Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew who Gave Us ModernityPart of the Jewish Encounter series In 1656, Amsterdam's Jewish community excommunicated Baruch Spinoza, and, at the age of twenty-three, he became the most famous heretic in Judaism. He was already germinating a secularist challenge to religion that would be as radical as it was original. He went on to produce one of the most ambitious systems in the history of Western philosophy, so ahead of its time that scientists today, from string theorists to neurobiologists, count themselves among Spinoza's progeny. In Betraying Spinoza, Rebecca Goldstein sets out to rediscover the flesh-and-blood man often hidden beneath the veneer of rigorous rationality, and to crack the mystery of the breach between the philosopher and his Jewish past. Goldstein argues that the trauma of the Inquisition' s persecution of its forced Jewish converts plays itself out in Spinoza's philosophy. The excommunicated Spinoza, no less than his excommunicators, was responding to Europe' s first experiment with racial anti-Semitism. Here is a Spinoza both hauntingly emblematic and deeply human, both heretic and hero--a surprisingly contemporary figure ripe for our own uncertain age. |
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Page 225
... Sabbatai Zevi had turned at an early age to the study of the Zobar . His interpretation of the distinction between the Ein Sof , the core of Infinity that has removed Itself from the world and so lies beyond our knowledge , and the ...
... Sabbatai Zevi had turned at an early age to the study of the Zobar . His interpretation of the distinction between the Ein Sof , the core of Infinity that has removed Itself from the world and so lies beyond our knowledge , and the ...
Page 227
... tival for the ruler of the land . Now the Jews of Amsterdam no longer offer their prayer for the Grand Pensionary of Hol- land but rather for “ Our Lord the Great King Sabbatai Zevi , the Anointed of the Lord , the Messiah son of 227.
... tival for the ruler of the land . Now the Jews of Amsterdam no longer offer their prayer for the Grand Pensionary of Hol- land but rather for “ Our Lord the Great King Sabbatai Zevi , the Anointed of the Lord , the Messiah son of 227.
Page 271
... Sabbatai Zevi converts to Islam ; many of his followers become apostates 1667 Louis XIV invades the Spanish Netherlands 1668 Leeuwenhoeck first describes red blood corpuscles Newton constructs reflecting telescope The French conquest of ...
... Sabbatai Zevi converts to Islam ; many of his followers become apostates 1667 Louis XIV invades the Spanish Netherlands 1668 Leeuwenhoeck first describes red blood corpuscles Newton constructs reflecting telescope The French conquest of ...
Contents
Baruch Bento Benedictus | 3 |
In Search of Baruch | 17 |
The Project of Escape | 67 |
Copyright | |
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Aboab argue Baruch Spinoza believe with perfect Benedictus Benedictus Spinoza born Catholic century chief rabbi Christian Church claim conceived continued conversos course death Descartes Deus sive natura divine Dutch Ein Sof emotions essence eternal Ethics excommunication existence experience explanations fact father final causes finite friends girls Ha-Shem halakha Hebrew heretic holy Ibid ideas infinite system Inquisition Israel Jan de Witt Jewish Jewish community Jewish identity Jews of Amsterdam Judaism kabbalah kabbalistic kherem knowledge laws Leibniz lived Lurianic Maimonides Marranos means Messiah metaphysics mind Moses Moslem mystical Nachmanides nature noza one's oneself perfect faith philosopher pleasure Portugal Portuguese proofs publish question Rabbi Morteira rational reality reason religion religious Rijnsburg Sabbatai Sabbatai Zevi salvation Schoenfeld scholar sense Sephardic soul Spain Spanish suffering synagogue Talmud teacher thing thinker thought tion Torah Tractatus Theologico-Politicus true truth understand Uriel da Costa Voorburg words write yeshiva young