Louis Jacobs

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Louis Jacobs CBE (July 17, 1920 - July 1, 2006) was the founder of Mascial (Conservative) Judaism in England, and a prominent writer and theologian. He also focused on what is known as "The Jacobs Affair" which took place in the British Jewish community in the early 1960s.

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Jacobs studied at Manchester Yeshivah, and later at the chelon at Gateshead. His teacher included leading Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler. Jacobs was ordained a rabbi in Manchester Yeshivah. Later in his career he studied at University College London where he earned his PhD on the topic of Business Life of the Jews in Babylon, 200-500 BC . Jacobs was appointed rabbi in Manchester Central synagogue in 1948. In 1954 he was appointed to the New West End Synagogue in London.

Jacobs became a Moral Tutor at the Jewish College, London, where he taught the Talmud and the homiletics during the last years of Dr. Rabi's tenure. Isidore Epstein as principal. By this time Jacobs had moved away from the traditional approach to Jewish theology that marked the years of its formation. Instead, he struggled to find a synthesis that would accommodate Orthodox Jewish theology and modern modern biblical criticism. Jacobs is deeply concerned by how to reconcile modern Orthodox Jewish faith with the Documentary Hypothesis. His ideas on the subject were published in the book, We Have Reason to Believe , in 1957. The book was originally written to record the essence of the discussions held on the subject of the title in the weekly class given by Jacobs in New West End Synagogue and became the subject at a time when some criticisms were light, but there was no great criticism.

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We Have Reasons to Believe

Most of Jacobs' books We Have Reason to Believe deals with topics such as evidence of God's existence, pain, miracles, life after death, and the idea of ​​'Selected Persons', ideas that are not is in it. itself controversial. The debate over the book ultimately centers on chapters 6, 7, and 8: The Torah and Modern Criticism, A Synthesis of Traditional and Critical Views and Bible Difficulties .

In these chapters Jacobs takes the discussion of the 'Modern Critic' of the Bible, more specifically the textual analysis of the Torah known as the 'Documentary Hypothesis', which shows that its texts come from various sources, rather than have been given, as Orthodox rabbinical traditions have it , complete in its present form by God to Moses during the period begins at Mount Sinai and ends with the death of Moses.

Jacobs commented: "While Judaism stands or falls on the belief in revelation, there is no 'official' interpretation in the way God speaks to man. He points out that "according to some rabbis, [Pentateuch] was given to Moses at intervals during a stopover in the Desert". But he also points out that with the arguments of textual criticism, "no Jewish apologetic work, however limited in scope, is capable of resisting evasive problems". Here is an implied rebuke of the tendency of many Jewish authorities of that time to cover only the inconvenience of the thinking of the "modern critics" - a reproach that may have plagued several people.

Jacobs concludes: "nothing can deter faithful Jews from accepting the principle of textual criticism". He realized that "to talk about the 'reconciliation' of Maimonidean ideas and the Documentary Hypothesis [...] is futile, for you can not reconcile two contradictory theories, but to say this is not to hinder the possibility of synthesis > between old knowledge and new knowledge ".

Jacobs gives many examples from the Talmud and from other rabbinic writings that show acceptance of the idea of ​​divine intervention in human affairs, with "God declares not to be alone to men but through man ". He concludes that, even if the Hypothesis Documentary is partially (or even entirely) true,

The strength of God does not diminish as He prefers to cooperate with His creatures in producing Books [...] We hear the authentic voice of God speaking to us through the pages of the Bible [...] and his message is not at all affected that we can only hear the voice through human medium.

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The "Jacobs Affair"

It has been widely assumed that after retiring Epstein as the headmaster of the Jewish College he will be replaced by Jacobs. When this assumption was translated into a definite invitation by the College's Supervisory Board in 1961, then the Rabbi Chief of the British Empire, Israel Brodie, forbade the appointment "because of his published views [Jacobs]". This is a reference to We Have a Reason to Believe .

The British newspaper, The Jewish Chronicle, raised the issue and turned it into cause cà © lÃÆ'¨bre reported in the national press, including The Kali . Past

... an event that threatens to become the largest split in the history of the Anglo-Jewish. Events in 1964 later known as "The Jacobs Affair" not only dominate the Jewish media but also the entire Fleet Street and news spaces from the BBC and ITN. Not that Jacobs himself was a participant who was willing to deal with it. He was dragged into it by the religious stand of the day.

When Jacobs wanted to return to his pulpit at the New West End Synagogue, Brodie vetoed his appointment. Some members later left the New West Synagogue to find the New London Synagogue.

Public interest in the difference Dr. Jacobs with an Anglo-Jewish establishment was also shown by a television interview. Jacobs of 1966 by Bernard Levin.

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The New London Synagogue

The defective church bought the synagogue St. Old John's Wood, and installed Jacobs as his rabbi - a post he held until 2000 and where he returned in 2005. The Church, The New London Synagogue, became the "parent" of the Masorti Movement in the United Kingdom, which now numbered a number of hearings.

While holding the rabbinical position at the New London Synagogue, Dr. Jacobs also for many years Lecturer at Talmud and Zohar at Leo Baeck College, a rabbinical college that prepares students to serve as Masorti, Reformation, and Liberal rabbis in England and Europe. Rabbi Jacobs served as Chairman of the Academic Committee for several years.

Since the founding of the New London Synagogue, Jacobs and the Masorti movement have been subjected to hostility from the Orthodox Jewish British institution. On his 83rd birthday, at Bournemouth United Synagogue on the Sabbath before his grandson's marriage, Jacobs was not given the honor as aliyah normally given to the bride's father, which led to a heated correspondence in the Jewish press including accusations of pettiness and revenge. The chief rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, and the head of Beth Din London, Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu, replied that, because of what they perceive as Jacobs false belief, "they believe that Jacobs has spoken the words' Our God [...] give us the Torah of truth [...] ', he will make a false statement.

In December 2005, a poll by The Jewish Chronicle of its customers, in which 2,000 readers made their nominations, voted Jacobs "Britain's greatest Jew" in the 350-year history of the UK community. Jacobs commented, "I feel very honored - and rather stupid." Nevertheless, reports that Louis Jacobs has been nominated as the largest British Jew, received widespread press coverage in Britain.

A few months before he died, Jacobs donated his collection of books to the Leopold Muller Memorial Library at the Oxford Center for Jewish and Jewish Studies.

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Witness for Chabad-Lubavitch

Jacobs testified on behalf of the Chabad Lubavitch movement during the Chabad library controversy. As a recognized scholar in Chasidism, Jacobs was called as an expert witness to testify about Chabad's "ma'amad" (support) practice, the method used by members of the Chabad community to support their Rebbe.

Jacobs testified that "[ma'mad] is because, where every member of the movement is expected to assume himself responsible, and... there is an amount according to the means by which each member pays or is expected to pay the best compared to the membership fee of the educated society or sacred society, and the dues are expected to be [a] sign of membership. "Jacobs notes that other Chasidic groups endorse their Rebbes with a gift known as pidyon nebes or" pidyon nefesh "personally delivered to a rebel. Pidyon is understood by Jacobs as "a personal gift, because... for a given [spiritual] service."

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Preferred publication

• Jewish Prayer
• We Have Reasons to Believe (1957, revised edition in 1961 and 1965)
• Jewish Value
• Today's Jewish Thought (Traditional Chain Series, Vol 3)
• Study in Talmudic Logic (and Methodology) (1961)
• The Jewish Faith Principle (Analytical Study) (1964)
• Jewish Theology
• Jewish Ethics, Philosophy and Mysticism
• Tract on Ecstasy
• Hasidic Prayer
• The Jewish Mystics (1990)
• The Book of Jewish Beliefs
• Faith (1968)
• What does Judaism say about...? ( The New York Times Jewish Knowledge Library)
• Judaism: A Companion , (1995), Oxford University Press, ISBNÃ, 0-19-826463-1
• Turned Beyond Evil and Do a Good: An Introduction and Way to the Tree of Life , (1995), Littman Library of Jewish Civilizations, ISBN 1-874774-10-2 (c); ISBNÃ, 978-1-874774-11-2 (p) (author of Zevi Hirsch Eichenstein, translation by Louis Jacobs).

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Louis Jacobs online

Two websites exist with information about Jacobs writing and thought, and to provide a forum for discussion of his ideas:

• Rabbi Louis Jacobs
• Read Rabbi Jacobs

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Note

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Source

• Jacobs, Louis. Assist With Questions (autobiography) (1989) ISBNÃ, 0-85303-231-9
• Jacobs, Louis. We have Reasons to Believe (3rd ed.). Valentine, Mitchell: London (1965)
• Obituaries (see below)

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Further reading

• Elliot J. Cosgrove (2008), " Teyku : The Insoluble Contradiction in Life and Louis Jacobs Thought", volume 1, volume 2, PhD Thesis, University of Chicago.
• Raymond Apple Kovno & amp; Oxford: Israel Brodie & amp; rabbinical career

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External links

• Obituary The Times , 4 July 2006
• Obituary The Guardian , 5 July 2006
• Obituary The Forward (New York), July 7, 2006
• Obituary The Independent , 11 July 2006
• Obituary The Daily Telegraph , 15 July 2006
• Death and tribute news, New London Synagogue

Source of the article : Wikipedia