached at New London Synagogue in 1964 In a statement issued to the press (Jewish Chronicle, February 2nd, 1962) the Dayanim of the London Beth Din reject all higher criticism of the Bible and all textual criticism and they affirm their belief in verbal inspiration. What does this mean? It means that the…...

A series of six sermons delivered at the New West End Synagogue in the winter of 1955 The Significance of the Individual One of the momentous truths taught by Judaism is that the individual counts, that he matters to God, that what he does with his life is of eternal significance. And it is precisely…...

Originally published in Abraham J. Karp et al. (eds.), Threescore and Ten: Essays in honor of Rabbi Seymour J. Cohen on the occasion of his seventieth birthday (Hoboken, NJ: Ktav Publishing House, 1991) 133-41.   In the responsa collection Sha’ar Efrayim by Rabbi Ephraim b. Jacob ha-Kohen (1616-78) of Vilna [1] there are two interesting…...

Originally published in Modern Judaism 1.2 (Sept. 1981): 184-216. Republished in L. Jacobs, Judaism and Theology: Essays on the Jewish Religion (London; Portland, OR: Vallentine, Mitchell, 2005), 159-195.   Aryeh Laib Heller (d. 1813), [1] a pupil of R. Meshulam Igra of Pressburg, was rabbi of the Galician towns of Rozhnyatov and, from 1788 until…...

Originally published in Judaism, 17: 2 (Spring 1968), 197-202.   The problem of Divine providence was a major concern of the medieval Jewish thinkers. Maimonides (Guide, 3: 17-18) defends not only the doctrine of general providence (hashgahah kelalit) but also of special providence (hashgahah peratit), though he limits the latter to the human species and…...

Originally published in Modern Judaism 2: 3 (October 1982), 297-310. Republished in L. Jacobs, Judaism and theology: essays on the Jewish religion (London; Portland, OR: Vallentine, Mitchell, 2005), 144-158.   Religious individuals who believe in the efficacy of petitionary prayer and in blessings and curses, whatever their theological understanding of the phenomena, are faced with a…...

Originally published in The Month (June 1975)   From rabbinic times and onwards the standard Jewish prayer consisted of the series of praises and supplications known as the Eighteen Benedictions. The Mishnah (Berakhot 4: 4), compiled at the end of the second century, exonerates the Jew facing a crisis from reciting this lengthy prayer; advising…...

Originally published in Judaism, Winter 1967   A new, very promising, twice-yearly journal has appeared called Religious Studies, published by the Cambridge University Press (vol. I, number 1, October 1965; vol, 1, number 2, April 1966), and edited by Professor H. D. Lewis of Kings College, London University. The editor observes that nowadays the universities…...

Originally published in Judaism Today 1 (1995), 19-24. It is not generally appreciated that the hasidic movement in the 18th century, the period of its founder, the Ba’al Shem Tov, and his followers, was largely an elitist movement. It catered to small numbers of God-seekers who were anxious to pursue the ideal of devekut, a…...

Lecture given at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies on 18 June 1991, sponsored by the Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies and the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies When a new situation gives rise to a halakhic problem, the usual procedure in the responsa literature is to use analogy in order to discover a…...

Originally published in Judaism, Fall 1967   One of the most striking differences in religious thought between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is the marked contemporary interest in mystical religion. The Jews’ College Library in London, for example, assembled chiefly during the last century and one of the best collections of Jewish books in the…...

Entry in Blackwell Companion to Jewish Culture: from the Eighteenth Century to the Present (Blackwell Publishing: 1990), 402-3. Repr. in EMJC. vol. 1: 453. [Bibliography updated.] Rabbi, naturalistic theologian, and founder of the Reconstructionist movement. Kaplan was born in Svencianys, Lithuania, arriving with his family in the USA at the age of nine. He studied…...