Louis Jacobs.

The Reluctant Renegade

Since its founding, Conservative Judaism in the U.S. has defined itself in sharp contrast to Reform, pursuing a more religiously centrist and Zionist middle course. Its UK parallel, Masorti ("traditional") Judaism, was born as a secession movement from Orthodoxy—inspired by theologian Louis Jacobs.

Between Maimonides and Jacobs  Neil Gillman,  Conservative Judaism.  No other contemporary theologian has explored the issue of revelation as thoroughly or systematically.  SAVE

Ask the Rabbi  louisjacobs.org.  In the last year of his life, Jacobs answers questions on law, community, and fundamentalism with his characteristic humor and humanity. (Video; 2006)  SAVE

Against Capitulation  Michael Harris,  Jewish Quarterly.  From a modern Orthodox perspective, it is Jacobs himself who fails adequately to respond to the challenge of biblical criticism.  SAVE

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Mosaic, St Mark's Basilica (Venice).

Seeking Solomon

For traditionalists, the biography of King Solomon is enshrined in the Bible, in the narrative accounts in the books of Kings and Chronicles. The son of King David, who spent his career battling Israel's enemies, Solomon is depicted as ushering in an era of peace and prosperity. Yet the Bible also relates that Solomon took numerous foreign wives and concubines—one thousand in total—who led him to worship foreign gods and build shrines for their service.

Kings of Controversy  Robert Draper,  National Geographic.  Was the Jerusalem of David and Solomon a little cow town, or the capital of a glorious empire?  SAVE

Solomon: the Symphony  Eric Herschthal,  Jewish Week.  In a work scored for three keyboards, four percussionists, electric guitar, bass, and five vocalists, a young American composer explores the biblical king's search for divine wisdom.  SAVE

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M'gilat Esther, Persia, 18th century.

Purim Puzzles

Purim, Judaism's strangest holiday (which this year falls on March 20), is prescribed by what may be the strangest book in the Hebrew Bible, the scroll (m'gilah) of Esther. Two public readings of the book, one at night and the other in the morning, tell a story of Persian palace intrigue in the fifth century B.C.E., a recitation accompanied by the holiday's decidedly unspiritual noisemaking, tippling, and masquerade.

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Englishing the Hebrew Bible

All translators of the Hebrew Bible into English work in the shadow of the genius of the King James Version (KJV), done in the 17th century and still in wide use today despite its thee's and thou's.  Jewish translations, following the sequence and other features of the Hebrew Bible, and guided by rabbinic understandings, have been brought out by the Jewish Publication Society (JPS) and others.

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