"Judaism is often called the religion of reason. It is this, but it is also the religion of the soul. It recognises the value of that mystic insight, those indefinable intuitions which, taking up the task at the point where the mind impotently abandons it, carries us straight into the presence of the King."

Israel Abrahams was one of the most distinguished Jewish scholars of his time. In this volume he attempted to take up a few of the most characteristic points in Jewish doctrine and practice, and to explain the various phases through which they have passed, since the first centuries of the Christian era.

It is here followed by "Chapters on Jewish Literature", a work which has been compiled with the definite aim of providing an elementary manual designed for those who may wish to master some of the leading characteristics of the subject, without burdening themselves with too many details and dates.