Beyond Reasonable Doubt

by Louis Jacobs

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 element in the God revealing His will not only to but through the Jewish people in their historical experiences as they reached out to Him.

As a result of these views, which were first published in the still-controversial text We Have Reason to Believe, the Anglo-Jewish Orthodox hierarchy banned Jacobs from serving as an Orthodox rabbi. This was the cause of the notorious ‘Jacobs affair’, which culminated in the creation of the New London Synagogue and, eventually, in the establishment of the Masorti movement in the UK with strong affinities with Conservative Judaism in the United States.

In this book, Louis Jacobs examines afresh all the issues involved. He does so objectively but with passion, meeting the objections put forward by critics from the various trends within the Jewish world, both Orthodox and Reform, and inviting readers to follow the argument and make up their own minds.

Genres: Jewish, Theology

278 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1999

About the author

Louis Jacobs was the founder of Masorti Judaism (also known as Conservative Judaism) in the United Kingdom, and a leading writer and theologian. He was also the focus of what has become known as "The Jacobs Affair" that took place in the British Jewish community in the early 1960s.

Reviews

[Steve Gross · Rating 3 out of 5]

A kind of sequel to We Have Reason to Believe, 40 years later. While Jacobs was undoubtedly a pioneer in modern Jewish rationalism, he falls into his own trap of fundamentalism. At one point, he rages that the Documentary Hypothesis is science; no, it's not. While it might be clever and compelling and even right, it's literary theory and there is not a shred of proof that it is true. Those interested in a counter should read Joshua Berman's Ani Maamin.