Heretic Rabbi

The Jewish Daily Forward reran an article from 1999 about Louis Jacobs, a rabbi described as brilliant and a theologian in the UK. At some point he took an intellectual position that questioned the root of many Jewish traditions where they came from, why Jews do them and said in conclusion, these tradition come from Man, not G-d. Which caused him many problems, he was asked to leave his teaching position at university, was shunned, called an apikorus and continued his research and writing. Brilliant minds, however tormented, are consumed with their path toward truth and he continued writing. So I want to read his work, it was very interesting as it seems to have an oddly similar thread that muslims use to denigrate contemporary Judaism-that it is not the 'original' Torah we observe but a rewritten set of laws and traditions by rabbis and the original Torah is lost, but redefined by their so=called prophet who created Islam. That so called prophet was sent and is called the final prophet because, muslims believe he received visitations and messages from the angel Gabriel over a period of many years, for the purpose of correcting all the changes made in holy texts. This may sound like a hodge podge to some, but this small link explains for why there is a certain obstinancy in muslim beliefs, religious protectionism...and this extends even to their own collection of oral tradition, given over from those first close to their prophet, then those who were second tier, and so forth in terms of witnessing and hearing tales. But even the first oral tradition was not written down until it was clear the Quran and observance was being forgotten or changed as the original inner circle passed away. So 'hadiths' which might be comparable to Midrash for the sake of writing this, came at least 3 generations after the death of their prophet. Since there is such contempt and scorn for Jews arguing with G-d or disobeying Him in Quranic writing, it will be interesting to read what parallels Jacobs might bring up. Oh thee of shadowed faith and full of fear, this is questionable fodder for your already confused brain:-)