During the revolt against Hadrian an Assembly of Rabbis was held at Lydda. It was then decided that a Jew must yield his life rather than accept safety from a Roman power, if such conformity involved one of the three offences: idolatry, murder, and unchastity (including incest and adultery). -from "Articles of Faith" One of the most prominent Jewish intellectuals of the turn of the 20th century elucidates, in this succinct 1910 work, some of the distinguishing elements of Jewish practice and doctrine. A devout Jew himself, Abrahams brings a passion and an intensity to his writing not always found in works of religious scholarship, from his defense of mysticism to his penetrating discussion of the internal conflicts that threaten the faith's future. This is an excellent introduction to an often-misunderstood theology and culture. British scholar ISRAEL ABRAHAMS (1858-1925) was a reader of rabbinic literature at Cambridge. He also wrote Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (1896) and Chapters on Jewish Literature (1899).