Originally published in the Jewish Monthly, 5:4 (1951), p. 248. Samson Raphael Hirsch’s Cultural Ideal and Our Times, by Jacob Rosenheim, translated from the German original by Dr. E. Lichtigeld (London: Shapiro Valentine & Co., 1951, pp. 71). This little book by the veteran leader of Western Orthodoxy, Jacob Rosenheim, is, as the author writes in his…...

Originally published in the Jewish Law Annual 12 (1997), p. 300. The Lithuanian Analytical School: Some recent works of the analytical school, dominant in the Lithuanian Yeshivot and in their contemporary successors, were noted in The Jewish Law Annual, Vol. X, p. 282 (Survey of Recent Literature, No. 1463). A number of other important works in this…...

Originally published in the Jewish Law Annual 12 (1997), pp. 299-300. Norman Solomon, The Analytic Movement, Hayyim Soloveitchik and his Circle, Altanta: Scholars Press, South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism No. 58, 1993, Pp. xvi, 268, ISBN 1-55540-764-1.—This book consists of the author’s Ph.D. dissertation (Manchester University), written over 30 years ago. Unfortunately, the work…...

Originally published in The Jewish Law Annual 2 (1976), p. 247. Charles Primus, Aqiva’s Contribution to the law of Zera’im, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1977, ISBN 90-04-04881-2, Pp. xv, 210, Price: Gld. 56.—Professor Primus here applies the form-critical methods of Mishnaic studies, pioneered by his teacher Professor Jacob Neusner, to the Mishnah of the order Zera’im, together…...

Originally published in The Jewish Law Annual 2 (1976), pp. 269-70. Eberhard Klingenberg: Das israelitische Zinsverbot in Torah, Misnah und Talmud, Mainz: Wiesbaden, 1977, Pp. 102, und Der Literatur, and Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1977, Pp. 102, Price: DM 25.—This is a competent, though rather brief, monograph in which the critical historical method is used to investigate…...

Originally published in the International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 8:1 (1977), p. 72. Your People, My People: The Meeting of Jews and Christians. A. Roy Eckhardt: Quadangle Books, 1974. pp. xiv. $8.95. Professor Eckhardt’s thesis, that there has been in Christianity from its inception a degree of theological antisemitism (he prefers the German word Judenfeindschaft…...

Originally published in the International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 7:2 (1976), 388-9. Antireligious Propaganda in the Soviet Union: A Study in Mass Persuasion. By David E. Powell. Cambridge, Mass.; MIT Press, 1975. Pp. X + 206. In this thoroughly researched and extremely well-documented study Dr. Powell examines the history of the efforts of the Communist…...

Originally published in The Heythrop Journal, 26:2 (1985), p. 235. Moses Maimonides’ Treatise on Resurrection. Translated and annotated by Fred Rosner. Pp.126, New York, Ktav, 1982, $12.50. Maimonides (1135-1204), the foremost Jewish theologian of the middle ages, drew up a list of 13 basic principles of the Jewish faith. While the other 12 are treated in…...

Originally published in Chayenu, 23:2 (1954), pp. 12-13. Jewish Leaders (1750-1940). Edited by Leo Jung. Bloch Publishing Company, New York, 5714-1953. pp. 564.  40/-. Reviewed by Rabbi Dr. L. Jacobs This handsomely produced volume is the sixth in the useful Jewish Library series, edited by Dr. Jung, dealing with the problems of Orthodox Judaism in the…...

Originally published in The Heythrop Journal, 26:2 (1985), pp. 235-6. Studies in Jewish Mysticism. Edited by Joseph Dan and Frank Talmage. Pp. x, 220, Cambridge (Mass.), Association for Jewish Studies, 1982, $25.00. It is notorious that the rationalistic bent of the majority of 19th-century Jewish scholars led them to dismiss Jewish mysticism as unworthy of scholarly…...

Originally published in The Times Literary Supplement 4337 (1986), p. 541. Masters and modernizers Louis Jacobs ABRAHAM J. HESCHEL The Circle of the Baal Shem Tov: Studies in Hasidism Edited by Samuel H. Dresner 213pp. University of Chicago Press. £23.75. 0 226 329607 RAPHAEL MAHLER Hasidism and the Jewish Enlightenment: Their confrontation in Galicia and Poland in the…...

Originally published in The Times Literary Supplement 5072 (2000), p. 37. Nicholas de Lange AN INTRODUCTION TO JUDAISM 247pp. Cambridge University Press. £37.50 (paperback, £13.95). 0 521 46073 5 This introduction to the ancient faith is unique in that, while dealing entirely adequately with the great classical ideas and literature, its focus throughout is on contemporary…...

Originally published in The Times Literary Supplement 4805 (1995), p. 12. How Hasidism began LOUIS JACOBS Moshe Idel, HASIDISM: Between ecstasy and magic. 1438pp. Albany: SUNY; distributed in the UK by Estover: Plymbridge. £60 (paperback, £20). 079I417336. Janet S. Belcove-Shalin, editor. NEW WORLD HASIDIM: Ethnographic studies of Hasidic Jews in America. 285pp. Albany: SUNY: distributed in…...

Originally published on 16th October 1970. INTRODUCTION TO THE LAWS OF ISRAEL IN THE PERIOD OF THE SECOND TEMPLE (Heb.). By Zeev W. Falk. DINE ISRAEL: An Annual of Jewish Law and Israeli Family Law. Vol. 1. By Z. W. Falk. Wahrmann, Jerusalem. Good halachists are not necessarily sound historians and many excellent Jewish historians are sadly…...

Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle, 10th September 1971, p. 41. UNDER THE MICROSCOPE The word “scientific” in the title refers to the fact that the practitioners of Juedische Wissenschaft represented, in the volume tried, in Huxley’s famous words, “to sit down before the facts like a little child” rather than be content with previous theories—however…...

Originally published in Chayenu 23.1 (1954), p. 14. The Great Sanhedrin – A Study of the Origin, Development, Composition and Functions of the Bet Din ha-Gadol during the Second Jewish Commonwealth. Sidney B. Hoenig, The Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning, Philadelphia, 1953. One of the questions with which religious Jews are today concerned, and…...

Originally published in JJSO 36:2 (1994), pp. 141-3. Norman Solomon, The Analytic Movement: Hayyim Soloveitchik and his Circle (University of South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism series), xv + 268pp., Scholars Press, Atlanta, Georgia, 1993, $64.95 ($44.95, paperback). There emerged in the latter half of the nineteenth century, chiefly under the influence of Rabbi Hayyim…...

Originally published in JJSO 35:2 (1993), pp. 154-6. Moshe Z. Sokol, ed., Rabbinic Authority and Personal Autonomy (the Orthodox Forum Series), xiv + 250 pp., Jason Aronson, Northvale, N.J., 1992, n.p. The two main questions to which this symposium addresses itself are: 1) whether the Halakhah, in the sense of rabbinic decision (pesak), is all-embracing—leaving no room…...

Originally published in JJSO 14:2 (1972), p. 259. Nathan Rotenstreich, Tradition and Reality, The Impact of History on Modem Jewish Thought, xii + 145 pp., Contemporary Jewish Civilization Series, Moshe Davis, ed., Random House, New York, 1972, $1.95. The word ‘History’ in the sub-title of this book does not refer to the story of the past but…...

Originally published in JJSO 27:2 (1985), pp. 149-51. Eliezer Schweid, The Land of Israel: National Home or Land of Destiny, translated from the Hebrew by Deborah Greniman, 225 pp., Associated University Presses, London and Toronto, 1985, £18.50. Eliezer Schweid, in this stimulating, closely argued book, examines attitudes towards Eretz Yisrael through four distinct periods. In the Biblical…...