Best known as an expert on Judaism’s complex ritual purity laws, a U.S. karate champion and Israel’s first – and for many years, only – American-born prison chaplain, Rabbi Fishel Jacobs doesn’t exactly strike the image of a children’s book author. But for the man who has written everything from in-depth treatments of Jewish law to a chronicle of transformation among Israeli prisoners, his latest book – an illustrated tale of a child’s conflicting impulses – is an accomplishment 30 years in the making.
Children’s Book Rooted in Thousands Years-Old Parable
Best known as an expert on Judaism’s complex ritual purity laws, a U.S. karate champion and Israel’s first – and for many years, only – American-born prison chaplain, Rabbi Fishel Jacobs doesn’t exactly strike the image of a children’s book author. But for the man who has written everything from in-depth treatments of Jewish law to a chronicle of transformation among Israeli prisoners, his latest book – an illustrated tale of a child’s conflicting impulses – is an accomplishment 30 years in the making.
Launched last month, Two Kings actually draws on material dating back approximately 3,000 years. Inspired by a parable penned by King Solomon in Ecclesiastes and expounded on by Chabad-Lubavitch Chasidic thought, the book series illustrates a moral battle between one’s “good king,” or good inclination, and his “bad king,” or evil inclination.
But while the subject matter is ancient, the idea of exploring the conflict through the medium of a children’s book came to Jacobs in the summer of 1979. Having just graduated from the University of Vermont, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in comparative religion and Jewish history, Jacobs decided to fully immerse himself in the study of Judaism at a yeshiva in the central Israeli village of Kfar Chabad.
The director of a Chabad-Lubavitch summer camp in Safed, however, had other ideas for Jacobs when he learned of the karate champion learning in a yeshiva just two-and-a-half hours away. But Jacobs needed some convincing before he would agree to become the camp’s sports director: While he wanted no part in what he considered a diversion from his studies, Jacobs finally agreed when the camp director mentioned that the camp served underprivileged kids.
Advice from Jacobs’ religious mentor sealed the deal: “If you have [a talent], use it.”
Rabbi Fishel Jacobs
B“H
Thank you Crown Heights.info for posting this article about Two Kings.
I’d like to thank everyone who’s written to say how much they appreciate this new series. We feel it is a shlichus, as the concept is based in Kohelet, but expresses the central theme of Tanya (Chapter 9 etc.). Specifically, the idea of two inclinations, yetzer tov and yetzer hara.
We’re encouraging ana”sh to get this while first printing is still available. First printing is almost finished.
Blessings.
MushP
go uncle Fish!
You are the Fish…