Wed.
Reformers:
Be prepared to discuss why Reform
Judaism arose and how.
How is it a reaction to modernity?
Others: be prepared to comment on
Haskalah, Mendelssohn’s impact,
Friday: Ortho. Conservative, can
describe their positions, etc.
What to do when the world
changes?
• Nothing.
• Embrace Change: Discontinuity with past
• Negotiate a compromise
Adaptation on certain terms
• Resist change with your last dying breath
Life as a minority
• Abandonment of identity as a minority
• Assimilation
• Accommodation
• Abandonment of outside world.
BeshT on Messiah: 2 theories.
• His teachings were a prelude to
redemption by Messiah.
• Downplays “eschatology”
(end of the world)
•
Reaction to false messiahs
Sees eschatology as allegory of
personal transformation.
Legend
• 1747 BeshT sees Messiah
“When will you come?”
• “When every Jews is as spiritual as you”
• Mission: to bring the Messiah.
Modern Denominations
Is Messiah a person
or
Is there only a “messianic period” when
justice will prevail?
Successors
• Tzaddik “righteous”
• “Rebbe”
• Disciples of BeshT who form their own
schools.
• Became dynastic
R. Zalman of Ladi
1745-1812
• Habad (Chabad)– Lubavitch Hasid
• Integrated Mysticism with renewed
emphasis on Oral Torah
Rebbe M. Mendel Schneerson
d. 1994
Lubavith Chabad
Messiah?
Backlash
• Rabbinic Elite challenges Hasids
• “Mitnagdim”
• Elijah ben Solomon Zalman 1720-97
“Gaon of Vilna”
Modernity
• Hasidic Judaism: many groups antimodernist in many respects.
• Return to tradition, and Judaism as a
special people
Irony
• Mitnagdim taught Hasidism was a
dangerous innovation
• Hasidism rejected modernity and became
a force for orthodoxy.
• BOTH objected to reformers.
Changes 18th - 20th century
• Political
– Democracy
– Nation-states / citizenship
– Human rights.
• Economic
– Capitalism / Communism
– Industrialization
• Religious
– Biblical truths questioned
– Religious leaders loose political power
– Science
Baruch Spinoza 1632-1677
• Studied with Christians
• Rejected Halakhah
• Excommunicated
• Radical discontinuity with the past.
Spinoza
•
•
•
•
Bible is product of human politics
Not divine revelation
Not eternal
Not unchangeable
Spinoza
• Biblical claims are relative to Israelite
culture
• God chose Israel, not others:
– Says more about Israelites’ thoughts, not
God’s.
Jewish self-identity
“Chosen” people.
• Social status: Inferior
• Theological status: Superior to non-Jews.
Questions
• How did these attitudes get entrenched in
Jewish thought?
• What are the implications of this for social
change?
Spinoza’s new world
• Gov. must make people Happy.
• Gov. must dissociate itself from religion.
Spinoza
• Religious convictions are irrelevant to
modern states.
• Total freedom from politics for
philosophers
Spinoza
• Some parts of Jewish tradition are
valuable symbols of identity: circumcision
• Zionists praise Spinoza for this.
• BUT: Spinoza favored pluralistic states
with no overt religious component.
Spinoza
• Civil Religion: A Government guided by
principles of human happiness.
• Basis for Zionism
Mendelssohn 1729-1786
• Hoped Jews would attain citizenship as
individuals: equal to all other people.
• “JERUSALEM” book
Religion necessary to the state
Diversity is necessary
Mendelssohn
• Traditional Jewish life valid
• But, taught that Jews should reject Ghetto
life and sense of superiority.
• Jews should see themselves as full
members of society
Mendelssohn
• Jews should adopt customs of larger
society.
• Jews should retain Judaism at home.
Mendelssohn
• “I do not understand how those who are
part of the household of Jacob can with a
good conscience not fully observe the
Jewish Law.”