Jeffrey S. Sposato
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195149746
- eISBN:
- 9780199870783
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195149746.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter explores Felix Mendelssohn's collaboration with the critic and composer Adolf Bernhard Marx. Mendelssohn agreed in 1832 to write a libretto for Marx's oratorio Mose (first performed in ...
More
This chapter explores Felix Mendelssohn's collaboration with the critic and composer Adolf Bernhard Marx. Mendelssohn agreed in 1832 to write a libretto for Marx's oratorio Mose (first performed in 1841, with a different libretto). Marx rejected the libretto that Mendelssohn provided, for an oratorio Mendelssohn called Moses, ending their collaboration and friendship. This chapter suggests that Marx's actions stemmed from his discomfort with the anti-Semitism in Mendelssohn's libretto. Because of his famous Jewish grandfather, the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn felt the need to distance himself from Judaism in his works, and included anti-Semitic content in the Mose libretto. Mendelssohn's libretto also deployed the Old Testament story of Moses in a Christological manner, using it to remind the listener of New Testament events, and followed the anti-Semitic tradition of oratorio composers Carl Loewe and Louis Spohr.Less
This chapter explores Felix Mendelssohn's collaboration with the critic and composer Adolf Bernhard Marx. Mendelssohn agreed in 1832 to write a libretto for Marx's oratorio Mose (first performed in 1841, with a different libretto). Marx rejected the libretto that Mendelssohn provided, for an oratorio Mendelssohn called Moses, ending their collaboration and friendship. This chapter suggests that Marx's actions stemmed from his discomfort with the anti-Semitism in Mendelssohn's libretto. Because of his famous Jewish grandfather, the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn felt the need to distance himself from Judaism in his works, and included anti-Semitic content in the Mose libretto. Mendelssohn's libretto also deployed the Old Testament story of Moses in a Christological manner, using it to remind the listener of New Testament events, and followed the anti-Semitic tradition of oratorio composers Carl Loewe and Louis Spohr.
Jeffrey S. Sposato
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195149746
- eISBN:
- 9780199870783
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195149746.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter explores the situation of Jews in early 19th-century Germany, and situates the Mendelssohn family within this context. With the defeat of Napoleon and the treaties of the Congress of ...
More
This chapter explores the situation of Jews in early 19th-century Germany, and situates the Mendelssohn family within this context. With the defeat of Napoleon and the treaties of the Congress of Vienna, the situation of German Jews worsened, and many of them, including the Mendelssohn family, chose to convert to Protestantism at that time. Felix Mendelssohn's father, Abraham Mendelssohn, had distanced his family from its Jewish roots for many years. Although Abraham's father, Moses Mendelssohn, was a prominent Jewish philosopher, Abraham avoided Jewish connections and declined to live in Jewish neighborhoods. In 1816, Abraham and his wife, Lea, converted their four children. In 1822, the parents themselves converted. The chapter also disputes critics, such as Eric Werner, who have argued that Mendelssohn retained a strong attachment to Judaism during his lifetime.Less
This chapter explores the situation of Jews in early 19th-century Germany, and situates the Mendelssohn family within this context. With the defeat of Napoleon and the treaties of the Congress of Vienna, the situation of German Jews worsened, and many of them, including the Mendelssohn family, chose to convert to Protestantism at that time. Felix Mendelssohn's father, Abraham Mendelssohn, had distanced his family from its Jewish roots for many years. Although Abraham's father, Moses Mendelssohn, was a prominent Jewish philosopher, Abraham avoided Jewish connections and declined to live in Jewish neighborhoods. In 1816, Abraham and his wife, Lea, converted their four children. In 1822, the parents themselves converted. The chapter also disputes critics, such as Eric Werner, who have argued that Mendelssohn retained a strong attachment to Judaism during his lifetime.
Michah Gottlieb
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195398946
- eISBN:
- 9780199894499
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195398946.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism, Philosophy of Religion
Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786) is often considered the founder of modern Jewish philosophy or even of modern Judaism. For many, Mendelssohn's commitment to enlightened values appeared to be ...
More
Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786) is often considered the founder of modern Jewish philosophy or even of modern Judaism. For many, Mendelssohn's commitment to enlightened values appeared to be irreconcilable with his life-long adherence to Judaism. This book approaches this problem by placing Mendelssohn's moderate enlightenment in three contexts: Maimonides' medieval enlightenment, Spinoza's radical enlightenment, and F.H. Jacobi's Christian counter-Enlightenment. This books argues that Mendelssohn breaks from Maimonides because he faces problems never encountered by Maimonides—namely how to remain an observant Jew in a modern state where Jews could be citizens with their Christian neighbors. Through an original, selective reading of Jewish tradition, Mendelssohn is able to achieve remarkable harmony between Judaism and enlightenment. But at the end of his life Mendelssohn confronts a profound challenge to his religious principles in the “Pantheism Controversy” that he wages with Jacobi over Lessing's alleged Spinozism. To defend his enlightened religious position, Mendelssohn develops a pragmatic religious idealism that inaugurates an anthropocentric turn in religious thought later developed by thinkers such as Hermann Cohen and Mordecai Kaplan.Less
Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786) is often considered the founder of modern Jewish philosophy or even of modern Judaism. For many, Mendelssohn's commitment to enlightened values appeared to be irreconcilable with his life-long adherence to Judaism. This book approaches this problem by placing Mendelssohn's moderate enlightenment in three contexts: Maimonides' medieval enlightenment, Spinoza's radical enlightenment, and F.H. Jacobi's Christian counter-Enlightenment. This books argues that Mendelssohn breaks from Maimonides because he faces problems never encountered by Maimonides—namely how to remain an observant Jew in a modern state where Jews could be citizens with their Christian neighbors. Through an original, selective reading of Jewish tradition, Mendelssohn is able to achieve remarkable harmony between Judaism and enlightenment. But at the end of his life Mendelssohn confronts a profound challenge to his religious principles in the “Pantheism Controversy” that he wages with Jacobi over Lessing's alleged Spinozism. To defend his enlightened religious position, Mendelssohn develops a pragmatic religious idealism that inaugurates an anthropocentric turn in religious thought later developed by thinkers such as Hermann Cohen and Mordecai Kaplan.
Michael S. Kogan
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195112597
- eISBN:
- 9780199872275
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195112597.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter discusses three Jewish theologians of Christianity: Menachem Ha Me'iri (1249-1315), Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786), and Elijah Benamozegh (1823-1900). Rabbi Menachem Ben Shlomo Ha Me'iri ...
More
This chapter discusses three Jewish theologians of Christianity: Menachem Ha Me'iri (1249-1315), Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786), and Elijah Benamozegh (1823-1900). Rabbi Menachem Ben Shlomo Ha Me'iri of Provence was a remarkable figure in the history of Jewish-Christian relations. He lived in an age characterized by narrowness and bigotry, witnessing the expulsion of the Jews from France in 1306. Yet he defended Christians and Christianity, going so far as to include them under the category “Israel”, rejecting all past Jewish claims that Christianity constituted a form of paganism. Moses Mendelssohn was a true son of the Enlightenment and the inspiration for all modern Jews seeking acculturation to Western ways of living in the world without the assimilation that would lead to the disappearance of the faith and people of Israel. He taught us how to share in the wonders of the general civilization, indeed, how to help shape and direct it, while maintaining essential elements of the ancient faith bequeathed to us by our forebears. Elijah Benamozegh, rabbi of the Italian city of Leghorn, was fluent in many languages and was learned in philosophy and in Christian theology as well as Jewish theology. In the last years of his life, he set about writing an 800-page tome defending his faith against charges of narrow tribalism and declaring it to be universal in scope and that he was prepared to lead the world into a new age of human fellowship. In the process of developing his arguments, he produced what might be seen as an outline of a Jewish theology of Christianity.Less
This chapter discusses three Jewish theologians of Christianity: Menachem Ha Me'iri (1249-1315), Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786), and Elijah Benamozegh (1823-1900). Rabbi Menachem Ben Shlomo Ha Me'iri of Provence was a remarkable figure in the history of Jewish-Christian relations. He lived in an age characterized by narrowness and bigotry, witnessing the expulsion of the Jews from France in 1306. Yet he defended Christians and Christianity, going so far as to include them under the category “Israel”, rejecting all past Jewish claims that Christianity constituted a form of paganism. Moses Mendelssohn was a true son of the Enlightenment and the inspiration for all modern Jews seeking acculturation to Western ways of living in the world without the assimilation that would lead to the disappearance of the faith and people of Israel. He taught us how to share in the wonders of the general civilization, indeed, how to help shape and direct it, while maintaining essential elements of the ancient faith bequeathed to us by our forebears. Elijah Benamozegh, rabbi of the Italian city of Leghorn, was fluent in many languages and was learned in philosophy and in Christian theology as well as Jewish theology. In the last years of his life, he set about writing an 800-page tome defending his faith against charges of narrow tribalism and declaring it to be universal in scope and that he was prepared to lead the world into a new age of human fellowship. In the process of developing his arguments, he produced what might be seen as an outline of a Jewish theology of Christianity.
Frederick C. Beiser
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199573011
- eISBN:
- 9780191722202
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199573011.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics, History of Philosophy
This chapter focuses on Moses Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn is considered as one of the most illustrious representatives of the rationalist tradition in aesthetics. No one in that tradition had a ...
More
This chapter focuses on Moses Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn is considered as one of the most illustrious representatives of the rationalist tradition in aesthetics. No one in that tradition had a profounder grasp of its metaphysics and epistemology, and no one had greater aesthetic sensitivity. In metaphysics Mendelssohn is on par with Wolff and Baumgarten; but he far surpasses them in aesthetic sensitivity. In aesthetic sensitivity he is the equal of Lessing and Winckelmann; but he far exceeds their powers as metaphysicians. In short, Mendelssohn's combination of philosophical depth and aesthetic sensitivity was unique and peerless. In the history of aesthetic rationalism Mendelssohn plays a crucial role. His task was to defend aesthetic rationalism against the new irrationalist currents of the age. Coming of age in the 1750s and 1760s, Mendelssohn had to respond to some of the growing challenges to the Enlightenment and authority of reason.Less
This chapter focuses on Moses Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn is considered as one of the most illustrious representatives of the rationalist tradition in aesthetics. No one in that tradition had a profounder grasp of its metaphysics and epistemology, and no one had greater aesthetic sensitivity. In metaphysics Mendelssohn is on par with Wolff and Baumgarten; but he far surpasses them in aesthetic sensitivity. In aesthetic sensitivity he is the equal of Lessing and Winckelmann; but he far exceeds their powers as metaphysicians. In short, Mendelssohn's combination of philosophical depth and aesthetic sensitivity was unique and peerless. In the history of aesthetic rationalism Mendelssohn plays a crucial role. His task was to defend aesthetic rationalism against the new irrationalist currents of the age. Coming of age in the 1750s and 1760s, Mendelssohn had to respond to some of the growing challenges to the Enlightenment and authority of reason.
R. Larry Todd
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195180800
- eISBN:
- 9780199852635
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195180800.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
Granddaughter of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and sister of the composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Fanny Hensel (1805–47) was an extraordinary musician who left well over four hundred ...
More
Granddaughter of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and sister of the composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Fanny Hensel (1805–47) was an extraordinary musician who left well over four hundred compositions, most of which fell into oblivion until their rediscovery late in the 20th century. This book offers a compelling, authoritative account of Hensel's life and music, and her struggle to emerge as a publicly recognized composer.Less
Granddaughter of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and sister of the composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Fanny Hensel (1805–47) was an extraordinary musician who left well over four hundred compositions, most of which fell into oblivion until their rediscovery late in the 20th century. This book offers a compelling, authoritative account of Hensel's life and music, and her struggle to emerge as a publicly recognized composer.
Abigail Gillman
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226477695
- eISBN:
- 9780226477862
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226477862.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
The Haskalah was a period of intense linguistic transition, and new translations of the Bible—German and Yiddish; Christian and Jewish—played a central role, above all, by rendering scripture in ...
More
The Haskalah was a period of intense linguistic transition, and new translations of the Bible—German and Yiddish; Christian and Jewish—played a central role, above all, by rendering scripture in language that was “clear, correct, and beautiful.” Two Yiddish Bible translations printed in Amsterdam in 1678 and 1679, though not commercially successful, must be counted as the first modern Jewish translations in Ashkenaz and precursors of the monumental Mendelssohn translation of 1780-83. Amsterdam publishers Phoebus and Athias were likely inspired by the popularity of the much-admired Dutch States Bible and the Luther Bible; their translators, Yekuthiel Blitz and Joseph Witzenhausen, also borrowed from those Christian Bibles. Phoebus and Athias used fine paper, engraved title pages, and Rabbinic approbations. One century later, Moses Mendelssohn reinvented the modern Jewish vernacular Bible, producing a multifaceted work, known as the Be’ur, that exerted enormous influence. Like his Yiddish forerunners, and like his Christian contemporaries (Michaelis; Schmidt), Mendelssohn domesticated biblical Hebrew and syntax, but he also foregrounded the literary and poetic qualities of biblical Hebrew, as he had done years earlier when translating Hebrew poetry. Comparisons of the Prefaces, paratextual elements, and individual verses show how these first three modern Jewish translators balanced innovation with traditionalism.Less
The Haskalah was a period of intense linguistic transition, and new translations of the Bible—German and Yiddish; Christian and Jewish—played a central role, above all, by rendering scripture in language that was “clear, correct, and beautiful.” Two Yiddish Bible translations printed in Amsterdam in 1678 and 1679, though not commercially successful, must be counted as the first modern Jewish translations in Ashkenaz and precursors of the monumental Mendelssohn translation of 1780-83. Amsterdam publishers Phoebus and Athias were likely inspired by the popularity of the much-admired Dutch States Bible and the Luther Bible; their translators, Yekuthiel Blitz and Joseph Witzenhausen, also borrowed from those Christian Bibles. Phoebus and Athias used fine paper, engraved title pages, and Rabbinic approbations. One century later, Moses Mendelssohn reinvented the modern Jewish vernacular Bible, producing a multifaceted work, known as the Be’ur, that exerted enormous influence. Like his Yiddish forerunners, and like his Christian contemporaries (Michaelis; Schmidt), Mendelssohn domesticated biblical Hebrew and syntax, but he also foregrounded the literary and poetic qualities of biblical Hebrew, as he had done years earlier when translating Hebrew poetry. Comparisons of the Prefaces, paratextual elements, and individual verses show how these first three modern Jewish translators balanced innovation with traditionalism.
Daniel B. Schwartz
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691142913
- eISBN:
- 9781400842261
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691142913.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter probes the pioneering if only partial vindication of Spinoza by the Enlightenment philosopher Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786), the first Jewish thinker for whom Spinoza served, both ...
More
This chapter probes the pioneering if only partial vindication of Spinoza by the Enlightenment philosopher Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786), the first Jewish thinker for whom Spinoza served, both positively and negatively, as a point of reference—in his own eyes, and certainly in the eyes of others. In the history of the image of Spinoza, Mendelssohn looms large for several reasons. The first is his pioneering role in softening Spinoza's heretical reputation in German thought and thus aiding his integration into the canon of modern Western philosophy. However, near the end of his life, Mendelssohn defended Judaism by effectively rebutting Spinoza. Indeed, Mendelssohn furnished ammunition for friends and foes of Spinoza alike. His legacy was thus one of both reclamation and resistance.Less
This chapter probes the pioneering if only partial vindication of Spinoza by the Enlightenment philosopher Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786), the first Jewish thinker for whom Spinoza served, both positively and negatively, as a point of reference—in his own eyes, and certainly in the eyes of others. In the history of the image of Spinoza, Mendelssohn looms large for several reasons. The first is his pioneering role in softening Spinoza's heretical reputation in German thought and thus aiding his integration into the canon of modern Western philosophy. However, near the end of his life, Mendelssohn defended Judaism by effectively rebutting Spinoza. Indeed, Mendelssohn furnished ammunition for friends and foes of Spinoza alike. His legacy was thus one of both reclamation and resistance.
Toshimasa Yasukata
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195144949
- eISBN:
- 9780199834891
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195144945.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
Argues the question of Lessing's alleged “Spinozism.” The discussion shows that Lessing's hen kai pan [One and All] signifies not a Spinozistic pantheism but a panentheism of spiritualistic stamp. It ...
More
Argues the question of Lessing's alleged “Spinozism.” The discussion shows that Lessing's hen kai pan [One and All] signifies not a Spinozistic pantheism but a panentheism of spiritualistic stamp. It is also pointed out that for Lessing's hen kai pan there are three different Greek formulas: hen kai pan, as Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi reports in his letter to Moses Mendelssohn; hen ego kai panta, as Lessing's own 1780 handwritten epigram suggests; and hen ego kai pan, as introduced in recent years by Alexander Altmann and Erwin Quapp. Religious‐philosophical as well as linguistic observation recommends taking the phrase hen ego kai panta [I am One and All] as Lessing's most authentic formula, thus suggesting that the world (panta and God (theos) are mediated through the first person “I” (ego). In view of this “panta” formula, our concluding proposal is to characterize Lessing's view of God and the world as “pantaentheism.”Less
Argues the question of Lessing's alleged “Spinozism.” The discussion shows that Lessing's hen kai pan [One and All] signifies not a Spinozistic pantheism but a panentheism of spiritualistic stamp. It is also pointed out that for Lessing's hen kai pan there are three different Greek formulas: hen kai pan, as Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi reports in his letter to Moses Mendelssohn; hen ego kai panta, as Lessing's own 1780 handwritten epigram suggests; and hen ego kai pan, as introduced in recent years by Alexander Altmann and Erwin Quapp. Religious‐philosophical as well as linguistic observation recommends taking the phrase hen ego kai panta [I am One and All] as Lessing's most authentic formula, thus suggesting that the world (panta and God (theos) are mediated through the first person “I” (ego). In view of this “panta” formula, our concluding proposal is to characterize Lessing's view of God and the world as “pantaentheism.”
Bruce Rosenstock
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823231294
- eISBN:
- 9780823235520
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823231294.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
Drawing together two critical moments in the history of European Jewry—its entrance as a participant in the Enlightenment project of religious and political reform and its involvement ...
More
Drawing together two critical moments in the history of European Jewry—its entrance as a participant in the Enlightenment project of religious and political reform and its involvement in the traumatic upheavals brought on by the Great War—this book offers a reappraisal of the intersection of culture, politics, theology, and philosophy in the modern world through the lens of two of the most important thinkers of their day, Moses Mendelssohn and Franz Rosenzweig. Their vision of the place of the Jewish people not only within German society, but also within the unfolding history of humankind as a whole challenged the reigning cultural assumptions of the day and opened new ways of thinking about reason, language, politics, and the sources of ethical obligation. In making the “Jewish question” serve as a way of reflecting upon the “human question” of how we can live together in acknowledgment of our finitude, our otherness, and our shared hope for a more just future, Mendelssohn and Rosenzweig modeled a way of doing philosophy as an engaged intervention in the most pressing existential issues confronting us all. In the final chapters of the book, the path beyond Mendelssohn and Rosenzweig is traced out in the work of Hannah Arendt and Stanley Cavell. In light of Arendt's and Cavell's reflections about the foundations of democratic sociality, the book offers a portrait of an “immigrant Rosenzweig” joined in conversation with his American “cousins”.Less
Drawing together two critical moments in the history of European Jewry—its entrance as a participant in the Enlightenment project of religious and political reform and its involvement in the traumatic upheavals brought on by the Great War—this book offers a reappraisal of the intersection of culture, politics, theology, and philosophy in the modern world through the lens of two of the most important thinkers of their day, Moses Mendelssohn and Franz Rosenzweig. Their vision of the place of the Jewish people not only within German society, but also within the unfolding history of humankind as a whole challenged the reigning cultural assumptions of the day and opened new ways of thinking about reason, language, politics, and the sources of ethical obligation. In making the “Jewish question” serve as a way of reflecting upon the “human question” of how we can live together in acknowledgment of our finitude, our otherness, and our shared hope for a more just future, Mendelssohn and Rosenzweig modeled a way of doing philosophy as an engaged intervention in the most pressing existential issues confronting us all. In the final chapters of the book, the path beyond Mendelssohn and Rosenzweig is traced out in the work of Hannah Arendt and Stanley Cavell. In light of Arendt's and Cavell's reflections about the foundations of democratic sociality, the book offers a portrait of an “immigrant Rosenzweig” joined in conversation with his American “cousins”.
Hermann Levin Goldschmidt
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823228263
- eISBN:
- 9780823237142
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823228263.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
First published in 1957, this book is a rethinking of the German–Jewish experience. The book challenges the elegiac view of Gershom Scholem, showing us the German–Jewish legacy in literature, ...
More
First published in 1957, this book is a rethinking of the German–Jewish experience. The book challenges the elegiac view of Gershom Scholem, showing us the German–Jewish legacy in literature, philosophy, and critical thought in a new light. Part One re-examines the breakthrough to modernity, tracing the moves of thinkers like Moses Mendelssohn, building on the legacies of religious figures like the Baal Shem Tov and radical philosophers such as Spinoza. This vision of modernity, the book shows, rested upon a belief that “remnants” of the radical past could provide ideas and energy for reconceiving the modern world. The book's philosophy of the remnant animates Part Two as well, where his account of the political history of the Jews in modernity and the riches of Jewish culture as recast in German–Jewish thought provide insights into Leo Baeck, Hermann Cohen, and Franz Rosenzweig, among others. Part Three analyzes the post-Auschwitz complex, and uses the Book of Job to break through that trauma. Biblical in its perspective, the book describes the innovative ways that German–Jewish writers and thinkers anticipated what we now call multiculturalism and its concern with the Other. Rather than destined to destruction, the German–Jewish experience is reconceived here as a past whose unfulfilled project remains urgent and contemporary—a dream yet to be realized in practice, and hence a task that still awaits its completion.Less
First published in 1957, this book is a rethinking of the German–Jewish experience. The book challenges the elegiac view of Gershom Scholem, showing us the German–Jewish legacy in literature, philosophy, and critical thought in a new light. Part One re-examines the breakthrough to modernity, tracing the moves of thinkers like Moses Mendelssohn, building on the legacies of religious figures like the Baal Shem Tov and radical philosophers such as Spinoza. This vision of modernity, the book shows, rested upon a belief that “remnants” of the radical past could provide ideas and energy for reconceiving the modern world. The book's philosophy of the remnant animates Part Two as well, where his account of the political history of the Jews in modernity and the riches of Jewish culture as recast in German–Jewish thought provide insights into Leo Baeck, Hermann Cohen, and Franz Rosenzweig, among others. Part Three analyzes the post-Auschwitz complex, and uses the Book of Job to break through that trauma. Biblical in its perspective, the book describes the innovative ways that German–Jewish writers and thinkers anticipated what we now call multiculturalism and its concern with the Other. Rather than destined to destruction, the German–Jewish experience is reconceived here as a past whose unfulfilled project remains urgent and contemporary—a dream yet to be realized in practice, and hence a task that still awaits its completion.
Bruce Rosenstock
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823231294
- eISBN:
- 9780823235520
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823231294.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter considers the background to Moses Mendelssohn's Jerusalem, namely, the debates surrounding Christian Wilhelm Dohm's work advocating Jewish emancipation. It ...
More
This chapter considers the background to Moses Mendelssohn's Jerusalem, namely, the debates surrounding Christian Wilhelm Dohm's work advocating Jewish emancipation. It examines the argument of Jerusalem as a provocation against the regnant understanding of the nature of enlightened sociality among Mendelssohn's contemporaries in Germany. According to Mendelssohn, the Jewish people can serve as a model of enlightened sociality because they are the “living script” of divine revelation, embodying a noncoercive, dogma-free social-religious bond. At the heart of Judaism is an open-ended conversation across the generations. In explicating Mendelssohn's conception of Judaism as a conversation-based sociality, the chapter invokes its modern parallel in Ludwig Wittgenstein's analysis of how meaning is constructed through language practices that are open to constant revision and reinterpretation.Less
This chapter considers the background to Moses Mendelssohn's Jerusalem, namely, the debates surrounding Christian Wilhelm Dohm's work advocating Jewish emancipation. It examines the argument of Jerusalem as a provocation against the regnant understanding of the nature of enlightened sociality among Mendelssohn's contemporaries in Germany. According to Mendelssohn, the Jewish people can serve as a model of enlightened sociality because they are the “living script” of divine revelation, embodying a noncoercive, dogma-free social-religious bond. At the heart of Judaism is an open-ended conversation across the generations. In explicating Mendelssohn's conception of Judaism as a conversation-based sociality, the chapter invokes its modern parallel in Ludwig Wittgenstein's analysis of how meaning is constructed through language practices that are open to constant revision and reinterpretation.
Bruce Rosenstock
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823231294
- eISBN:
- 9780823235520
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823231294.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter deals at length with the Spinoza Quarrel and how it reflects to be Friedrich Jacobi's gnostic assault on the Jewish God as the true face of the abstract and ...
More
This chapter deals at length with the Spinoza Quarrel and how it reflects to be Friedrich Jacobi's gnostic assault on the Jewish God as the true face of the abstract and lifeless God of Enlightenment Reason. The Spinoza Quarrel began when Jacobi confronted Moses Mendelssohn with a story about Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's confession to him, shortly before his death in 1781, that he was a Spinozist. The personal animus involved in Jacobi's attempt to divide Mendelssohn from his late friend contributed to the fact that, tragically, neither could understand what the other was saying. Ironically, both Jacobi and Mendelssohn attempt to defend the claim of revelation against the excesses of Enlightenment Reason, but they are unable to find any common ground of dialogue. Jacobi views Judaism through the figure of a hyper-rationalist Baruch Spinoza and he understands Mendelssohn as committed to replacing revelation with a religion of reason.Less
This chapter deals at length with the Spinoza Quarrel and how it reflects to be Friedrich Jacobi's gnostic assault on the Jewish God as the true face of the abstract and lifeless God of Enlightenment Reason. The Spinoza Quarrel began when Jacobi confronted Moses Mendelssohn with a story about Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's confession to him, shortly before his death in 1781, that he was a Spinozist. The personal animus involved in Jacobi's attempt to divide Mendelssohn from his late friend contributed to the fact that, tragically, neither could understand what the other was saying. Ironically, both Jacobi and Mendelssohn attempt to defend the claim of revelation against the excesses of Enlightenment Reason, but they are unable to find any common ground of dialogue. Jacobi views Judaism through the figure of a hyper-rationalist Baruch Spinoza and he understands Mendelssohn as committed to replacing revelation with a religion of reason.
R. Larry Todd
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195180800
- eISBN:
- 9780199852635
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195180800.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
Little is known about Fanny Hensel's early years in Hamburg. The first notice about her is a letter, written by Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy to his mother-in-law the day after Fanny's birth, ...
More
Little is known about Fanny Hensel's early years in Hamburg. The first notice about her is a letter, written by Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy to his mother-in-law the day after Fanny's birth, reporting the difficulties of Lea Mendelssohn Bartholdy's labor but also her prophetic maternal observation—their daughter had “Bach fugal fingers”. Some three years later, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's arrival in February 1809, prompted more comparisons: the son, Lea informed her Viennese cousin Henriette von Pereira Arnstein, promised to be “more pretty” than Fanny, an allusion to a slight orthopedic deformity inherited from her grandfather Moses Mendelssohn. At age three and a half, she was reading her letters plainly and purposefully fabricating phrases with clarity and coherence. At age six, Fanny was innocent enough of these worldly affairs, though she evidently was beginning to correspond with her aunt Henriette in Paris, who described the child's writing as “really the second edition of all the maternal talent”.Less
Little is known about Fanny Hensel's early years in Hamburg. The first notice about her is a letter, written by Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy to his mother-in-law the day after Fanny's birth, reporting the difficulties of Lea Mendelssohn Bartholdy's labor but also her prophetic maternal observation—their daughter had “Bach fugal fingers”. Some three years later, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's arrival in February 1809, prompted more comparisons: the son, Lea informed her Viennese cousin Henriette von Pereira Arnstein, promised to be “more pretty” than Fanny, an allusion to a slight orthopedic deformity inherited from her grandfather Moses Mendelssohn. At age three and a half, she was reading her letters plainly and purposefully fabricating phrases with clarity and coherence. At age six, Fanny was innocent enough of these worldly affairs, though she evidently was beginning to correspond with her aunt Henriette in Paris, who described the child's writing as “really the second edition of all the maternal talent”.
Bruce Rosenstock
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823231294
- eISBN:
- 9780823235520
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823231294.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter charts the efforts on the part of Karl Leonhard Reinhold and Immanuel Kant to construct a religion of reason that was intended to be the philosophical supersession ...
More
This chapter charts the efforts on the part of Karl Leonhard Reinhold and Immanuel Kant to construct a religion of reason that was intended to be the philosophical supersession of Christianity. They represent their philosophical supersession of Christianity as a cleansing of Christianity of all its remaining ties to Judaism. In this way, they respond to Friedrich Jacobi's accusation that the religion of reason is merely a cover for the reintroduction of the abstract Jewish God in place of Christianity's personal God. Reinhold and Kant, although they did not stand on Jacobi's side of the Spinoza Quarrel, nonetheless saw that it was necessary to separate their religion of reason from any connection with Moses Mendelssohn's Judaism. Reinhold saw Kant's philosophy as answering the deepest need of the historical moment, namely, to find a way to resolve the Spinoza Quarrel.Less
This chapter charts the efforts on the part of Karl Leonhard Reinhold and Immanuel Kant to construct a religion of reason that was intended to be the philosophical supersession of Christianity. They represent their philosophical supersession of Christianity as a cleansing of Christianity of all its remaining ties to Judaism. In this way, they respond to Friedrich Jacobi's accusation that the religion of reason is merely a cover for the reintroduction of the abstract Jewish God in place of Christianity's personal God. Reinhold and Kant, although they did not stand on Jacobi's side of the Spinoza Quarrel, nonetheless saw that it was necessary to separate their religion of reason from any connection with Moses Mendelssohn's Judaism. Reinhold saw Kant's philosophy as answering the deepest need of the historical moment, namely, to find a way to resolve the Spinoza Quarrel.
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226472478
- eISBN:
- 9780226472492
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226472492.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
In September 1784 the Berlinische Monatschrift published two essays, one by Moses Mendelssohn and another by Immanuel Kant, which answer the question “What is Enlightenment?” Mendelssohn highlights ...
More
In September 1784 the Berlinische Monatschrift published two essays, one by Moses Mendelssohn and another by Immanuel Kant, which answer the question “What is Enlightenment?” Mendelssohn highlights the intriguing role assumed by Judaism in the Enlightenment's wider interrogation of religion. His attempts to improve the social status of Jews was mirrored by a reformist attitude within the Jewish community that he also helped to cultivate. To his contemporaries, Mendelssohn was not only just a Jewish Luther or a wise Nathan, he was a “German Socrates.” This chapter considers the term “German Socrates” to investigate the fusion of Enlightenment thought and Judaism in a period of explosive German philhellenism. Mendelssohn argued that ancient Jerusalem could act as a rival to the idealized societies of Athens and Rome, insisting that its inclusions must have certain effects both for Judaism and for Enlightenment. This chapter examines the ethical and political consequences of Mendelssohn's and Kant's debate over the place of reason in Judaism.Less
In September 1784 the Berlinische Monatschrift published two essays, one by Moses Mendelssohn and another by Immanuel Kant, which answer the question “What is Enlightenment?” Mendelssohn highlights the intriguing role assumed by Judaism in the Enlightenment's wider interrogation of religion. His attempts to improve the social status of Jews was mirrored by a reformist attitude within the Jewish community that he also helped to cultivate. To his contemporaries, Mendelssohn was not only just a Jewish Luther or a wise Nathan, he was a “German Socrates.” This chapter considers the term “German Socrates” to investigate the fusion of Enlightenment thought and Judaism in a period of explosive German philhellenism. Mendelssohn argued that ancient Jerusalem could act as a rival to the idealized societies of Athens and Rome, insisting that its inclusions must have certain effects both for Judaism and for Enlightenment. This chapter examines the ethical and political consequences of Mendelssohn's and Kant's debate over the place of reason in Judaism.
Eliyahu Stern
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300179309
- eISBN:
- 9780300183221
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300179309.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Jewish Studies
This chapter discusses the philosophical leanings of Elijah ben Solomon during the Enlightenment. Historians commonly misrepresented Elijah by stating that he was a traditionalist who defended ...
More
This chapter discusses the philosophical leanings of Elijah ben Solomon during the Enlightenment. Historians commonly misrepresented Elijah by stating that he was a traditionalist who defended traditional rabbinic Judaism. It argues that Elijah actually questioned the canons of rabbinic authority through his hermeneutic idealism, while his opponent, Moses Mendelssohn, ardently defended the historical rabbinic tradition to German-speaking audiences.Less
This chapter discusses the philosophical leanings of Elijah ben Solomon during the Enlightenment. Historians commonly misrepresented Elijah by stating that he was a traditionalist who defended traditional rabbinic Judaism. It argues that Elijah actually questioned the canons of rabbinic authority through his hermeneutic idealism, while his opponent, Moses Mendelssohn, ardently defended the historical rabbinic tradition to German-speaking audiences.
Steven M. Wasserstrom
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195394337
- eISBN:
- 9780199777358
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195394337.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This article examines the life and works of Joachim Wach (1898–1955) during his career in Germany (1922–35). Aspects examined include his homosocial participation in youth movements (Jugendbewegung) ...
More
This article examines the life and works of Joachim Wach (1898–1955) during his career in Germany (1922–35). Aspects examined include his homosocial participation in youth movements (Jugendbewegung) and in the Stefan George Circle, the development of his conceptions of the Master, interpretation (Verstehen), and the science of religion (Religionswissenschaft), and his personal relationships with members of the so-called Conservative Revolution. These aspects are examined in an effort to illuminate the strengths and weaknesses of his thought in its American versions, especially during his time at the University of Chicago (1945–55). His flight from Nazi Germany, his self-understanding of his own Jewish ancestry and of his Mendelssohn heritage, and his establishment of an Americanized history of religions are also applied toward an integrated interpretation of his life and works.Less
This article examines the life and works of Joachim Wach (1898–1955) during his career in Germany (1922–35). Aspects examined include his homosocial participation in youth movements (Jugendbewegung) and in the Stefan George Circle, the development of his conceptions of the Master, interpretation (Verstehen), and the science of religion (Religionswissenschaft), and his personal relationships with members of the so-called Conservative Revolution. These aspects are examined in an effort to illuminate the strengths and weaknesses of his thought in its American versions, especially during his time at the University of Chicago (1945–55). His flight from Nazi Germany, his self-understanding of his own Jewish ancestry and of his Mendelssohn heritage, and his establishment of an Americanized history of religions are also applied toward an integrated interpretation of his life and works.
C. Thomas Powell
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198244486
- eISBN:
- 9780191680779
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198244486.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
In the Second Paralogism, Immanuel Kant considers the rational psychologist's claim that the soul is simple, a claim which he says is bolstered by an argument which is ‘the Achilles of all ...
More
In the Second Paralogism, Immanuel Kant considers the rational psychologist's claim that the soul is simple, a claim which he says is bolstered by an argument which is ‘the Achilles of all dialectical inferences in the pure doctrine of the soul’. This chapter argues that Kant actually presents five arguments in his discussion of the Second Paralogism. The first argument is directed against a constructed opponent of the rational psychologist and appears in the third to sixth premisses of Kant's reformulated version of the Second Paralogism. The second argument is a refutation of the reformulated version of the Paralogism, specifically Moses Mendelssohn's proof of the immortality of the soul. The third and fourth arguments are parallel to those which Kant advances against the two inflations of the First Paralogism. Kant's fifth argument is intended to defuse the significance of the ‘Achilles of all dialectical inferences’. This chapter also looks at a recent criticism, by Roderick Chisholm, of Kant's notion of elanguescence and reality.Less
In the Second Paralogism, Immanuel Kant considers the rational psychologist's claim that the soul is simple, a claim which he says is bolstered by an argument which is ‘the Achilles of all dialectical inferences in the pure doctrine of the soul’. This chapter argues that Kant actually presents five arguments in his discussion of the Second Paralogism. The first argument is directed against a constructed opponent of the rational psychologist and appears in the third to sixth premisses of Kant's reformulated version of the Second Paralogism. The second argument is a refutation of the reformulated version of the Paralogism, specifically Moses Mendelssohn's proof of the immortality of the soul. The third and fourth arguments are parallel to those which Kant advances against the two inflations of the First Paralogism. Kant's fifth argument is intended to defuse the significance of the ‘Achilles of all dialectical inferences’. This chapter also looks at a recent criticism, by Roderick Chisholm, of Kant's notion of elanguescence and reality.
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226745053
- eISBN:
- 9780226745077
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226745077.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter examines German–Jewish culture through the lens of translation, beginning with Moses Mendelssohn's Bible translation and ending with the translation theory of Walter Benjamin. While ...
More
This chapter examines German–Jewish culture through the lens of translation, beginning with Moses Mendelssohn's Bible translation and ending with the translation theory of Walter Benjamin. While previous scholarship has tended to conceptualize German–Jewish translation in the light of cultural integration or symbiosis, it is argued that the formulation of translation as a variety of cultural encounter conceals a number of tensions and asymmetries in the German–Jewish translation project. Benjamin's model of an interlinear Bible translation, along with Buber and Rosenzweig's attempt at creating a German Bible in which the Hebrew original would somehow be visible, can be traced to philosophical and political circumstances comparable to those that shaped Aquila's work. The “translator cultures” of Hellenism and German–Jewish modernism divested the sacred tongue of what had been its correlate: untranslatability. In this cultural context, translating the sacred necessarily produces a difficult or incomprehensible text as guarantee that translation has not succumbed to the chimera of linguistic transparency or the demands of cultural assimilation.Less
This chapter examines German–Jewish culture through the lens of translation, beginning with Moses Mendelssohn's Bible translation and ending with the translation theory of Walter Benjamin. While previous scholarship has tended to conceptualize German–Jewish translation in the light of cultural integration or symbiosis, it is argued that the formulation of translation as a variety of cultural encounter conceals a number of tensions and asymmetries in the German–Jewish translation project. Benjamin's model of an interlinear Bible translation, along with Buber and Rosenzweig's attempt at creating a German Bible in which the Hebrew original would somehow be visible, can be traced to philosophical and political circumstances comparable to those that shaped Aquila's work. The “translator cultures” of Hellenism and German–Jewish modernism divested the sacred tongue of what had been its correlate: untranslatability. In this cultural context, translating the sacred necessarily produces a difficult or incomprehensible text as guarantee that translation has not succumbed to the chimera of linguistic transparency or the demands of cultural assimilation.
