Rebel Rabbi England's Top Jew Of All Time

The UPI reports:

Jews in Britain have voted a controversial 85-year-old rabbi from Manchester as the greatest member of their community.

The winner in the poll by The Jewish Chronicle was Louis Jacobs, a ground-breaking Jewish thinker noted for his attempt to reconcile modern scholarship and Orthodox teachings, reports the Independent newspaper.

He won over other illustrious British Jews including Harold Pinter, Isaiah Berlin and Benjamin Disraeli. His victory was heralded as a "stinging rebuke to fundamentalism," which could upset some in the Orthodox establishment.

The polling was done to celebrate next year's 350th anniversary of the readmission of Jews to England by Oliver Cromwell, the report said.

Jacobs said: "I feel both embarrassed and daft. I am overwhelmed and feel totally unworthy."

In the 1960s and 1970s, Jacobs' attempt to combine traditional theology with biblical criticism led to his leaving the United Synagogue and in the rise of the more liberal Masorti Judaism in Britain.

Comments

[Flakfire]

Louis Jacobs was on line to becoming principal of Jew's College. And from there to become British Chief Rabbi. Had he become so, he would have taken 1/2 of Anglo-Jewry down the path of the Masorti kefirah. Fortunately his heresies in his book "We Have Reason to Believe" were spotted, and his rise to the leadership of Anglo-Orthodoxy was thwarted. Instead Jakobovits of the 5th Avenue Synagogue became Chief Rabbi in 1967.

[Shmarya]

Of course, his "heresies" happen to be factually true, and your "yiddishkeit" untrue. But why quibble over truth …

[ea]

who is this piece of dung

[rebeljew]

A British Slifkin?

See the debate on this issue in the comments on bloghead's posting:

http://bloghd.blogspot.com/2005/12/british-jewrys-greatest-ever-jew-rabbi.html

Flakfire: Another version of your snide comments might read:
"Had the Anglo-Jewish Orthodox Establishment of the time not mercilessly persecuted him for views that were widely held by many other Orthodox rabbis then (and probably now, but in secret), he would have made even greater contributions to Jewish law and scholarship than he has already done, but would not have been 'frozen' in his views due to the trauma of his ostracization."

The fact that he was voted into this position - and the JC reports that he had twice as many votes as the next 'candidate' - speaks volumes. The Jacobs affair split anglo-Jewry down the middle, destroyed Jews College, and very gravely affected the reputation of Orthodoxy. CR Jakobovits restored it to a degree; CR Sacks, insted of being understood by the CHareidim as their best public advocate for Orthodoxy in generations and greatest Orthodox philosopher ever produced in the UK, is having similar problems to other Modern orthodox figures around the world.

I normally wouldn't give the disgraceful "ea" the time of day, but as CHeif Rabbi Brodie z'l pointed out to the GAteshead Rabbonim at the height of the Jacobs Affair "he comes from you, not from us". Louis Jacobs was one of the early members of the Gateshead Kollel.

[Flakfire]

At least Sacks hasn't publicly come out that he doesn't believe in Rambam's 8th Principle. Jacobs did, in writing. That made him popular with many. But it at least enabled a birur to take place and for him and his devotees to be sloughed of the corpus of the ma'aminim Orthodox world (ie those who do believe in the 8th and other 12). Good for Brodie! Jacobs was actually on the Manchester Beis Din. Just proves what Rav Nachman said: "There are men with big beards, who will be shown in Olam Habo to be complete kofers!".

[martin]

This was a completely unscientific poll.Only 2000 respondants. To put Louis Jacobs above Sir Moses Montifiore, or Chief Rabbi Dr.Hertz, let alone a slew of others, shows how ridiculous this is. I'm guessing it was skewed by activists and ignoramuses.

[martin]

It did not destroy Jews College( the growth of the Yeshiva movement, especially in Israel) did, or split Anglo Jewry. If it did, his Masorti movement would have been significant. It isn't, with only a handful of synagogues.

[Shmarya]

Flackfire write: "At least Sacks hasn't publicly come out that he doesn't believe in Rambam's 8th Principle. Jacobs did, in writing. That made him popular with many. But it at least enabled a birur to take place and for him and his devotees to be sloughed of the corpus of the ma'aminim Orthodox world (ie those who do believe in the 8th and other 12). Good for Brodie! Jacobs was actually on the Manchester Beis Din. Just proves what Rav Nachman said: "There are men with big beards, who will be shown in Olam Habo to be complete kofers!"."

8. I believe with perfect faith that the entire Torah that we now have is that which was given to Moses.

The list of Rishonim both pre and post-Rambam who did not take this literally is quite large and includes Yehuda HeHasid and his school, Ibn Ezra and others. Marc Shapiro proves in his book on rambam's principles that Rambam himself did not believe this.

In fact, many Modern Orthodox rabbis today do not take this principle literally.

Perhaps it would be instructive to view it in the context it was written – under heavy Islamic challenges to the accuracy of the Torah text. These challenges were very successful and led Jews to convert. The Rambam is responding to this here.

[Flakfire]

In publicly accepting Biblical Criticism's idea of the Pentateuch being a composite work from the time of Ezra, and even later, Louis put himself beyond the pale of even the most "moderate modern" of Anglo-Moderdox like Jeremy Rosen
http://www.jeremyrosen.com/

And Louis' subsequent mitzva observance has needless to say been in relentless decline since 1962, so that he is now openly mechalel, without any shame.

[Neo-Conservaguy]

First we have this comment:

"his Masorti movement would have been significant. It isn't, with only a handful of synagogues."

Then we have this comment:

"And Louis' subsequent mitzva observance has needless to say been in relentless decline since 1962, so that he is now openly mechalel, without any shame."

Can we be so blind as to not see the negative impact that driving R. Jacobs out of the wings of Orthodoxy may have created? Disaffected Jews don't necessarily "move down" to Masoti/Conservative/Reform movements; many seem to have dropped out entirely! When the right-wing Orthodox rabbis took a stand against R. Jacobs' critical thinking by putting a proverbial gun to his head, they didn't understand that when they pulled the trigger, it may have been homicidal to the faith of many Jews in addition to the career (and faith?) of R. Jacobs.

BTW, exactly how did Rambam's writings get so badly distorted over time? Verbatim belief in Rambam's 8th Principle would seem to require that one literally hide from the strong implications of the redaction of Torah as we currently have it.

The core belief of Orthodoxy is that one accepts that the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai to the Jewish people through Moses was an event that occurred in actual historical reality. And also that "whoever say that even one letter of the Torah is not from Heaven has no share in Olam Habo" (Sanhedrin Perek 11). That as a result a "gun" was put to Louis' head and the trigger pulled, and that many dropped out entirely is subordinate to that uncompromisable belief. There is also the concept of "birur" ie that throught history the faithless elements among the Jews fail tests of emunah and are thereby sloughed off the Am Yisroel in each generation as part of some vast historical tikkun!

[Shmarya]

You just wrote out dozens of Rishonim from 'authentic' Judaism. Clearly, the idea that "a little knowlege is a dangerous thing" allples to you.

[martin]

Neo-Conservaguy( I hope that's a political label and not a religious one!)

The Jacobs affair had no significant impact on the religiousity of anybody( maybe a few tiny exceptions). The late 50's and early 60s were of time of mass defection from Jewish practice in England. It had more to do with the general secularization of society and the general geographical movement of many from traditional communities into the leafier suburbs, etc.
I will repeat, if Jacobs had had anything worthwile to say his movement would have flourished. It didn't. With the resurgance of Orthodoxy in England, Masorti is still struggling.Evicting Louis Jacobs, and I bow to his intellectualism, was correct.
To say that he was the most important Jew in 350 years, as I stated above, is hilariously foolish.

What some Rishonim say is light years from Louis' slavish following of the anti-semitic German Bible Critics Graff and Wellhausen J,P, E, and D "documentary theory" that the Pentateuch is a man-made hodge-podge from the time of Ezra, cobbled together 800 years after the Exodus!
If this by neo-Jacobite Elliot Cosgrove
http://www.ansheemet.org/AboutUs/Sermons/RabbiCosgrovePreShavout.htm
is an example of current Conservative-Masorti thinking, then little wonder they're in terminal decline!

[Neo-Conservaguy]

In the comments pointed to by the link provided above, Rabbi Cosgrove wrote: "With very few exceptions, British Jews find themselves caught between the switches of an Orthodoxy lacking intellectual rigor and a liberal Judaism lacking spiritual vigor."

As my teacher has said to me on several occasions, (paraphrased) "Over the past few decades I watched the dichotomy of madness develop between the movements with few interested in finding the true radical center". Rabbi Jacobs was correct, and so is my teacher. The Conservative movement didn't quite make it - they got derailed by the too liberal RA. The true "middle" movement has just recently started, and will probably be composed of the more serious minority of the Conservative movement and the increasing number of fall outs from "Modern Orthodoxy". I don't think it will have the numbers of the right or left, but I think it will be an intense middle ground, with shomer Shabbath, shomer (rational) kashruth, and some form of egalitarian davening (perhaps multiple versions with/without separation seating).

[martin]

Maoz Tzur's melody can be traced back to the 15th century. Though there is a slight difference of opinion amongst leading Jewish musicologists, the consensus is that the musical origins of this Hanukkah song is from German folk songs dating from the 15th and 16th centuries. Evolving in sections, the final one was linked with a popular German song, made famous in a musical setting in approximately 1560. It is interesting to note that while the music of our people has, throughout the centuries, been influenced by the music of the communities in which we lived, the same can be said for some of the Church music composed during this period. It has been documented that the same German folk songs that evolved into our Maoz Tzur can be found in Protestant chorales. Both Martin Luther, one of the 16th century's first Protestant reformers, and the great German Baroque composer, Johann Sebastian Bach, wrote four-part chorales based on these same tunes.

When the Baal Hatanya heard the French troops in 1812 coming over the horizon playing the joyous "Napoleon March", he exclaimed "That is a song of Dedan Netzach! I will elevate it out of the hands of the klippos!". Since then Lubavitchers sing the Napoleon March at the end of Yom Kippur. Now that we've elevated the German volkisch songs in Maoz Tzur, all that remains is to do is a final birur on klippas Amolek, and suborn the stirring "Hitler Marsch" or "Horst Wessel Lied" over to kedushah!

Actually, even an apikores like Louis serves a function! It was his testimony in court some years ago that enabled Chabad to get their books back!
http://ledavid.com/deot/viewtopic.php?t=1104

[MICHAEL MILSTON]

APIKORESES DO NOT WIN CONTESTS LIKE THE GREATEST BRITISH JEW OF ALL TIME. AM YISRAEL WHETHER IT BE BRITISH OR NOT ARE BETTER JUDGES THAN SOME OF THESE SICKO BLOGGERS.