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 4
... continued to identify themselves. Whereas others among the chastised had obediently — and sometimes desperately — sought reconciliation, Spinoza calmly removed himself from any further form of Jewish life. Betraying Spinoza.
... continued to identify themselves. Whereas others among the chastised had obediently — and sometimes desperately — sought reconciliation, Spinoza calmly removed himself from any further form of Jewish life. Betraying Spinoza.
Page 4
... continued to identify themselves . Whereas others among the chastised had obediently- and sometimes desperately - sought reconciliation , Spinoza calmly removed himself from any further form of Jewish life Betraying Spinoza.
... continued to identify themselves . Whereas others among the chastised had obediently- and sometimes desperately - sought reconciliation , Spinoza calmly removed himself from any further form of Jewish life Betraying Spinoza.
Page 19
... continued to prac- tice Judaism in secret , hiding their observance of the Torah from the cruel edicts of the Spanish - Portuguese Inquisition . The slightest suspicion that they still obeyed the Torah- that they remembered the Shabbos ...
... continued to prac- tice Judaism in secret , hiding their observance of the Torah from the cruel edicts of the Spanish - Portuguese Inquisition . The slightest suspicion that they still obeyed the Torah- that they remembered the Shabbos ...
Page 21
... continued , ascending toward the climax , who might have used his supe- rior mind to increase our knowledge of the Torah , had died with the pagan name of Benedictus , excommunicated and cursed by his own people , condemned and reviled ...
... continued , ascending toward the climax , who might have used his supe- rior mind to increase our knowledge of the Torah , had died with the pagan name of Benedictus , excommunicated and cursed by his own people , condemned and reviled ...
Page 31
... continued to press him , he used his Torah learning to confuse and mislead , making it seem as if he were still a good Jew , citing the Torah . He said that since the Torah says nothing about noncorporeality we are free to believe that ...
... continued to press him , he used his Torah learning to confuse and mislead , making it seem as if he were still a good Jew , citing the Torah . He said that since the Torah says nothing about noncorporeality we are free to believe that ...
Contents
3 | |
17 | |
The Project of Escape | 67 |
Identity Crisis | 124 |
Epilogue | 258 |
Chronology | 265 |
Notes | 273 |
Acknowledgments | 285 |
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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 explain 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 lives Lurianic Maimonides Marranos means Messiah metaphysics mind Moses Moslem mystical Nachmanides nature noza one's oneself perfect faith personal identity philosopher pleasure Portugal Portuguese proofs publish question Rabbi Morteira rational reality reason religion religious Rijnsburg Sabbatai Zevi salvation Schoenfeld scholar sense Sephardic soul Spain Spanish suffering synagogue Talmud teacher thing thinker thought tion Torah true truth understand Uriel da Costa Voorburg words write yeshiva young