Judaism
Many prominent rabbis have described the Harry Potter books as, in the words of one, "a force for good". In 2005, a conference at the University of Reading debated whether Harry Potter had "a yiddishe neshama", or Jewish soul. Sir Jonathan Sacks, the chief rabbi of the Commonwealth of Nations, claims that, in "a society in which adolescents are precociously adult, and adults are permanently adolescent", Harry Potter has "reclaimed the kingdom of childhood, proving that you don’t have to betray to enchant".
The decision to release the final volume of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, in Israel at 2 AM on a Saturday morning briefly angered many of Israel's rabbis, since it fell during the Jewish Sabbath, a time when business dealings are forbidden.
Read more about this topic: Religious Debates Over The Harry Potter Series
Famous quotes containing the word judaism:
“Christianity is the religion of melancholy and hypochondria. Islam, on the other hand, promotes apathy, and Judaism instills its adherents with a certain choleric vehemence, the heathen Greeks may well be called happy optimists.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)