How do Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Judaism differ? Is caviar kosher? Who was Maimonides? What is current Jewish thought on Jesus, sex, abortion, feminism, and capital punishment? Spanning from biblical times to the present, The Jewish Religion offers a goldmine of information on Jewish belief and practice, wisdom and culture, history and tradition.
Sweeping in scope and based on impeccable scholarship, this volume's 750 alphabetical entries range from Aaron to Zweifel to illuminate virtually every facet of the Jewish heritage. For example, the book explains Halakhah and Aggadah, the...

This book attempts to uncover the basic form and structure of the Babylonian Talmud, a centrally important text in Jewish studies. The novel contribution made by Dr. Jacobs to the study of the Talmud consists in his concentration on the literary principles employed in its composition, and he presents a clear study 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.

'Remarkably well done, with profound scholarship but presented in a readable and absorbing manner.' Times Educational Supplement

Responsa are replies given by prominent rabbinic authorities to questions put to them by other scholars, asking for rulings on specific issues, generally of a practical nature. The responsa literature is thus a repository of the learning and sound sense of some of the greatest rabbinic authorities over a period of more than a thousand years down to the present, and relates to all the countries where Jews have lived. Although most of the emphasis in the responsa literature is undoubtedly on practice, nearly all the great compilations of responsa also contain discussions of a theological nature...

Jacobs conducts a thorough survey of some of the most important instances where the individual is discussed in the Jewish religious tradition.

This book attempts to uncover the basic form and structure of this important text in Jewish studies.

Now revised and expanded, Louis Jacobs's fascinating study shows how halakhic rulings through the ages have been influenced by social, economic, theological, and even political factors as well as by consideration of the wider ideals and demands of Judaism. Halakhic responses to changed social considerations, particularly regarding women and questions of personal status, new techologies and discoveries, and attitudes to non-Jews are all considered in depth.

More than forty years have passed since Louis Jacobs first put forward the argument that traditionally observant Jews have no reason to take issue with the results obtained by the historical critics in their investigation into the Bible and the other classical sources of Judaism. In his numerous works on Jewish theology and in lectures worldwide, Jacobs has argued that the traditional doctrine which claims that 'the Torah is from Heaven' can and should be maintained-provided that the word 'from' is understood in a non-fundamentalist way to denote that there is a human as well as a divine...