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Mendelssohn’s Jerusalem (1783) and the Jewish Vision of Tolerance

100%
Feiner S.
Dialogue and Universalism
|
2021
|
issue 2
89-106
EN
Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786) wrote Jerusalem with his back to the wall. His Jewish identity and liberal outlook were challenged in the public sphere of the German Enlightenment, and this was his last opportunity to write a book that would perpetuate the essence of his faith and his values as the first modern Jewish humanist. The work, which moves between apologetics for his faith and political and religious philosophy was primarily a daring essay that categorically denied the rule of religion and advocated tolerance and freedom of thought. Neither the state nor the church had the right to govern a person’s conscience; and, no less far-reaching and pioneering: these values are consistent with Judaism. In the summer of 1783, seven years after the resounding voice of protest against tyranny and in favor of liberty and equality was heard in the American Declaration of Independence, less than six years before the French Revolution, but only two years and two months before his death, the man who was called the “German Socrates,” a highly prominent figure in the Enlightenment, published one of the fundamental documents in Jewish modernity. Jerusalem did not propose a compromise, a middle-ground solution to the tension between religion and the state and to the world suspended between the old and the new, where the Jews were caught in the modern age. His positions were decisive, and, in the context of his time, even radical. Regarding war and religious fanaticism, the power of the church, excommunication, and religious coercion. Mendelssohn was uncompromising and showed himself as a daring Jewish revolutionary. In his view, the collision between religion and the state was catastrophic for all of humanity. His vehement critique of all forms of oppression makes Jerusalem—beyond being a defense of the Jewish religion—a model of Enlightened European culture. This was a great call for reform of the world by abolishing the coercive power of religion and, at the same time, for “true Judaism,” enabling modern Jews to preserve their cultural and religious identity as the vanguard of tolerance and enlightenment. In the twenty-first century, when the values of the Enlightenment are under attack, Mendelssohn remains more than ever a relevant philosopher.
2
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The Guide for the Perplexed by Maimonides: Transfigurations of a Book

86%
Ronen S.
Estetyka i Krytyka
|
2015
|
issue 3(38)
65-84
EN
The article discusses the metamorphoses of a book: The Guide for the Per-plexed by Moses Maimonides. The receptions of the book from the time of its publication (1191), and especially his translation into Hebrew (1224) were diverse and went through many changes during the last eight centuries. From its publication the book caused a storm among Jewish thinkers and rabbis, and was accused of being a profanation, was banned, and even burned. These facts are particularly intriguing taking into account the authoritative role of Maimonides in the Jewish world, who was considered as the second Moses, was named the “great eagle”, and his book Mishneh Torah, a comprehensive code of Halakhah (Jewish law) is a canonical book since then. Acceptance and rejection of this book can be observed in the Jewish world till today. The book was understood as the source for very different philosophical and theo-logical approaches. Therefore, it has a sense to talk about ‘many Guides for the Perplexed’. The article is concentrated particularly, on modern times: Haskalah and Zionism.
3
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Kant on the Jews and their Religion

72%
Kozyra W.
Diametros
|
2020
|
vol. 17
|
issue 65
32-55
EN
The main focus of the article is the analysis of Kant’s notion of Judaism and his attitude toward the Jewish nation in a new context. Kant’s views on the Jewish religion are juxtaposed with those of Mendelssohn and Spinoza in order to emphasize several interesting features of Kant’s political and religious thought. In particular, the analysis shows that, unlike Mendelssohn, Kant did not consider tolerance to be the last word of the enlightened state in matters of its coexistence with religion. The author also argues that Kant’s fascination with Mendelssohn’s Jerusalem was premature and that his later disappointment with Mendelssohn’s persistent adherence to Jewish orthodoxy reflects his understanding of the condition of Judaism in the context of the new era of Enlightenment. Moreover, the paper addresses in a novel way the relevant connections between Kant and Spinoza, showing substantive similarities between their notions of Judaism and Christianity, and provides an overview of Kant’s historical involvement with Jewish issues, which are significant given the argumentative structure of the article.
4
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The Book of Ruth and Song of Songs in the First Hebrew Translation of The Taming of the Shrew

58%
Kahn L.
Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance
|
2017
|
vol. 16
|
issue 31
13-27
EN
This article investigates the earliest Hebrew rendition of a Shakespearean comedy, Judah Elkind’s מוסר סוררה musar sorera ‘The Education of the Rebellious Woman’ (The Taming of the Shrew), which was translated directly from the English source text and published in Berditchev in 1892. Elkind’s translation is the only comedy among a small group of pioneering Shakespeare renditions conducted in late nineteenthcentury Eastern Europe by adherents of the Jewish Enlightenment movement. It was rooted in a strongly ideological initiative to establish a modern European-style literature in Hebrew and reflecting Jewish cultural values at a time when the language was still primarily a written medium on the cusp of its large-scale revernacularisation in Palestine. The article examines the ways in which Elkind’s employment of a Judaising translation technique drawing heavily on romantic imagery from prominent biblical intertexts, particularly the Book of Ruth and the Song of Songs, affects the Petruchio and Katherine plotline in the target text. Elkind’s use of carefully selected biblical names for the main characters and his conscious insertion of biblical verses well known in Jewish tradition for their romantic connotations serve to transform Petruchio and Katherine into Peretz and Hoglah, the heroes of a distinctly Jewish love story which offers a unique and intriguing perspective on the translation of Shakespearean comedy.
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