Louis Jacobs – författare

This is a unique, personal testimony and companion to the Jewish religion, in which the reader will find a wealth of information on just about every aspect of Jewish belief and practice, both ancient and modern - from personalities in the Bible to Jewish thinkers and writers of the present day, customs, traditions, and Jewish ideas on subjects as diverse as dance, vegetarianism, and eternity. The book offers a riveting and invaluable repository of information for anyone, both Jew and non-Jew, wanting to learn more about the incredibly rich and diverse heritage of the Jewish religion.

The aim of this study is to demonstrate that, for all the admitted emphasis on peoplehood in the Jewish religious tradition, there are equally strong individualistic tendencies within Judaism which should not be confined to the sidelines. Dr Jacobs maintains that - in any balanced view of Judaism - it needs to be shown that what the individual does with his life has eternal significance for that same individual, not only for the Jewish people as a whole. Through a careful analysis of the primary texts, Jacobs conducts a thorough survey of some of the most important instances where the individual is discussed in the Jewish religious tradition. In so doing, his aim is not to elevate individualism at the expense of the Jewish community, but rather to show that Judaism pivots centrally neither on the people nor on the individual, but rests, rather, on both: his contention, finally, is that each needs to be taken equally into account if a balanced opinion of both is to be formed.

This book attempts to uncover the basic form and structure of the Babylonian Talmud, which is a centrally important text in Jewish studies. The contribution made by Dr Jacobs to the study of the Talmud consists in his presentation of the literary principles employed in its composition, and he here presents a clear survey indicating the manner in which earlier material was reworked in order to make each component, or sugya, into a carefully structured and self-consistent unit. Jacobs compares the editors' methods in this regard with the manner in which Shakespeare converted the variety of chronicles and source material available to him into a much more dramatic literary form, which - while preserving the kernel of the story - completely transformed its character and impact. Dr Jacobs' study constitutes an excellent introduction to the Babylonian Talmud and to the nature of rabbinic thinking.

This book, the only one in English that can serve as a textbook for beginners and more advanced students of the Babylonian Talmud, examines in detail a number of typical lengthy passages with a view to showing how Talmudic reasoning operates and how the Talmud was compiled by its final editors. The book serves as an introduction to the nature of this fascinating work on which the Jewish mind has been intellectually stimulated and nourished for over 1500 years. Original insights into the Talmudic debates are provided for the consideration of Talmudic experts but the work is intended chiefly as a guide to students who wish to obtain a more than superficial idea of what the Talmud really is about.

This book attempts to uncover the basic form and structure of the Babylonian Talmud, which is a centrally important text in Jewish studies. The contribution made by Dr Jacobs to the study of the Talmud consists in his presentation of the literary principles employed in its composition, and he here presents a clear survey indicating the manner in which earlier material was reworked in order to make each component, or sugya, into a carefully structured and self-consistent unit. Jacobs compares the editors' methods in this regard with the manner in which Shakespeare converted the variety of chronicles and source material available to him into a much more dramatic literary form, which - while preserving the kernel of the story - completely transformed its character and impact. Dr Jacobs' study constitutes an excellent introduction to the Babylonian Talmud and to the nature of rabbinic thinking.

The aim of this study is to demonstrate that, for all the admitted emphasis on peoplehood in the Jewish religious tradition, there are equally strong individualistic tendencies within Judaism which should not be confined to the sidelines. Dr Jacobs maintains that - in any balanced view of Judaism - it needs to be shown that what the individual does with his life has eternal significance for that same individual, not only for the Jewish people as a whole. Through a careful analysis of the primary texts, Jacobs conducts a thorough survey of some of the most important instances where the individual is discussed in the Jewish religious tradition. In so doing, his aim is not to elevate individualism at the expense of the Jewish community, but rather to show that Judaism pivots centrally neither on the people nor on the individual, but rests, rather, on both: his contention, finally, is that each needs to be taken equally into account if a balanced opinion of both is to be formed.

Winner of the Colbert Award for the best adult book about dinosaurs Louis Jacobs reopened paleontologists' eyes to the African continent when he uncovered a major fossil site in the hills of Malawi in the 1980s. During five digging seasons in Malawi and three in Cameroon, Jacobs found the remains of two meat-eating theropods, two herbivorous sauropods, an odd crocodile about the size of a Chihuahua, and rare early mammals. Now in paperback, Quest for the African Dinosaurs includes Jacobs' new introduction, which discusses recent developments in paleontological research in Africa.

From its very beginnings in the eighteenth century, the Hasidic movement was suffused with a joyous enthusiasm and optimism derived from the notion of God being in all things. This led to an insistence on joy as an essential element in divine worship, and in consequence a distinctive attitude to prayer.This classic work, presented here with a new introduction, is a study of the attitudes of the hasidic rebbes to prayer. Louis Jacobs bases himself principally on the works compiled by rebbes themselves and records preserved by their disciples. Copious quotations from these writings form a sound basis for his masterly analysis—unsurpassed since it was first published in 1972 — and enable the reader to gain a familiarity with Hasidic thought on the subject of divine worship at first hand.

This study of the Jewish legal system (the Halakhah) demonstrates that the law embraces every corner of life.

More than forty yearshave passed since Louis Jacobs first put forward the argument thattraditionally observant Jews have no reason to take issue with the resultsobtained by the historical critics in their investigation into the Bible andthe other classical sources of Judaism. In his numerous works on Jewishtheology and in lectures worldwide, Jacobs has argued that the traditionaldoctrine which claims that ‘the Torah is from Heaven’ can and should bemaintained — provided that the word ‘from’ is understood in a non-fundamentalistway to denote that there is a human as well as a divine element in the Torah:God revealing His will not only to but through the Jewish people in theirhistorical experiences as they reached out to Him.Asa result of these views, which were first published in the still-controversialtext We Have Reason to Believe, theAnglo-Jewish Orthodox hierarchy banned Jacobs from serving as an Orthodoxrabbi. This was the cause of the notorious ‘Jacobs affair’, which culminated inthe creation of the New London Synagogue and, eventually, in the establishmentof the Masorti movement in the UK with strong affinities with ConservativeJudaism in the United States.In this book, LouisJacobs examines afresh all the issues involved. He does so objectively but withpassion, meeting the objections put forward by critics from the various trendswithin the Jewish world, both Orthodox and Reform, and inviting readers tofollow the argument and make up their own minds.