So what is this book all about? According to its description
on Amazon:
In an age of challenge to
tradition, this work illuminates the essential humanity of halacha (Jewish
law), which has guided the Jewish people through the ages. Drawing on classical
talmudic, midrashic, and rabbinic sources, Dayan Lew ably demonstrates the
religious, ethical, and spiritual motivations behind halachic decisions
affecting all aspects of life and behavior, proving anew that the genius,
spirit, and sensitivity that underlie the Jewish legal system advance the human
condition and remain relevant for all times.
When this book was published, the Chief Rabbi was Immanuel
Jakobovits and the 1980s were a tough time for Jewish orthodoxy in the United
Kingdom. Judaism was being attacked from the inside as being antiquated, old-fashioned and insensitive to the
needs of the modern era. Lord Jakobovitz lamented that the only good and
accessible books on the Jewish religion that were written there were penned by
non-Jewish scholars like R. Travers Herford. Against that, in the years before Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
emerged as an outstanding, cogent and productive author, the only outstanding book on Judaism from the domestic rabbinate was the brilliant but heretical We Have Reason to Believe by Louis
Jacobs. Dayan Lew’s The Humanity of Jewish Law was the second title to
answer the Chief Rabbi’s call for good and accessible English-language books by
rabbis, following Rabbi Shlomo P. Toperoff’s Lev Avot.
The Humanity of Jewish Law is part of the Marvin N.
Hirschhorn collection, housed in our Beith Midrash.
