Rabbinical Mathematics and Astronomy

Abstract

WESTERN civilisation is largely based upon three influences emanating from Mediterranean shores—Hebrew, Greek, and Roman. While the legacy of Rome and the legacy of Greece have been gaining in appreciation in Western literature and thought, there has been a tendency to belittle the Hebraic influences. Things Jewish are almost always subject to exaggeration. There is a prevalent tendency (practically non-existent, however, in Great Britain) to attribute to Jewry the blame for every evil for which a more convenient scapegoat cannot be found, and this sometimes produces, in return, an exaggerated estimate of Jewish virtue and genius. Much that is written about Jews is either accusation or apology, a fact that has to be borne in mind in connexion with a publication like that which forms the basis of the present notice. Anybody writing about rabbinical science is tempted either to find merit where it does not exist or to overlook it where it does exist.

Rabbinical Mathematics and Astronomy.

By Dr. W. M. Feldman. Pp. xviii + 232. (London: M. L. Cailingold, 1931.) 10s. net.