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. |
From inside the book
Page 21
... course , means " blessed " in the holy tongue . Yet this misguided young man , my teacher 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 ...
... course , means " blessed " in the holy tongue . Yet this misguided young man , my teacher 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 ...
Page 27
... course he didn't think the Torah was revealed by God . The denial of divine authorship seemed barely worth mentioning , once one had made the astounding claim that God and nature were one . But what did the man mean by this inscrutable ...
... course he didn't think the Torah was revealed by God . The denial of divine authorship seemed barely worth mentioning , once one had made the astounding claim that God and nature were one . But what did the man mean by this inscrutable ...
Page 29
... course , I didn't pose the question that rose to my lips , since it could have been heard as disrespectful of her , a veiled challenge , and derekh eretz - literally , " the way of the land , " a phrase meaning " respect for parents and ...
... course , I didn't pose the question that rose to my lips , since it could have been heard as disrespectful of her , a veiled challenge , and derekh eretz - literally , " the way of the land , " a phrase meaning " respect for parents and ...
Page 31
... course the soul must be immor- tal , must survive bodily death ; otherwise , how could there be an olam baba - a world - to - come ? And if there is no olam baba , then how can the soul come before the Ultimate Judge and be held ...
... course the soul must be immor- tal , must survive bodily death ; otherwise , how could there be an olam baba - a world - to - come ? And if there is no olam baba , then how can the soul come before the Ultimate Judge and be held ...
Page 33
... course , they had had to get official permission that they keep order and decorum among their own , in regard not only to behavior but to beliefs as well . Strangely enough , the Dutch authori- ties wanted the Amsterdam Jews to abide by ...
... course , they had had to get official permission that they keep order and decorum among their own , in regard not only to behavior but to beliefs as well . Strangely enough , the Dutch authori- ties wanted the Amsterdam Jews to abide by ...
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